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FileMaker Hacks

A blog by Kevin Frank in Affiliate Blogs

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Entries in this blog

JSON Nuances and Gotchas

This is a resource page for my September 3rd FM Training TV expanded “encore presentation” of a session I did last month at the [Full Access] conference. Session Description JSON in FileMaker seems pretty straight-forward… until it isn’t. We will explore a number of traps lurking for the unwary and how to avoid them, a… Continue reading JSON Nuances and GotchasView the full article

August 2026 Full Access Resource Page

Here are links to articles and resources related to my August 8 [Full Access] presentation, “JSON Nuances and Gotchas”. Session Description JSON in FileMaker seems pretty straight-forward… until it isn’t. We will explore a number of traps lurking for the unwary and how to avoid them, a couple tricks to dramatically speed up JSON creation,… Continue reading August 2026 Full Access Resource PageView the full article

More Fun With Replace

Demo File:  all-countries-by-region.zip Introduction [Note: In this article I use the term “Replace” as shorthand for Replace Field Contents.] This is a follow-up to a technique we looked at a couple years ago in Replace + GetNthRecord to Fill Down. At the time I had just imported some data from Excel and now that the… Continue reading More Fun With ReplaceView the full article

FM 26: Virtual List with Window UUIDs

[Some of the text in today’s article has been recycled from earlier articles.] Demo file: virtual-list-with-window-uuids.zip (requires FM 26 or later) Introduction As the whole world — or the whole FileMaker world at any rate — knows by now, last week saw the release of FileMaker 2026 with a number of compelling new features, as well… Continue reading FM 26: Virtual List with Window UUIDsView the full article

FM Clipboard Tool and FMXML

Demo file: 2026-may-multipurpose-demo.zip (in addition to the above) [If you are in a hurry, or prefer learning from videos to reading, I covered this material using a pre-release version of FM Clipboard Tool a few months ago on the FM Training TV Livestream. Here’s a link to the relevant segment — https://youtu.be/M9WWT_WE4qE?si=h6ODtftNk-a2Vlxe&t=2501] For a long… Continue reading FM Clipboard Tool and FMXMLView the full article

Traversing Arrays with Mod() and Floor()

Demo file: traverse-arrays-with-mod-and-floor.zip Introduction Today I want to talk about a technique that can come in handy if you need to walk a block of contiguous cells within a two-dimensional (2-D) JSON array for either reading and/or writing purposes. [ [ n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n,… Continue reading Traversing Arrays with Mod() and Floor()View the full article

April 2026 FM Training Livestream

Here are links to articles and resources related to my April 16 FM Training Livestream presentation: Best of FileMaker Hacks Tips, Tricks and Traps, part 5 YouTube link coming soon Demo Files coming soon FMH Articles JSON Object Destringification Magic Numeric Value List Fast Summaries to JSON When 2 is Greater than 10 FM 16:… Continue reading April 2026 FM Training LivestreamView the full article

March 2026 FM Training Livestream

Here are links to articles and resources related to today’s FM Training Livestream presentation: Best of FileMaker Hacks Tips, Tricks and Traps, part 4 YouTube link coming soon Demo Files coming soon FMH Articles JSON Object Destringification Magic Numeric Value List Fast Summaries to JSON When 2 is Greater than 10 FM 16: SortValues and… Continue reading March 2026 FM Training LivestreamView the full article

March 2026 DIGFM Presentation

Here are links to articles and resources related to my upcoming March 12 DIGFM presentation on Tips, Tricks and Traps. YouTube link coming soon Demo Files coming soon FMH Articles JSON Object Destringification FM 22: Pseudo Indexing Virtual List Even More Simplified FileMaker Pro 22: Initial Impressions JSON Optimization in FM 21 MBS plug-in check… Continue reading March 2026 DIGFM PresentationView the full article

JSON Object Destringification

Today we’re going to look at an issue that can crop up in FileMaker JSON processing, and explore some approaches one might take to address that issue. Typically this issue arises with preexisting JSON coming from an API, including, but not limited to, the FM Data and OData APIs. Demo Files DAPI-destringify-JSON-500.zip DAPI-destringify-JSON-10K.zip Note: minimum… Continue reading JSON Object DestringificationView the full article

November 2025 FM Training Livestream

Here are links to articles and resources related to today’s FM Training Livestream presentation: Best of FileMaker Hacks Tips, Tricks and Traps, part 3. YouTube link Best of FileMaker Hacks Tips, Tricks and Traps (part 3)   [coming soon] Demo Files 2025-Nov-Livestream.zip  [coming soon] FMH Articles SortValues and UniqueValues FM 22: Pseudo Indexing Sometimes Less Is… Continue reading November 2025 FM Training LivestreamView the full article

FM 22: Pseudo Indexing

Demo file: FM-22-Pseudo-Indexing.zip (works w/ FM 16 or later) When I wrote about Sort Values and Unique Values back in 2017, I made passing reference to an article I’d written a couple years previously on the topic of “pseudo indexing“, i.e., displaying a list of unique values for a specific field for a found set, rather… Continue reading FM 22: Pseudo IndexingView the full article

