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Blogs

Featured Entries

A Conversation About '2 Factor Authentication'

By Josh Ormond February 8, 2016

[ Edit: 3/16/2016 - With the help of some other people, we have been able to recover, or recreate some of the original images from original thread. ] Security is always a big topic when it involves data, or people, or possessions. Recently, over on the FileMaker Community, there was a very beneficial discussion regarding security. Unfortunately, that discussion was the victim of a necessary action...and was deleted. It was deleted, because the discussion was tied to a video that, as was det
- 1 comment
- 5,122 views
Hacking Your Own FileMaker Platform Solutions

By Steven H. Blackwell April 7, 2016

Hacking Your Own FileMaker Platform Solutions Should FileMaker Platform developers mount hacking attacks on their own solutions? At first glance, this may seem an odd question. But I believe that the answer is “Yes, we should.” Consider this. As developers we see our solutions from a totally different perspective than Threat Agents see them. Without practicing our own hacking skills, we can become blind to the vulnerabilities a Threat Agent can exploit to compromise the Confidentiality
- 1 comment
- 4,978 views

A day in the life of an IT Apprentice at Linear Blue

We caught up with Santtu Rantala; our Apprentice IT & FileMaker Developer to discuss a day in the life working… View the full article

Paul de Halle

April 6, 2016

FileMaker Magazine

Web Scraping Data

Attachment Size WebScrapingData.zip 383.66 KB By Matt Petrowsky FileMaker can be such a wonderful desktop tool for harvesting and managing a lot of data. It’s because the user interface is baked right there into the backend database. You can whip up a powerful data parsing solution in no time. Can it handle the data? Yep! Can you build the interface right there? Yep! This sense of “data power” can be compounded even more with a little bit of know-how. When you’re not afraid to ste

FileMaker Magazine

March 31, 2016

FileMaker Magazine

Web Scraping Data

FileMaker can be such a wonderful desktop tool for harvesting and managing a lot of data. It’s because the user interface is baked right there into the backend database. You can whip up a powerful data parsing solution in no time. Can it handle the data? Yep! Can you build the interface right there? Yep! This sense of “data power” can be compounded even more with a little bit of know-how. When you’re not afraid to step, just a bit, outside of FileMaker’s user interface and simply plug-in to ano

FileMaker Magazine

March 31, 2016

FileMaker Hacks

Fast Summaries Revisited

If you do complex data analysis, then from time to time you probably need to group, summarize, and parse data into variables and/or fields. There are various ways to accomplish this, including the Fast Summary technique, which regular readers of this blog may be familiar with, as it has made a number of appearances here […] View the full article

Kevin Frank

March 31, 2016

FileMaker Security Blog

Aligning FileMaker Security Requirements To Business Interests

Aligning FileMaker Security Requirements To Business Interests March 29th 2016 There has been a considerable amount of discussion recently in various FileMaker Platform venues about database security. Much of the discussion has focused on the use of one technique or another, and most of those techniques actually detract from the security of FileMaker systems rather than enhance security. Absent from these discussions, however, has been any description of

Steven H. Blackwell

March 29, 2016

FileMaker Magazine

Slideout Menus

No Access? Watch the preview video here. SlideoutMenus_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size SlideoutMenus.zip 322.33 KB By Matt Petrowsky Slideout menus have been around for quite some time in the mobile world. They often come alongside an icon of three short horizontal bars which are commonly called a hamburger menu. Called as such because it looks like two buns, with one above and one below the meat in between. This icon is also suspiciously similar to a "List view" icon in our familiar

FileMaker Magazine

March 24, 2016

FileMaker Magazine

Slideout Menus

Slideout menus have been around for quite some time in the mobile world. They often come alongside an icon of three short horizontal bars which are commonly called a hamburger menu. Called as such because it looks like two buns, with one above and one below the meat in between. This icon is also suspiciously similar to a "List view" icon in our familiar world of FileMaker. While the UI pattern still has a lot of use in the mobile world, it's becoming increasingly "out of fashion" and referred t

