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FileMaker Magazine

A blog by FileMaker Magazine in Affiliate Blogs

  • Entries

    551

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    6

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    53,989

Entries in this blog

Performance Review

When your average knowledge worker starts developing with FileMaker Pro, there’s a lot of background and history which may be missing. Especially, when it comes to making certain decisions about schema. We’ve all been at that level at some point in the learning curve, and the process of reworking things is just par for the course. The FileMaker environment makes it so easy to simply add a new calculated value. It’s even part of our mental processing. “Oh, I need to calculate this.” The problem

Hide Calculation Coolness

One of the best new features added to version 13 of FileMaker was the Hide Calculation. Not only does it allow you to hide any layout element as needed, but it provides access to the calc engine for creating any $local or $$GLOBAL variables on a layout-by-layout basis. Knowing that all layout elements pass through the hide calculation before being rendered to the user is also a helpful thing to know. In this video, I’ll walk you through the process of using the Hide calculation in order to make

Button Bar Tricks

No Access? Watch the preview video here. ButtonBarTricks_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size ButtonBarTricks.zip 372.35 KB By Matt Petrowsky When developing within tools like Xcode, the sky’s the limit in terms of providing user interaction and user feedback. Fortunately, with FileMaker, we have access to many of the core interaction elements from iOS. Popovers are a great example of a critical iOS UI element. When FileMaker 13 was released we got the wonderful Popover objects. To follo

Button Bar Tricks

When developing within tools like Xcode, the sky’s the limit in terms of providing user interaction and user feedback. Fortunately, with FileMaker, we have access to many of the core interaction elements from iOS. Popovers are a great example of a critical iOS UI element. When FileMaker 13 was released we got the wonderful Popover objects. To follow that up within FileMaker 14, we got the new objects named Button Bars. These new objects were an enhancement on the ages old Button objects. The co

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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 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

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

URL Based Solution Updating

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 deployed, the knowledge of using the Separation Model of deployment becomes a valuable tool for creating agile solutions. Easily updated and easily deployed. When

Protecting FileMaker Files

No Access? Watch the preview video here. ProtectingFileMakerFiles_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size Secure FileMaker.pdf 1.07 MB By Matt Petrowsky There's nothing more heart wrenching than when you first realize that something horribly wrong has just happened. It's such a distinct feeling that we all know what I'm talking about. Just imagine being at the airport and you've got your laptop bag just beside you. After going through security, you feel like you're ready to have a relaxing

Protecting FileMaker Files

There's nothing more heart wrenching than when you first realize that something horribly wrong has just happened. It's such a distinct feeling that we all know what I'm talking about. Just imagine being at the airport and you've got your laptop bag just beside you. After going through security, you feel like you're ready to have a relaxing flight. As you turn to grab your bag, you suddenly realize it's gone! Jumping up, you scan around and see absolutely no evidence of anything having happened.

Better Portal Drag Sorting

Matt Petrowsky When a programming environment doesn’t offer you every widget you might expect to have, then some enterprising individual will typically create the solution you seek - somewhere. If that person shares the solution with everyone else, and you can find it, then it obviously makes your life easier. You just have to find the technique and take the time to implement and understand it. Anyone can simply copy and paste the pieces to a puzzle, but understanding how it works it w

Better Portal Drag Sorting

When a programming environment doesn’t offer you every widget you might expect to have, then some enterprising individual will typically create the solution you seek - somewhere. If that person shares the solution with everyone else, and you can find it, then it obviously makes your life easier. You just have to find the technique and take the time to implement and understand it. Anyone can simply copy and paste the pieces to a puzzle, but understanding how it works it what makes it possible to

Accordion Menus

No Access? Watch the preview video here. AccordionMenus_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size AccordionMenus.zip 344 KB By Matt Petrowsky When you’re designing in a small cramped space, and you’ve got a lot to put on the layout, you can always go for that native Popover button widget to store the extra info. But when all that information needs to feel somehow connected to each other, just using a bunch of Popover buttons on the layout may not work well. In these cases, it’s best to go wit

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