Editor’s note: Today we have a guest article written by John Weinshel, whose knowledge of SQL in general, and FileMaker+SQL in particular, runs deep. John’s contributions in various online forums are always worth reading, and it’s a privilege to present his thoughts on this topic here. The new ExecuteSQL() function in Filemaker 12 does not [...]
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First off, a bit of housekeeping: we now have bright, shiny Print and PDF buttons at the top right of every article. They work like a charm, and I appreciate the suggestions from several of you that motivated me to install them. Well, we’ve reached part 4 in this series that has been going on [...]
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Welcome to the third installment in this series. We’ve been exploring various issues and behaviors in connection with 2-column value lists (VL’s), and today we’re going to look at, and propose a work around for, an issue with filtered value lists in Find mode. All of today’s demo files feature a basic expense submission system, [...]
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In part 1 we explored a particular type of value list: the field-based two-column variety, based on all values, and set to show values from the second column only… …and today’s article assumes familiarity with that material. This time around we’re going to look at some challenges and issues that can arise when using filtered [...]
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Beverly Voth has produced a PDF version of The Missing FM 12 ExecuteSQL Reference with some additional material not available in her original posting from October 19th. And the SQL4_fmdev2.fmp12 demo file has been updated with new queries. Thank you Beverly for this major contribution to the FileMaker community.
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There seem to be many questions about the usage of SQL (Structured Query Language) with the ExecuteSQL function in FileMaker 12. This tutorial attempts to explain some of the SQL terms, if you are new to writing SQL statements. Since there are already many examples of how to write the ExecuteSQL queries, links to these [...]
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Last week in part 1 we looked at four “outer join” reporting approaches. Two of them involved ExecuteSQL, and I ended that section with the plea: Of course it’s possible that you, dear reader, know some FileMaker SQL voodoo to speed things up, and would be willing to share? Well Dr. Osamu Noda of Japan [...]
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Recently I had an on-screen reporting challenge, and decided to try several different approaches to see which would be fastest. Starting with two tables: one containing 20 Employees, and the other containing 2,000 Sales Data records for the current year… …display daily sales totals per employee in a seven-day grid, like so: Of course, as [...]
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Have you ever wanted to export a single field and maintain all the characters in that field? This article explores the possibility with XML Export and the use of a simple XSLT. But first we’ll explain the good, the bad and the ugly of some different standard ways to export TEXT out of FileMaker. Using [...]
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The question on one or more of the FileMaker forums was asked and answered. Q: How do you get the Count() of the related records in a filtered portal? A: (paraphrased) duplicate the filtered portal and make it one row in height. Place the related summary field, “Count of…”, in the single row filtered portal. [...]
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In July and August we explored several esoteric value list techniques. This time around, and over the next few postings, we’re going to step back from the cutting edge, identify some common value list challenges, and propose some solutions to those challenges. A few thoughts before we begin: Some of the material in this series [...]
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Recently a question came up on one of the lists asking about intermediate-to-advanced FileMaker Blogs. Here are some I’m aware of, and I’m sure I’ve missed some good ones, so I apologize in advance for any inadvertent omissions. Cimbura – http://cimbura.com/tech/blog DB Services – http://www.dbservices.com/articles FileMaker ’n’ the Web: Lessons Learned – http://blog.jsfmp.com FileMaker Weetbicks [...]
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Editor’s note: Today it’s my pleasure to present a guest article written by Beverly Voth. Like many other developers, I have enjoyed and benefitted from her ongoing contributions to the FileMaker community. I do a lot of text manipulation for EDI (Electronic data interchange – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_data_interchange) and plain text exports with fixed-width field data. Some [...]
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As promised last time, today we’re going to look at a technique from Dr. Osamu Noda, which uses FM 12′s ExecuteSQL to create what appears to be a value list when in fact there are no value lists defined at all. This technique, like some of the others we’ve seen recently, is decidedly esoteric, but [...]
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One of the things I love about FileMaker is how many different ways there are to skin the proverbial cat. Following our recent look at “Magic Value Lists“, I received thought-provoking FileMaker 12 demos from John Ahn and Dr. Osamu Noda. I’m going to save Dr. Noda’s files for next time, but today we have [...]
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Folks, we have a superb demo today (MagicValueList), which comes courtesy of Andries Heylen of BH&A… But first a bit of background. Prior to July 18, 2012, if anyone had told me you could base a value list on an unstored field, my response would have something along the lines of… What app are you [...]
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Yesterday I had the pleasure of co-presenting a DevCon “Unconference” session with John Ahn on the topic of ExecuteSQL. I wasn’t sure if there would be much interest in this somewhat geeky subject, but the room was packed, and the audience ran the gamut from SQL newbies to SQL power users. We started out with a [...]
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The other day I had a question about some nuance involving script triggers. The details of that particular question aren’t important, but I recalled that when script triggers were first introduced, Wim Decorte had produced a detailed, color-coded reference. I wondered if he had updated it for FM 12, and it turns out that he [...]
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In October 2011 I posted a simple backup script that has made my development life easier, but of course that version was for .fp7 files only (the release of FM 12 being six months in the future), and when I began converting files to FileMaker 12, I realized that the backup script was not intelligently [...]
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One thing I love about this blog is how much I learn from your comments. Having said at the end of part 1 that I couldn’t think of any serious use for a DVL on a check box set, Michael Rocharde kindly provided this example file (Conditionals), which I am sharing with his permission. This [...]
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A few months ago I mentioned “dwindling value lists” in passing, and said I would do a proper article on them at some point in the future. Well, then FM 12 was released and I went on an ExecuteSQL binge, so I’m just now getting around to honoring my promise. Dwindling Value Lists (DVLs) are [...]
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In part 1, I listed six scenarios that could potentially cause ExecuteSQL code to break: …and managed to get through the first five before running out of steam. This time, we’re going to look at #6 on the list, as well as some other observations, and I invite you to download and follow along in [...]
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[Note: Some of the material in this article, and in today's demo file ExecuteSQL Sandbox, previously appeared in my March 2011 article, Custom Functions for Internal SQL.] The other day a colleague remarked, “You know, it’s going to be interesting to see if you SQL guys are still so excited about ExecuteSQL when something gets [...]
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This is a quick follow-up to part 1, with a couple more observations about dynamic parameters. a) I can’t believe I forgot to mention this the other day: A major ExecuteSQL headache that dynamic parameters can alleviate is the dreaded “embedded apostrophe” problem. In case you aren’t familiar with it, if your text string has an [...]
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I have a confession: when I first read about dynamic parameters in the Help entry for ExecuteSQL, my initial reaction was, “Why do they have to make it so darn complicated?” I have another confession: I am now singing a very different tune indeed. I’ll get to the reason for this in a minute, but [...]
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