FileMaker Magazine

March 24, 2016

FileMaker Weetbicks

Sending Email from FileMaker using SparkPost

Back in 2014 we wrote our most popular article to date about integrating FileMaker with the online email service Mandrill. Recently, Mandrill have announced that they are ceasing their free service and are turning it into a Mailchimp add-on service that will cost a fee. In this article we detail how you can switch to using SparkPost, a free mail service that is the preferred alternative to Mandrill (even Mandrill themselves recommend it!) We provide a demo file and information on how you ca

Daniel Wood

March 18, 2016

FileMaker Magazine

Securing Service Credentials

No Access? Watch the preview video here. SecuringCredentials_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size SecuringServiceCredentials.zip 381.86 KB By Matt Petrowsky Security credentials, such as critical passwords, API secret keys and other methods of authentication are the gatekeepers to vast troves of data. These are the pieces of information you want to be most careful with. You don't want to spread them all throughout your FileMaker solution making the "attack surface" an easy steal for anyo

FileMaker Magazine

March 17, 2016

FileMaker Magazine

Securing Service Credentials

Security credentials, such as critical passwords, API secret keys and other methods of authentication are the gatekeepers to vast troves of data. These are the pieces of information you want to be most careful with. You don't want to spread them all throughout your FileMaker solution making the "attack surface" an easy steal for anyone. In this video you'll learn about how the Full Access settings apply to both custom functions and how this relates to scripts which reference those custom funct

FileMaker Magazine

March 17, 2016

FileMaker Security Blog

Emerging Security Trends Affect FileMaker Platform

Emerging Trends in Information Security Affect FileMaker Platform By Steven H. Blackwell March 17th 2016 The recently concluded annual RSA Security Conference showcased a number of important emerging trends in Information Security that likely will affect FileMaker Platform developers and Administrators of FileMaker Platform systems. In this BLOG entry, I will describe some of these and offer some observations about how they might apply to the FileMaker Platform.

Steven H. Blackwell

March 17, 2016

FileMaker Magazine

Creative Slider Panels

Attachment Size CreativeSliderPanels.zip 350.22 KB By Matt Petrowsky Emulating features and design functionality found within iOS apps can be both frustrating and rewarding in FileMaker. Frustrating because you can't just replicate anything you see in iOS, yet rewarding when you pull something off and feel like FileMaker is that much closer to a native looking application. The biggest benefit with FileMaker being you likely created the solution with a speed which simply can't be ha

FileMaker Magazine

March 7, 2016

FileMaker Magazine

Creative Slider Panels

Emulating features and design functionality found within iOS apps can be both frustrating and rewarding in FileMaker. Frustrating because you can't just replicate anything you see in iOS, yet rewarding when you pull something off and feel like FileMaker is that much closer to a native looking application. The biggest benefit with FileMaker being you likely created the solution with a speed which simply can't be had when building the same with the native iOS APIs. Simply put, FileMaker saves a t

FileMaker Magazine

March 7, 2016

Skeleton Key's Blog

Integrating Autotask with FileMaker

Group Session #1 Hi. My name is Andy and I'm an API Addict. In my defense, I have to say it's all Brian Dunning's fault. See, when I was first starting out with FileMaker, and discovered all that sample data on Mr. Dunning's website, I found I couldn't get enough. I was sorting, and parsing, and testing, and munging, and wrangling, and...and...and I just kept needing bigger and bigger datasets to "work" with. When I'd gone through the biggest one there, I realized I still needed more. Read m

Skeleton Key

March 2, 2016

FileMaker Magazine

Practical Layout Design Tips

No Access? Watch the preview video here. LayoutDesignTips_Pre.mp4 By Matt Petrowsky When it comes to creating a great design within FileMaker's layout mode, there's always a bit of skill and experience mixed in with some practical know-how. Fortunately, the creative side of the experience can be enhanced quite a bit when you know how to apply those practical bits of knowledge. If you've always wondered how the masters achieve their streamlined and balanced look and feel, then wonder