October 2025 Full Access Resource Page

Here are links to articles and resources related to presentations/discussions I will be participating in at the [Full Access] un-conference Oct 20-23, 2025. Virtual List Demo Files Coming soon Virtual List Articles Virtual List Simplified (for FM 21 and earlier) Virtual List Even More Simplified (for FM 22 and later) Long Documents in FileMaker 11… Continue reading October 2025 Full Access Resource PageView the full article

Virtual List Even More Simplified

Demo file: virtual-list-even-more-simplified.zip  [expects, but does not require, FM 22 or later] Note 1: The example in today’s article/demo is intentionally very basic. Note 2: The demo is self-populating to keep the data current, so the values you see in the screen shots may not exactly match those you encounter in the demo. As long… Continue reading Virtual List Even More SimplifiedView the full article

October 2025 FM Training Livestream

Here are links to articles and resources related to today’s FM Training Livestream presentation: Best of FileMaker Hacks Tips, Tricks and Traps, part 2 YouTube link coming soon Demo Files coming soon FMH Articles SortValues and UniqueValues ValuePosition: The Function FileMaker Forgot Sometimes Less Is More Reliable SetRecursion and While It’s Sorta a Value List… Continue reading October 2025 FM Training LivestreamView the full article

September 2025 FM Training Livestream

Here are links to articles and resources related to today’s FM Training Livestream presentation: Best of FileMaker Hacks Tips, Tricks and Traps YouTube link coming soon Demo Files coming soon Articles Replace + GetNthRecord to Fill Down Sometimes Less Is More Reliable When 2 is greater than 10 Layout Calculations in FileMaker 20.2 Layout Calculations… Continue reading September 2025 FM Training LivestreamView the full article

Kentuckiana FM Developers JSON Presentation

Here are links to articles and resources related to today’s KYFMP presentation on JSON custom functions and JSONQuery. YouTube links Jan 2025 FM Training Livestream: JSON Custom Functions Aug 2025 Kentuckiana FM Dev Group: JSON CFs and JSONQuery (coming soon) Demo Files coming soon JSON and JSON Custom Functions Thinking About JSON, part 1 (intro… Continue reading Kentuckiana FM Developers JSON PresentationView the full article

Another Tip for MBS “Check Variable Names”

This is a quick follow up to A Tip for MBS “Check Variable Names” from earlier this year. The other day I noticed variable name checking wasn’t working in one of my scripts. The culprit turned out to be MBS’s 500 line default step limit for variable name checking. According to the documentation, the limit… Continue reading Another Tip for MBS “Check Variable Names”View the full article

Boxed Summary Groups for Reports

Demo file:  boxed-summary-groups.zip Recently I needed to produce a summary report with variable height rows and each group enclosed in a rectangular box. To make the challenge more interesting, there were multiple fields in the body part, and it was not known in advance which would be tallest. At any rate, the approach I decided… Continue reading Boxed Summary Groups for ReportsView the full article

FileMaker Pro 22: Initial Impressions

Demo Files Minimum version to open the file shown in parentheses. GetRecordIDsFromFoundSet.zip  (FM 22) JSONParse Sandbox  (FM 22) JSON Array Virtual List Reporting  (FM 18) Josh Halpern’s Virtual List JSON Bench  (FM 21) Introduction It’s been a couple weeks since the release of FileMaker Pro 22 (a.k.a. 2025), and now that the dust is starting to… Continue reading FileMaker Pro 22: Initial ImpressionsView the full article

Magic Numeric Value List

The Challenge Demo Files magic numeric value list v1.zip magic numeric value list v2.zip Recently a challenge came up to use a dynamically-generated ascending sequence of numbers as the basis for a value list, and in a multi-user-safe manner. By dynamically-generated, I mean that the list of numbers would be calculated at runtime and would… Continue reading Magic Numeric Value ListView the full article

Closing Windows During Transactions

This article documents behavior in the current shipping version of the product, i.e., FM 21 (a.k.a. FM 2024). Demo file: transaction_test.zip (requires FM 21 or later) This is a follow-up to last month’s article on Modal Transactional Card Windows to address a very specific question. Given that transactions are scoped to a window, does a… Continue reading Closing Windows During TransactionsView the full article

Modal Transactional Card Window

Demo file: transactional-card-window.zip (requires FM 20 or newer) Resources Card windows — Windowing in FM 16: First Impressions Transactions — A Practical Guide to Transactions in FileMaker (ClickWorks) Introduction Recently a colleague and I were discussing ways one might go about having a card window be both modal and transactional. By default card windows are… Continue reading Modal Transactional Card WindowView the full article

JSON Optimization in FM 21

Introduction If you work with large JSON structures in FileMaker, you may be aware that the current shipping version of the product (FileMaker Pro 21, a.k.a. FileMaker Pro 2024) has a single-element JSON cache, which is reset whenever JSONSetElement or JSONGetElement is called, and that you can boost performance by taking this into account. Six… Continue reading JSON Optimization in FM 21View the full article

A Tip for MBS “Check Variable Names”

If you’re on MacOS, and use the Monkeybread (a.k.a. MBS) plug-in with “check variable names” enabled, you quickly come to appreciate how useful this feature, also known as linting, can be. For example I recently helped another developer track down a script problem that turned out to be a slight misspelling of a variable name,… Continue reading A Tip for MBS “Check Variable Names”View the full article

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