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The Philosophy of FileMaker

A blog by John Mark Osborne in Affiliate Blogs

  • Entries

    182

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Entries in this blog

FileMaker Eighteen

Eighteen is the age you become an adult in the United States. In China, it's an auspicious number associated with success. In Hebrew, the word of life has a value of eighteen. It's also a composite number in mathematics, totaling the addition of it's divisors. But, most importantly, it's the latest release from FileMaker! I don't have eighteen different things to cover, just the stuff I find most important which includes scripting, calculations and relationships. I'll do a brief overview of most

Set Field Skills

The Set Field script step is one of the most widely used steps in FileMaker due to it's versatility at moving data around a solution. You can simply transfer data from one field to another or even construct a complicated calculation and then target a field with the result. But that's just skimming the surface of what it can do. Set Field is workhorse script step that has no equal. In this article, I'll discuss seven essential techniques you can perform with Set Field. These concepts are crucial

Set Field Skills

The Set Field script step is one of the most widely used steps in FileMaker due to it's versatility at moving data around a solution. You can simply transfer data from one field to another or even construct a complicated calculation and then target a field with the result. But that's just skimming the surface of what it can do. Set Field is workhorse script step that has no equal. In this article, I'll discuss seven essential techniques you can perform with Set Field. These concepts are crucial

Custom Menu Creativity

Back in college, when I was working in the computer lab on campus, it was a requirement to know Microsoft Word backwards and forwards. That's because half the students in there were creating resumes. The biggest issue was using spaces to line up columns so I spent a lot of time fixing resumes, for which I got little thanks. Wait! What was I going to talk about? Oh yeah... custom menus. The reason I mention Microsoft Word is I loved a feature that allowed you to customize the menus to my preferen

Custom Menu Creativity

Back in college, when I was working in the computer lab on campus, it was a requirement to know Microsoft Word backwards and forwards. That's because half the students in there were creating resumes. The biggest issue was using spaces to line up columns so I spent a lot of time fixing resumes, for which I got little thanks. Wait! What was I going to talk about? Oh yeah... custom menus. The reason I mention Microsoft Word is I loved a feature that allowed you to customize the menus to my preferen

Google Calendar

As integrators and developers, we have had many requests to integrate a client’s FileMaker solution with Google Calendar. The partnership of a customized database with the flexibility and easy accessibility of an online calendar system is ideal; events can be composed in the CRM of one’s choice, and pushed to the online calendar, where users out and about can access it from their phones, tablets or browsers. But it can be a challenge to connect Database A to Calendar B, so let’s delve a little i

Google Calendar

As integrators and developers, we have had many requests to integrate a client’s FileMaker solution with Google Calendar. The partnership of a customized database with the flexibility and easy accessibility of an online calendar system is ideal; events can be composed in the CRM of one’s choice, and pushed to the online calendar, where users out and about can access it from their phones, tablets or browsers. But it can be a challenge to connect Database A to Calendar B, so let’s delve a little i

Noteworthy

Ahhh... the ubiquitous notes field. Seems simple, right? In a way it is. Just slap down a field and resize it to show more data. Add a scroll bar and you're done. The problems occur when you are trying to locate an important note, print a report or perform a find. Data can be strewn all about a text field that allows free form entry and supports up to ten million characters. Imagine hundreds of different users trying to follow the exact same format for data entry. Pandemonium! This article will

Noteworthy

Ahhh... the ubiquitous notes field. Seems simple, right? In a way it is. Just slap down a field and resize it to show more data. Add a scroll bar and you're done. The problems occur when you are trying to locate an important note, print a report or perform a find. Data can be strewn all about a text field that allows free form entry and supports up to ten million characters. Imagine hundreds of different users trying to follow the exact same format for data entry. Pandemonium! This article will

The Beginning

Scripts that run on the opening of a FileMaker file allow you to accomplish so many different tasks. Open scripts can initialize global fields, setup variables, determine which layout to display based on security or platform, perform sub-scripts, install menu sets and so much more. This article will cover some of the most important uses of Open scripts but each FileMaker solution will likely have unique open script steps. View the full article

The Beginning

Scripts that run on the opening of a FileMaker file allow you to accomplish so many different tasks. Open scripts can initialize global fields, setup variables, determine which layout to display based on security or platform, perform sub-scripts, install menu sets and so much more. This article will cover some of the most important uses of Open scripts but each FileMaker solution will likely have unique open script steps. View the full article

Back and Forward

I've always been intrigued with how to mimic a web browser's back and forward buttons... as have many other developers. While I don't usually include them in a professional solution, I do find the exercise of creating an airtight historical navigation solution challenging. I prefer well designed navigation over history buttons. Therefore, I present this article as a brain teaser and not necessarily as a recommended solution. But, I'll let you make the decision. I'll go into why I don't think his

Back and Forward

I've always been intrigued with how to mimic a web browser's back and forward buttons... as have many other developers. While I don't usually include them in a professional solution, I do find the exercise of creating an airtight historical navigation solution challenging. I prefer well designed navigation over history buttons. Therefore, I present this article as a brain teaser and not necessarily as a recommended solution. But, I'll let you make the decision. I'll go into why I don't think his