FileMaker Magazine

March 1, 2016

FileMaker Magazine

Practical Layout Design Tips

When it comes to creating a great design within FileMaker's layout mode, there's always a bit of skill and experience mixed in with some practical know-how. Fortunately, the creative side of the experience can be enhanced quite a bit when you know how to apply those practical bits of knowledge. If you've always wondered how the masters achieve their streamlined and balanced look and feel, then wonder no more. This video will showcase how to use FileMaker's grid and word processing features in

FileMaker Magazine

March 1, 2016

FileMaker Hacks

PDF Trickery

If you produce reports or other FileMaker output in PDF format, here’s a little trick that can be a real time saver in terms of development. Imagine this: a client receives a nightly report via email in PDF format, and asked you to make sure the report would fit on a single page in landscape […] View the full article

Kevin Frank

February 29, 2016

FileMaker Magazine

Portal Based Menu Systems

No Access? Watch the preview video here. PortalBasedMenuSystems_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size PortalBasedMenuSystems.zip 337.29 KB By Matt Petrowsky Navigation - it's a fundamental piece to the whole UX problem of a growing database solution. When you first start out, things are pretty easy. You may have a few buttons taking users to dedicated layouts. However, as things continually grow, you end up adding more and more places to go and things which can be done. Managing this grow

FileMaker Magazine

February 22, 2016

FileMaker Magazine

Portal Based Menu Systems

Navigation - it's a fundamental piece to the whole UX problem of a growing database solution. When you first start out, things are pretty easy. You may have a few buttons taking users to dedicated layouts. However, as things continually grow, you end up adding more and more places to go and things which can be done. Managing this growth, and how you present the possible options, is something which requires a bit of forethought. When you start to consider the number of layouts which may need to

FileMaker Magazine

February 22, 2016

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker iOS App SDK QuickStart

By Matt Petrowsky Doesn't everyone want to build an app these days? How about you? Is building a native looking iOS app on your agenda? Wouldn't it be easier if your user's didn't have to learn the FileMaker Go UI and could simply tap your own custom solution icon when using an iOS device? If the answer is yes, then your wait is over. In the first quarter of 2016, FileMaker, Inc. quietly released their iOS App SDK for FileMaker. This Xcode based toolkit enables anyone, with the willing

FileMaker Magazine

February 11, 2016

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker iOS App SDK QuickStart

Doesn't everyone want to build an app these days? How about you? Is building a native looking iOS app on your agenda? Wouldn't it be easier if your user's didn't have to learn the FileMaker Go UI and could simply tap your own custom solution icon when using an iOS device? If the answer is yes, then your wait is over. In the first quarter of 2016, FileMaker, Inc. quietly released their iOS App SDK for FileMaker. This Xcode based toolkit enables anyone, with the willingness to learn, the ability

FileMaker Magazine

February 11, 2016

Eye on FileMaker

A Conversation About '2 Factor Authentication'

[ Edit: 3/16/2016 - With the help of some other people, we have been able to recover, or recreate some of the original images from original thread. ] Security is always a big topic when it involves data, or people, or possessions. Recently, over on the FileMaker Community, there was a very beneficial discussion regarding security. Unfortunately, that discussion was the victim of a necessary action...and was deleted. It was deleted, because the discussion was tied to a video that, as was det

Josh Ormond

February 8, 2016

FileMaker Magazine

URL Based Solution Updating

No Access? Watch the preview video here. URLSolutionUpdating_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size URLSolutionUpdating.zip 666.31 KB By Matt Petrowsky Recently, FileMaker released its iOS App SDK for FileMaker Pro. This new technology for FileMaker developers allows for both consultants and solution developers to create client or customer specific solutions which can run on iOS without having to install FileMaker Go. Given the speed with which a FileMaker solution can be built and deploye

FileMaker Magazine

February 3, 2016