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FileMaker Magazine

A blog by FileMaker Magazine in Affiliate Blogs

  • Entries

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Entries in this blog

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

Accordion Menus

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 with an Accordion menu. This familiar design pattern is very easy to accomplish within FileMaker and, when done right, can be a simple matter of c

Friendly Alphabet Filtering

No Access? Watch the preview video here. FriendlyAlphabetFiltering_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size FriendlyAlphabetFiltering.zip 379.22 KB By Matt Petrowsky As a developer, it’s often hard to get out of a mindset where your response of “It’s simple silly, you just search for a portion of the word, not the whole word.” to the question of a particular search not providing a user’s expected results. This type of response may come from a user when they mention they know the user “Petrow

Friendly Alphabet Filtering

As a developer, it’s often hard to get out of a mindset where your response of “It’s simple silly, you just search for a portion of the word, not the whole word.” to the question of a particular search not providing a user’s expected results. This type of response may come from a user when they mention they know the user “Petrowsky” is in the database but it doesn’t come across verbally that they’re really searching for “Petrowski” - which obviously doesn’t match the version ending in a “y” ins

Defensive Layout Navigation

Attachment Size DefensiveLayoutNavigation.zip 295.9 KB By Matt Petrowsky Download Video If it hasn’t happened to you yet, then it will at some point. Your FileMaker solution will simply grow and grow and you’ll be adding complex layers of security and access as you develop. As you add that security, your users may report back that they can’t do what they’re supposed to do. Maybe they’re locked out of a given layout with a giant gray screen with the small words of “No Access”. U

Defensive Layout Navigation

If it hasn’t happened to you yet, then it will at some point. Your FileMaker solution will simply grow and grow and you’ll be adding complex layers of security and access as you develop. As you add that security, your users may report back that they can’t do what they’re supposed to do. Maybe they’re locked out of a given layout with a giant gray screen with the small words of “No Access”. Ughhh! What does your user do now? Why should you even be dealing with this issue? What you really need

Simplified Search Queries

No Access? Watch the preview video here. SimplifiedSearchQueries_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size SimplifiedSearchQueries.zip 380.57 KB By Matt Petrowsky As a software/database developer, one of your primary goals is making your solutions easy to use. This means users should be able to perform common queries by simply clicking buttons which run the queries automatically. This is probably something you already do. But, the big question is this, “Do you make it easy on yourself for cre

Simplified Search Queries

As a software/database developer, one of your primary goals is making your solutions easy to use. This means users should be able to perform common queries by simply clicking buttons which run the queries automatically. This is probably something you already do. But, the big question is this, “Do you make it easy on yourself for creating those simple queries?” Many developers will create a unique script for each of the various queries, and in some cases this is just fine. It’s when you start fe

Developer Tools & Tips 2015

No Access? Watch the preview video here. DeveloperTipsTricks_Pre.mp4 By Matt Petrowsky As with all mastery of any trade, it’s a matter of familiarity with the tools, along with practiced skill, in which a craftsman can hone his or her proficiency. In development, it’s often a matter of knowing which tools are available, and how to use them, which may make the difference. In this video, I showcase the tools I use, their most important features and how I personally use them. If becomin

Developer Tools & Tips 2015

As with all mastery of any trade, it’s a matter of familiarity with the tools, along with practiced skill, in which a craftsman can hone his or her proficiency. In development, it’s often a matter of knowing which tools are available, and how to use them, which may make the difference. In this video, I showcase the tools I use, their most important features and how I personally use them. If becoming a more efficient and capable FileMaker developer is one of your goals then make sure to watch th

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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,

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

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,

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

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