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FileMaker Magazine

A blog by FileMaker Magazine in Affiliate Blogs

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Entries in this blog

Mastering Field Indexing

When starting out with FileMaker, there's rarely the situation where you receive any "before you get started" advice. This is because working in FileMaker is like picking up a blank canvas and having someone say "Go for it! Paint something." Essentially, you need to know what the tools are, how you use them, what can be accomplished and how certain decisions might affect you. So, when it comes to field indexing, you might not know the default settings could potentially cause your solution to be

Claris FileMaker 2023 v20 Release

Claris International, Inc. released Claris FileMaker 2023 (version 20) of the FileMaker platform on Tue. April 25th 2023. This release, like all previous dot releases, saw just a few major features and some new branding via a new icon. In my opinion, there are primarily three major features in FMP 20 and a VERY large number of both fixes and minor features. I'm calling this one the "move towards enterprise" release. It improves upon its level of support for robust technologies such as ARM suppo

Variable Field Portal Sorting

With many native features in Claris/FileMaker, you may end up hitting what you "think" is a brick wall. In this case, I'm referring to the ability of sorting portals. You've only got one checkbox per portal with the options for specifying a selection of fields to sort by. True, you can choose a number of fields to sort by, but, you can't change their order dynamically or allow a user to make any changes to which fields are used. That is, of course, unless you combine a variety of native feature

Mobile Transitions & Effects

While you won't have access to as many visual effects as if you had created a native iOS application, there are still some things you can do and take advantage of with native transitions within FileMaker Go. One of my own recent experiences led to making a dedicated script which enhances the visual appeal of performing a find within a single layout. In order to gain the advantage of FileMaker Go's native layout transitions, you can use a dedicated layout and script to accomplish some really nic

Balanced Button Bars

Sometimes, it's the little things you learn that make working with Claris/FileMaker so enjoyable. Things like making a Button Bar balanced when hiding segments and not having to use any scripts or extra code (unless desired) to do it. This video presents a great little technique of how you can use a Hide calculation on your button bar segments yet still maintain the same relative button size. With this little bit of know-how, you can easily stack various button bars and provide all kinds of pro

Fast Filtering Portals

When you first develop your FileMaker solution you're typically dealing with sample and/or test data. Everything works great. It's fast and efficient and you're guessing users will just love using it. Until you hear feedback like "It takes forever to simply see a list of people to pick from." As you scratch your head wondering why things got slow, it's likely because you didn't think about what's happening on every record of that simple little portal. Your once wonderful complex filter, which w

Using Script Triggers in Claris/FileMaker

Learning everything you can do with Claris/FileMaker scripts is such a wonderful journey. When you first start using the available script triggers, it often becomes a bit of an issue if you aren't fully aware of all the impacts. This video is an update to older videos which didn't have the insights presented in this video. If you've been using Script Triggers within Claris/FileMaker for some time, then you might want to give this video a watch to see if you're missing any of the latest and grea

Additional Script Triggers in Claris/FileMaker

Learning everything you can do with Claris/FileMaker scripts is such a wonderful journey. When you first start using the available script triggers, it often becomes a bit of an issue if you aren't fully aware of all the impacts. This video is an update to older videos which didn't have the insights presented in this video. If you've been using Script Triggers within Claris/FileMaker for some time, then you might want to give this video a watch to see if you're missing any of the latest and grea

Virtual List JSON Portal Filtering

Developing software in FileMaker can be such a joy when you're able to solve so many problems so quickly. There is, however, a point where you start to solve so many problems that your solution starts to slow down and you find yourself wondering why. Most commonly, it's the result of cumulative features compounding to make your solution slower and slower. Without careful consideration of the user interface, and how features are presented, it's easy to create a solution which starts to lag over

Optimized Object Inspector Usage

As any FileMaker developer will tell you, working with a complex layout can be a bit of a hassle. That is, of course, unless you know how to take full advantage of the Object Inspector palette! Did you know, it's possible to edit the calculation of a button bar segment without ever double-clicking on the object itself within the layout? Yes, it's not only possible with Button Bars but with most any layout object. And, the best part is this can be done within a few clicks - saving a lot of time

Incredibly Easy Menus

One of the biggest downsides of any complex FileMaker solution is the growing number of layouts and layout elements you'll have to manage. If your number of navigation (or general menu) items is both static and large, then you're going to have issues with keeping the solution well updated. Aside from this, you could have additional complexity when it comes to controlling which menu items show under certain circumstances. While there are number of ways to make menu management easier, the best so

