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Sending Email with Merge Fields

What would a database solution be without the ability to send email? Well, it would be a database solution without the ability to send email - but who wants that right? Email is obviously an integral part of our modern day communication. And, despite what the Twitters, Facebooks and Instagrams of the world would have you believe, email is here to stay. The easiest way to add email support to a FileMaker database is to simply use the Send Mail script step. But, that’s boring, and sometimes it d

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Sending Email with Merge Fields

No Access? Watch the preview video here. SendingEmailMerging_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size SendingEmailMergeFields.zip 388.62 KB By Matt Petrowsky What would a database solution be without the ability to send email? Well, it would be a database solution without the ability to send email - but who wants that right? Email is obviously an integral part of our modern day communication. And, despite what the Twitters, Facebooks and Instagrams of the world would have you believe, email

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Creating Color Palettes

As we’ve all likely heard before, a movie isn’t just great because of the cinematography, it’s the sound that counts just as much. What you hear, not just see, is what makes the difference between good and great. So, if sound is so critical to a movie, then the analogy to a FileMaker layout is color. Sure, anyone can move and arrange fields and objects into some semblance of order. And, using FileMaker’s layout objects to furnish your layout for the best possible user experience does take a bit

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Creating Color Palettes

By Matt Petrowsky As we’ve all likely heard before, a movie isn’t just great because of the cinematography, it’s the sound that counts just as much. What you hear, not just see, is what makes the difference between good and great. So, if sound is so critical to a movie, then the analogy to a FileMaker layout is color. Sure, anyone can move and arrange fields and objects into some semblance of order. And, using FileMaker’s layout objects to furnish your layout for the best possible user

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Saving Window State

When developing in FileMaker, the feature set it offers accounts for a good number of common tasks and provides easy solutions for most of these problems. There are a few issues, however, which FileMaker either hasn’t addressed or wants to leave up to the developer. One of these is saving the current window state. This applies to tab panels, sliders and moving from layout to layout or when closing the file. The desired result, for the end user, is to simply return to where they left off when re

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Saving Window State

No Access? Watch the preview video here. SavingWindowState_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size SavingWindowState.zip 232.71 KB By Matt Petrowsky When developing in FileMaker, the feature set it offers accounts for a good number of common tasks and provides easy solutions for most of these problems. There are a few issues, however, which FileMaker either hasn’t addressed or wants to leave up to the developer. One of these is saving the current window state. This applies to tab panels, sl

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Button Bars for Navigation

Most of FileMaker’s layout objects allow you to easily specify settings directly on those objects. For example, using Button Bars for the purpose of navigation means you can specify which of the multiple segments should be presented as active. Of course, your can also easily target which layout a button click should take the user to without creating a dedicated script. The problem, however, is that FileMaker systems end up growing ever larger and the evolution process means you’re constantly ma

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Button Bars for Navigation

No Access? Watch the preview video here. ButtonBarsNavigation_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size ButtonBarsforNavigation.zip 301.1 KB By Matt Petrowsky Most of FileMaker’s layout objects allow you to easily specify settings directly on those objects. For example, using Button Bars for the purpose of navigation means you can specify which of the multiple segments should be presented as active. Of course, your can also easily target which layout a button click should take the user to with

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Learning Privilege Sets

The security of your FileMaker data should always be a top priority. If you don’t know how to implement FileMaker’s Privilege Sets, then you need to learn as quickly as possible. While the dialogs for security can seem a bit obscure and difficult, it only takes a few trips in and out to get a feel for how you can lock things down. In this video, I showcase a simple system I created which covers topics such as Granting full access to scripts and why, locking off security related fields, using G

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Learning Privilege Sets

No Access? Watch the preview video here. LearningPrivSets_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size LearningPrivSets.zip 295.57 KB By Matt Petrowsky The security of your FileMaker data should always be a top priority. If you don’t know how to implement FileMaker’s Privilege Sets, then you need to learn as quickly as possible. While the dialogs for security can seem a bit obscure and difficult, it only takes a few trips in and out to get a feel for how you can lock things down. In this video,

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Desktop/Mobile Hybrid Design

More and more these days, we find ourselves jumping back and forth between desktop computers and using our increasingly convenient mobile devices. At least, that’s how it’s been with many of my personal FileMaker projects./Users/matt/Desktop/filemaker-desktop-mobile-design.png While designing for each target device, in an ideal world, is a luxury we’d like to afford, there just isn’t an unlimited supply of time and money. The solution is to create a hybrid design which will work as well on mob

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Desktop/Mobile Hybrid Design

No Access? Watch the preview video here. DesktopMobileDesign_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size DesktopMobileHybridDesign.zip 294.58 KB By Matt Petrowsky More and more these days, we find ourselves jumping back and forth between desktop computers and using our increasingly convenient mobile devices. At least, that’s how it’s been with many of my personal FileMaker projects./Users/matt/Desktop/filemaker-desktop-mobile-design.png While designing for each target device, in an ideal world,

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

SVG Icon Manipulation

Download Video Creating a user interface, which looks good at any resolution, was never a concern before there were smartphones. It was when they started packing more and more pixels within the same area that graphics started having issues. With the popular formats of PNG and JPEG, you’re limited in terms of displaying them. The limit is the maximum size/resolution at which the file is exported at. From there, you can only go down, scaling up will cause the obvious pixelation we’re familiar wit

