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Using hashes for validation

Earlier in the year I released a video about using Google Forms in order to capture and then import data into FileMaker Pro. The code I was personally using was a bit more advanced than what I wanted to show at that time, so I simplified the process. Having implemented, and used, many more Google Forms since that time, and knowing that I was exercising a great degree of control over the import process, I decided to reveal it all. So, in this video I showcase the method I use to verify that an

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Using hashes for validation

Earlier in the year I released a video about using Google Forms in order to capture and then import data into FileMaker Pro. The code I was personally using was a bit more advanced than what I wanted to show at that time, so I simplified the process. Having implemented, and used, many more Google Forms since that time, and knowing that I was exercising a great degree of control over the import process, I decided to reveal it all. So, in this video I showcase the method I use to verify that an

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Creative Layout Design

While recently teaching the layout/design portion of an in-person FileMaker training course, I found myself showing off one of the features which FileMaker has had since version 12. It’s an often overlooked feature which can be used quite creatively when you know how it works. It’s the Layout Background style of the layout theme. When you understand the order in which FileMaker displays things, you’re free to create nice modern looking layout designs. Further, when you combine this with knowled

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Creative Layout Design

While recently teaching the layout/design portion of an in-person FileMaker training course, I found myself showing off one of the features which FileMaker has had since version 12. It’s an often overlooked feature which can be used quite creatively when you know how it works. It’s the Layout Background style of the layout theme. When you understand the order in which FileMaker displays things, you’re free to create nice modern looking layout designs. Further, when you combine this with knowled

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Graph Management Techniques

When was the last time you opened the Relationship Graph and heard that little voice say “Wow, you’ve gotta clean this up!”? Maybe it was yesterday, maybe it was just a few moments ago. Whenever the voices come, it’s a pretty easy task to accomplish when you apply some solid understanding to how the graph works and what it represents in the whole of your solution. If code could write itself, then organization would never be necessary because no one would need to maintain or revise it. It would

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Graph Management Techniques

When was the last time you opened the Relationship Graph and heard that little voice say “Wow, you’ve gotta clean this up!”? Maybe it was yesterday, maybe it was just a few moments ago. Whenever the voices come, it’s a pretty easy task to accomplish when you apply some solid understanding to how the graph works and what it represents in the whole of your solution. If code could write itself, then organization would never be necessary because no one would need to maintain or revise it. It would

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Dynamic Column Sorting Indicators

Providing visual feedback about the sort state, and direction, of your list views is always a nice feature to have. Not only does it fulfill the expectations of what users are already used to within the OS, but it let’s users know they can actually sort on those columns. In this video, I walk through the use of a Button Bar object in conjunction with some other common tricks in order to provide dynamic column sorting indicators. This is one of those standard must-have features within your File

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Dynamic Column Sorting Indicators

Providing visual feedback about the sort state, and direction, of your list views is always a nice feature to have. Not only does it fulfill the expectations of what users are already used to within the OS, but it let’s users know they can actually sort on those columns. In this video, I walk through the use of a Button Bar object in conjunction with some other common tricks in order to provide dynamic column sorting indicators. This is one of those standard must-have features within your File

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Using Copy All Records

Knowing which features to use and when to use them is great skill to have with FileMaker Pro development. Anytime you can determine when a certain script step, structure, web viewer or plug-in should be used is what makes for a productive developer. In this video we’ll take a look at a long standing script step called Copy All Records. Using this core script step allows us to optimize a lot of things so we end up with a faster FileMaker solution. With the additional tips and education in this

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Using Copy All Records

Knowing which features to use and when to use them is great skill to have with FileMaker Pro development. Anytime you can determine when a certain script step, structure, web viewer or plug-in should be used is what makes for a productive developer. In this video we’ll take a look at a long standing script step called Copy All Records. Using this core script step allows us to optimize a lot of things so we end up with a faster FileMaker solution. With the additional tips and education in this

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Custom Clickable Calendar Widget

You like being in control don’t you? Being able to control things exactly as you wish? Well, it’s one of the more addicting qualities of creating solutions quickly within FileMaker Pro. When you’re working with dates, there are times when the native date picker just doesn’t cut it. You can’t make it larger or smaller, you can’t change its colors, and if you’re on iOS then you’re limited to the default iOS date picker. You’ve got no control. When a user is choosing a date from a calendar, you s

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Custom Clickable Calendar Widget

BodyYou like being in control don’t you? Being able to control things exactly as you wish? Well, it’s one of the more addicting qualities of creating solutions quickly within FileMaker Pro. When you’re working with dates, there are times when the native date picker just doesn’t cut it. You can’t make it larger or smaller, you can’t change its colors, and if you’re on iOS then you’re limited to the default iOS date picker. You’ve got no control. When a user is choosing a date from a calendar, y

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Using Snapshot Links for Found Sets

Developing in FileMaker Pro is rewarding because of the speed with which you can accomplish things. The speed, however, isn’t worth much when you only know one possible way to do things. It’s the master carpenter, who knows all the tools and methods for getting things done, who is the most efficient. When it comes to replicating a found set within FileMaker, there are many paths to take. Your standard Perform Find script step will simply pull up a found set of records based on predefined or dyn