MonkeyBread Plug-In for Better Development

If you're using Claris/FileMaker for either part-time or full-time development, and you've not installed the MonkeyBread plug-in, then you're doing something wrong. Many of the most desired features for working with code, such as code folding, extended syntax highlighting, variable auto-completion, the ability to search code, line jumping and other convenience features are available for free when you install the MBS (MonkeyBread) plug-in. In this video, I go over all the free features and how t

Better User Validations

One of the key reasons for using a database is having a single source of truth. When the possibility for duplicates enters the equation of "truth" we have a problem. Dealing with duplicates comes in the forms of cleaning and removing them and preventing them. One of your primary tools for preventing them is to use data validation. It's simple really. You can only continue to do this unless these conditions are met. Everything must be valid. In Claris Studio/FileMaker your options for setting f

FileMaker Go Mobile Tricks

While recently working on a FileMaker Mobile solution I came across a number of tricks I was using which I thought might help other developers. The great thing about FileMaker Go is you have access to so many of the core iOS technologies and you can often create very attractive UIs in a short time. When it comes to controlling access and replicating certain iOS features, you only need a bit of creative thinking. If you see something done in another iOS app you can typically find a combination o

Multi-page reports - Page Numbering

Claris FileMaker is continually adding new features in order to make things easier for developers. In the most recent release of version 19 we found a new function named Get ( PageCount ). This one function essentially emulates the combination of steps we needed to use to determine the total number of printed pages useful for adding a Page X of Y count to the bottom of a printable report. It's available for use within FileMaker Go, which is a big benefit. However, while the addition of {{PageNu

Controlling CSV/TAB Headers

Because of its age, FileMaker has a variety of options sprinkled in a bunch of different places regarding exporting data. Some of these options relate to getting the exact export of data you need from the software. In this video I cover a variety of specifics related to exporting data. One feature in particular is controlling the export headers you may need on your custom export. If you've ever needed to provide an output file of either CSV or TAB, and you'd like to have full control over the h

Using External Technologies

One of the greatest joys I get from working with FileMaker is making it do something it doesn't do natively. It's sort of like always being able to say "Yes" and never having to tell yourself "No". Enjoying your sweets and treats as much as you like! There is, quite literally, nothing I can think of that can't be done just outside FileMaker and brought back in to the software. Do you need OCR? AI processing? Serious image manipulation, complicated heuristics, complex PDF manipulation, data scra

Universal UI Strings

Claris/FileMaker, as a development environment, is full of all kinds of hidden corners and secret places. Most of this is due to its age and keeping a strong commitment to backwards compatibility. To its credit, there are very few features which have been removed to date. Still have a database which uses repeating fields to store data? They're still there! To say that developing within the environment is straight forward is a bit misleading. Sometimes, you can combine knowledge about older feat

Error Handling & Logging 3

If you haven't added logging into your FileMaker solutions, then you don't know what you're missing, and there's no better time than the present to do so. With the release of this video and technique file, you'll find an updated version of a long-running topic which goes back to 2013. The functionality we had in 2013 and 2020 is different than what we have now. We're always trying to take advantage of newer features and improve what we use in our solutions. If you've not watched the previous vi

FileMaker Memory Bug?

For all my time with FileMaker, there's this peculiar aspect of one's learning journey where small bits and pieces of information come to you in odd ways. You either happen to stumble upon them, or you're told about them through the grapevine. Not from the company itself. While most large companies are often busy with the business of improving their software, their outbound communications about certain things aren't always prompt or highly detailed. Personally, I love what Claris has been doing

Record Looping with JS

The world of JavaScript libraries is so rich and full that once you start using some of them you start to ask yourself "Should I even try this natively with FileMaker?" When it comes to something like QR codes we don't even have a native option to create them. Currently, there's no GenerateBarcode() function. There's also the situation where you're using one of these fabulous JavaScript Libraries and you want to loop through a found set of records. The problem is... — You try to use your new co

Fixed Field Length Imports

Even in today's interconnected world, you'll still find systems which are so legacy that the only thing you get out of them is some type of output which was popular back in the late 80's and early 90's. One of those formats, which isn't actually an import format, is PCL (Printer Command Language). Yep, there's still a lot of education institutions which will output a PCL file as an export, which is simply just fixed length text with instructions about how a printer should handle the output. It'

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