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FileMaker Hacks

A blog by Kevin Frank in Affiliate Blogs

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Entries in this blog

January 2025 FM Training Livestream

Here are links to articles, custom functions, etc., I may be referencing during my Wednesday, January 15th FM Training Livestream presentation. JSON and JSON Custom Functions Thinking About JSON, part 1 (intro – reading JSON) Thinking About JSON, part 2 (intro – writing JSON) Thinking About JSON, part 3 (miscellaneous observations) Thinking About JSON, part… Continue reading January 2025 FM Training LivestreamView the full article

JSONQuery Odds and Ends

This is a quick “odds ‘n’ ends” post to share the current iteration of my JSONQuery sandbox file. Some of the examples are new; some are from presentations I gave earlier this year. Most of them illustrate one or more things you can do with this amazing custom function (a few of the examples don’t… Continue reading JSONQuery Odds and EndsView the full article

JSONQuery v2 Conversation with Steve Senft-Herrera, part 2

Note 2: This conversation primarily focuses on new features and improvements in JQ v2. For a more general introduction to JSONQuery see the “Resources” section at the beginning of part 1. Continuation of JQ v2 conversation with Steve Senft-Herrera Kevin Frank: There are a couple little improvements in v2 we haven’t mentioned yet. Is this… Continue reading JSONQuery v2 Conversation with Steve Senft-Herrera, part 2View the full article

JSONQuery v2 Conversation with Steve Senft-Herrera, part 1

Background JSONQuery 2.0 was released last month with a wealth of new features, along with some improvements to existing features as well. Steve and I spoke about it recently, and we’ll get to that in just a moment. But first, for those who may not be familiar with JQ, here’s a bit of background information.… Continue reading JSONQuery v2 Conversation with Steve Senft-Herrera, part 1View the full article

JSONQuery 2.0 Is Here

This is a quick post to say that JSONQuery 2.0 is finally here with many new features, and some improvements to existing features as well. What is JSONQuery? A FileMaker custom function authored by Steve Senft-Herrera that enables you to query JSON. Basic Things JSONQuery Does 1) Query – Allows for finding elements that match… Continue reading JSONQuery 2.0 Is HereView the full article

Fast Summaries to JSON, part 2

This is a quick follow up to last week’s Fast Summaries to JSON and will assume the reader is familiar with that material. Demo Files Fast Summaries to JSON, v5 (requires FM 16 or later) Fast Summaries to JSON, v6 (requires FM 16 or later) After last week’s article appeared, a reader contacted me wondering… Continue reading Fast Summaries to JSON, part 2View the full article

Fast Summaries to JSON

The other day some colleagues were discussing a need to produce a JSON representation of the data in a summary report. Long time readers of this blog will know that I am obsessed with fond of the Fast Summary technique, and it seemed like it might be a good fit for this challenge, so I… Continue reading Fast Summaries to JSONView the full article

OnWindowTransaction JSON

Demo file:  on-window-transaction-json.zip Credentials:  admin / admin Minimum version:  20.2  [for both client and server] Note: This demo file is optimized for Perform Script on Server (PSOS), and is intended to be hosted on FileMaker Server or FileMaker Cloud. Introduction Recently a colleague mentioned that they were running into a performance issue trying to load… Continue reading OnWindowTransaction JSONView the full article

FastRange Custom Function

Recently I needed to produce a large range of consecutive numbers. FileMaker doesn’t provide a built-in function to accomplish this but it’s easy enough to accomplish, for example, using the While function or via a recursive custom function. In my case, I decided to go a different route based on a tip I’d seen someone… Continue reading FastRange Custom FunctionView the full article

Replace + GetNthRecord to Fill Down

This afternoon I pulled this data into FileMaker from a spreadsheet, and needed to “fill down” the region names in f2. Of course I could have filled the region down in Excel prior to importing, but here I was already in FM. At first I was going to use a looping script, but then it… Continue reading Replace + GetNthRecord to Fill DownView the full article

January 2024 FM-DiSC Presentation

Here are resources mentioned during my January 12th FM-DiSC presentation. Layout Calculations Demo file: [coming soon] FileMaker Hacks: Layout Calculations in FileMaker 20.2 FileMaker Hacks: Layout Calculations in FileMaker 20.3 Beezwax: Dynamic FileMaker UI Using Layout Calculations Generating Spreadsheets with LibXL FileMaker Hacks: Generating Spreadsheets with LibXL Goya FMXL: https://goya.com.au/excel-plugin-for-filemaker Monkeybread XL: https://www.mbsplugins.eu/component_XL.shtml LibXL doc