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

SVG Icon Manipulation

Attachment Size SVGIconManipulation.zip 283.58 KB By Matt Petrowsky Download Video Creating a user interface, which looks good at any resolution, was never a concern before there were smartphones. It was when they started packing more and more pixels within the same area that graphics started having issues. With the popular formats of PNG and JPEG, you’re limited in terms of displaying them. The limit is the maximum size/resolution at which the file is exported at. From there, yo

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Dynamic SVG Interaction

When you attempt to translate human interaction from the real world into a database, that translation isn’t always the most ideal. Within a database, you’re storing data within rows and columns and the real world isn’t always laid out so neatly. This is where using an image or graphic fills the gap and shortens that bridge of understanding for the user. A good example would be a dental office and scheduling appointments within 2 hour blocks of time throughout the day. The office has a physical

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Dynamic SVG Interaction

No Access? Watch the preview video here. DynamicSVGInteraction_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size DynamicSVGInteraction.zip 293.42 KB By Matt Petrowsky When you attempt to translate human interaction from the real world into a database, that translation isn’t always the most ideal. Within a database, you’re storing data within rows and columns and the real world isn’t always laid out so neatly. This is where using an image or graphic fills the gap and shortens that bridge of understand

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Go Interapplication Communication

The great thing about FileMaker Pro is it has it’s companion app FileMaker Go. Without FileMaker Go having arrived when the mobile revolution started taking off, FileMaker might have had a hard time staying viable. Because of FileMaker Go, we can build solutions for armies of mobile users heading out in the field. Even better, we can make easy little applications for ourselves which do cool things. While the limitations within FileMaker are actually quite small, there will always be some burni

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Go Interapplication Communication

No Access? Watch the preview video here. InterapplicationCommunication_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size Snapshots_1.zip 2.23 MB By Matt Petrowsky The great thing about FileMaker Pro is it has it’s companion app FileMaker Go. Without FileMaker Go having arrived when the mobile revolution started taking off, FileMaker might have had a hard time staying viable. Because of FileMaker Go, we can build solutions for armies of mobile users heading out in the field. Even better, we can make e

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Cleaning Input Data

Download Video Users make mistakes. There’s no doubt about that. When given the opportunity, they’ll enter characters and text strings you never expected. The easy solution to this problem is to simply control the result of what they’ve input. When capturing the input, there may be a variety of rules regarding how you want the data stored. Do you want to store “4 pm” or 16:00:00? Is the user entering suffixes such as Jr. or Sr. into the last name field or the first name field? Should the inpu

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Cleaning Input Data

Attachment Size CleaningInputData.zip 273.33 KB By Matt Petrowsky Download Video Users make mistakes. There’s no doubt about that. When given the opportunity, they’ll enter characters and text strings you never expected. The easy solution to this problem is to simply control the result of what they’ve input. When capturing the input, there may be a variety of rules regarding how you want the data stored. Do you want to store “4 pm” or 16:00:00? Is the user entering suffixes suc

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Manipulating CSV Exports

Exchanging data between systems has always been a matter of format. The output systems needs to output in the expected input format for the inbound system - and it works the same way when going in reverse. When it comes to data interchange formats, some of the most prevalent are arguably CSV (comma separated value) and Tab delimited. The problem with these formats however, is that one person’s CSV is not necessarily another’s. The CSV “standard” actually has no standard. There is an RFC (Reque

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Manipulating CSV Exports

No Access? Watch the preview video here. ManipulatingCSVExports_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size ManipulatingCSVExports.zip 280.29 KB By Matt Petrowsky Exchanging data between systems has always been a matter of format. The output systems needs to output in the expected input format for the inbound system - and it works the same way when going in reverse. When it comes to data interchange formats, some of the most prevalent are arguably CSV (comma separated value) and Tab delimited.

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Ultra easy vCalendar exporting

When it comes to accomplishing things within FileMaker Pro, some of the most sublime techniques are also the most empowering. This particular technique, while focused on exporting calendar events, showcases some of my most favorite power-user methods for manipulating data. In my personal scenario, I was provided with a standard spreadsheet formatted to show a calendar of events broken down month-by-month. The spreadsheet was formatted to be easily used and viewed by humans. It was not, however

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

Ultra easy vCalendar exporting

No Access? Watch the preview video here. UltraEasyVcalendar_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size UltraEasyVcalendarExporting.zip 275.55 KB By Matt Petrowsky When it comes to accomplishing things within FileMaker Pro, some of the most sublime techniques are also the most empowering. This particular technique, while focused on exporting calendar events, showcases some of my most favorite power-user methods for manipulating data. In my personal scenario, I was provided with a standard sprea

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

User Feedback using Button Bars

Download Video FileMaker 14 introduced a new layout object called a Button Bar. It’s essentially a wrapper around multiple buttons which can be used as either a conventional button or a popover menu. The great thing about button bars is they respect a hierarchy. If you hide the whole Button Bar, then nothing shows. If you hide just one segment, which is what one individual button within the bar is called, then the bar will retain its size and simply not show the given segment. All button segm

FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Magazine

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