Maybe You Missed These

It was almost two years ago that the Philosophy of FileMaker released it's first article. I write new articles almost every two weeks so there's a lot of information to filter at the Philosophy of FileMaker web site. That's why I thought it would be a good idea to talk about my favorite articles from the first year of blogging. You may have missed some of these articles and, if I list my favorites and why they're my favorites, maybe they'll answer long standing questions. View the full article

Maybe You Missed These

It was almost two years ago that the Philosophy of FileMaker released it's first article. I write new articles almost every two weeks so there's a lot of information to filter at the Philosophy of FileMaker web site. That's why I thought it would be a good idea to talk about my favorite articles from the first year of blogging. You may have missed some of these articles and, if I list my favorites and why they're my favorites, maybe they'll answer long standing questions. View the full article

Duplicating a Portal

Clients are always asking me why the contents of portals do not duplicate along with a record. It makes sense. Portal data looks like it's part of the parent record so it should duplicate just like the local fields, right? After explaining how relationships work, the client still wants the related data to duplicate. The great thing is, the script isn't that difficult to write. There's just a few gotchas, opportunities for efficiency and, of course, the patented Philosophy of FileMaker considerat

Duplicating a Portal

Clients are always asking me why the contents of portals do not duplicate along with a record. It makes sense. Portal data looks like it's part of the parent record so it should duplicate just like the local fields, right? After explaining how relationships work, the client still wants the related data to duplicate. The great thing is, the script isn't that difficult to write. There's just a few gotchas, opportunities for efficiency and, of course, the patented Philosophy of FileMaker considerat

Triggers I Can't Live Without

Script triggers often solve problems that otherwise couldn't be overcome. While script triggers are incredibly useful, don't abuse this feature or you may encounter script conflicts. Alternatives to script triggers are auto-enter calculations, manually run scripts and many other FileMaker features. Become familiar with every tool on your belt so you can choose the right feature for the job at hand. Hesitate to use triggers but when they solve the problem better than any other approach, use their

Triggers I Can't Live Without

Script triggers often solve problems that otherwise couldn't be overcome. While script triggers are incredibly useful, don't abuse this feature or you may encounter script conflicts. Alternatives to script triggers are auto-enter calculations, manually run scripts and many other FileMaker features. Become familiar with every tool on your belt so you can choose the right feature for the job at hand. Hesitate to use triggers but when they solve the problem better than any other approach, use their

Point in Time

Just about every database contains at least one date, time and timestamp field. Just think about the housekeeping fields for starters. Every table should contain a date and time when a record was created and modified to track record maintenance. I also add manually entered and scripted date fields to almost every table to track when events occur. It ends up being a lot of date fields! While most of your fields will be text, date fields are more commonly calculated and therefore more important to

Point in Time

Just about every database contains at least one date, time and timestamp field. Just think about the housekeeping fields for starters. Every table should contain a date and time when a record was created and modified to track record maintenance. I also add manually entered and scripted date fields to almost every table to track when events occur. It ends up being a lot of date fields! While most of your fields will be text, date fields are more commonly calculated and therefore more important to

Conditional Subsummaries

A tremendous amount of reporting power has been packed into FileMaker Pro with an incredibly easy-to-use and flexible interface. The power and simplicity behind adding and deleting parts to organize your pages almost makes it too easy to create a sophisticated printed report. However, when a subsummary group crosses a page break, the subsummary part content doesn't repeat itself, requiring you to flip back and forth between the pages. During my five year tenure at Claris technical support, this

Conditional Subsummaries

A tremendous amount of reporting power has been packed into FileMaker Pro with an incredibly easy-to-use and flexible interface. The power and simplicity behind adding and deleting parts to organize your pages almost makes it too easy to create a sophisticated printed report. However, when a subsummary group crosses a page break, the subsummary part content doesn't repeat itself, requiring you to flip back and forth between the pages. During my five year tenure at Claris technical support, this

Calendar Conundrum

Everyone wants a calendar in their FileMaker solution these days. There's tons of web viewer solutions out there for purchase that will integrate well with your FileMaker solution. There's even plug-ins to integrate with iCal or Google Calendar. What I'm going to give you today is a taste of how to build a calendar with just standard FileMaker tools. That means no web viewer or complex acronym web code (HTML, CSS, PHP, JSON, JAVA, etc). Just good ole FileMaker calculations, scripting and relatio

Calendar Conundrum

Everyone wants a calendar in their FileMaker solution these days. There's tons of web viewer solutions out there for purchase that will integrate well with your FileMaker solution. There's even plug-ins to integrate with iCal or Google Calendar. What I'm going to give you today is a taste of how to build a calendar with just standard FileMaker tools. That means no web viewer or complex acronym web code (HTML, CSS, PHP, JSON, JAVA, etc). Just good ole FileMaker calculations, scripting and relatio

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