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Using Snapshot Links for Found Sets

Developing in FileMaker Pro is rewarding because of the speed with which you can accomplish things. The speed, however, isn’t worth much when you only know one possible way to do things. It’s the master carpenter, who knows all the tools and methods for getting things done, who is the most efficient. When it comes to replicating a found set within FileMaker, there are many paths to take. Your standard Perform Find script step will simply pull up a found set of records based on predefined or dyn

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

FM Devcon 2016 - Designing in Tight Spaces

In July of 2016, Matt was afforded the opportunity to present as a speaker at the annual FileMaker Developer's Conference. FileMaker Inc. decided to make the release of the session videos available for the general public. The session was well received with high marks given all around. The session was a jam-packed roundup all the various things you can do with FileMaker layout objects in order to meet the objective of creating designs which work well within a small form factor. If taking advanta

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

FM Devcon 2016 - Designing in Tight Spaces

In July of 2016, Matt was afforded the opportunity to present as a speaker at the annual FileMaker Developer's Conference. FileMaker Inc. decided to make the release of the session videos available for the general public. The session was well received with high marks given all around. The session was a jam-packed roundup all the various things you can do with FileMaker layout objects in order to meet the objective of creating designs which work well within a small form factor. If taking advanta

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Better Portal Interactions

In FileMaker, if we only had list and form views for viewing data, then we’d probably be just fine. But, who wants to just get by with a minimal set of methods for viewing data? The ever valuable portal provides a wonderful view into whatever data you wish to show. It can be related data, menu options, a list of users or pretty much anything. Especially, when using a portal as a Virtual List of something being held within a $$GLOBAL.VARIABLE. The key thing to understand about portals is that F

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Better Portal Interactions

In FileMaker, if we only had list and form views for viewing data, then we’d probably be just fine. But, who wants to just get by with a minimal set of methods for viewing data? The ever valuable portal provides a wonderful view into whatever data you wish to show. It can be related data, menu options, a list of users or pretty much anything. Especially, when using a portal as a Virtual List of something being held within a $$GLOBAL.VARIABLE. The key thing to understand about portals is that F

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Working with Relative Date Ranges

Working with dates within FileMaker isn’t as complex as working on launching a rocket to the moon. But, as with most all technical things, it’s always good to know what’s going on under the hood. Knowing how things work allows you to implement the desired solution in the most efficient manner. When talking about relative dates we’re talking about “Today”, “Tomorrow” and “Last Year”, not 7/6/1996. You can always instruct FileMaker to lookup a date range based on the whole year of 1995, but isn’t

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Working with Relative Date Ranges

Working with dates within FileMaker isn’t as complex as working on launching a rocket to the moon. But, as with most all technical things, it’s always good to know what’s going on under the hood. Knowing how things work allows you to implement the desired solution in the most efficient manner. When talking about relative dates we’re talking about “Today”, “Tomorrow” and “Last Year”, not 7/6/1996. You can always instruct FileMaker to lookup a date range based on the whole year of 1995, but isn’t

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Using OnGestureTap

With FileMaker Pro, the application has become so much more complex than its humble beginnings. There are so many areas and aspects which you may not use until you see a good idea about how they can be used. In this video, I showcase the Layout script trigger named OnGestureTap. It was introduced when FileMaker 13 was released along with FileMaker Go. The trigger only applies to clients which support it, which is primarily FileMaker Go on iOS and FileMaker Pro when running on a Windows compatib

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Using OnGestureTap

With FileMaker Pro, the application has become so much more complex than its humble beginnings. There are so many areas and aspects which you may not use until you see a good idea about how they can be used. In this video, I showcase the Layout script trigger named OnGestureTap. It was introduced when FileMaker 13 was released along with FileMaker Go. The trigger only applies to clients which support it, which is primarily FileMaker Go on iOS and FileMaker Pro when running on a Windows compatib

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Writing Complex FileMaker Calculations

When you’re faced with creating a complex piece of FileMaker code, you often break the larger problem into smaller parts. It’s always easier to tackle smaller portions of a larger problem. Even when it doesn’t seem like the problem should be that big. In this video, you’ll discover a lot of good information about how to break a larger problem down into its smaller parts. The problem being solved is extracting all the individual pieces of a US mailing address. There are so many various methods o

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Writing Complex FileMaker Calculations

When you’re faced with creating a complex piece of FileMaker code, you often break the larger problem into smaller parts. It’s always easier to tackle smaller portions of a larger problem. Even when it doesn’t seem like the problem should be that big. In this video, you’ll discover a lot of good information about how to break a larger problem down into its smaller parts. The problem being solved is extracting all the individual pieces of a US mailing address. There are so many various methods o

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Pill Menu Button Bars

I can’t recall a situation where some technology from the past isn’t superseded by the new technology which replaces it. In the context of FileMaker Pro, a good example of this is your basic button. Yes, it’s been there ever since FileMaker was created. There never was a FileMaker Pro without the button widget. Enter FileMaker 14 and Button Bars and we now have a lot of possible options. Especially when you combine the Hide object calc which arrived in FileMaker 13. You can control which segmen

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

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