Layout Calculations in FileMaker 20.3

This is a follow up to last month’s article, Layout Calculations in FileMaker 20.2, and will assume the reader is familiar with that material. Today we will be taking a look at some changes to Layout Calculation behavior in the newly-released FileMaker 20.3. #1. Calculation Result Type Can Now Be Specified We can now specify… Continue reading Layout Calculations in FileMaker 20.3View the full article

Layout Calculations in FileMaker 20.2

The recent release of FileMaker 20.2 introduces a feature that developers have long been asking for: the ability to define calculations at the layout level without resorting to workarounds (such as those we saw in Button Bar Segment Fun, part 1 and part 2.) You can read the official word(s) from Claris here… Inserting layout… Continue reading Layout Calculations in FileMaker 20.2View the full article

JSON Currency Exchange Rates, v3

Demo file: json-currencyapi.com.fmp12.zip This is a quick follow up to a pair of articles I published earlier this year, and will assume the reader is familiar with that material. JSON Currency Exchange Rates revisited JSON – Force Standard Notation Having first blogged about this back in 2020, I had hoped to be finished with this… Continue reading JSON Currency Exchange Rates, v3View the full article

Generating Spreadsheets with LibXL

Introduction From time to time FileMaker developers are tasked with generating Excel spreadsheet output. There are a variety of ways to accomplish this, in some cases via native FileMaker commands (Export, Save/Send Records), and in other cases using various workaround methods — some of which have appeared on this site in years past. Today we’re… Continue reading Generating Spreadsheets with LibXLView the full article

JSON Custom Functions for FM, part 3

This article is part of a series. See also… •  JSON Custom Functions for FM 19.5, part 1 •  JSON Custom Functions for FM 19.5, part 2 Demo file: json-custom-functions-part-3.zip Note: some of these CFs make use of JSONGetElementType so require FM 19.5 or later. Disclaimer: use at your own risk, these CFs may contain bugs,… Continue reading JSON Custom Functions for FM, part 3View the full article

A Fresh Approach to Deduplication

Editor’s Note: Today I’m pleased to present a guest article by Jon Rosen featuring a creative and performant approach to removing duplicate records. Recently, I had a situation where I had a found set of more than 500,000 records, but over ⅔ of them were duplicates. To remove the dupes, I initially went with the… Continue reading A Fresh Approach to DeduplicationView the full article

JSON – Force Standard Notation

Introduction This is a quick follow up to an issue I mentioned last month where FileMaker’s JSON functions can transform a number into scientific notation when you might prefer to have that number displayed as standard notation. Demo file: json-force-standard-notation.zip Note: demo file uses JSONGetElementType so requires FM 19.5 or later. The overall workings of… Continue reading JSON – Force Standard NotationView the full article

JSON Currency Exchange Rates revisited

Demo file: json-rates-via-api-exchangerate-host.zip Today we’re going to take a fresh look at pulling currency exchange rates into FileMaker, and this article is directly based on its predecessor. Why the re-visitation? Two reasons actually: The “free” endpoints I relied on back in 2020 (and in 2021 when I revised the original demo) have been monetized, and… Continue reading JSON Currency Exchange Rates revisitedView the full article

Claris Studio (part 4): Forms the easy way!

This article covers more Views, a little errata from past articles (Parts 1, 2, & 3), and where we go from here. This is the final article of the planned four. But if something really inspiring materializes, there may be followup article(s). Some famous “trilogies” (films and books, especially) have gotten additional content, so why… Continue reading Claris Studio (part 4): Forms the easy way!View the full article

A Summary Field Bug and Workaround

Introduction Recently a client asked me to implement a virtual list reporting framework similar to the one I wrote about a few years ago in Virtual List Simplified. I added the framework to the client’s hosted file, and things went smoothly until I ran a report similar to the one shown below… and observed that… Continue reading A Summary Field Bug and WorkaroundView the full article

Claris Studio (part 3) – Spreadsheet: Details, please!

About the author: Beverly Voth has been in the Claris FileMaker community many years. In addition to FileMaker Pro and its integrated products, she is a Full Stack Web developer & SQL database administrator. The only recipient of the FileMaker Excellence Award for Outstanding Contribution to the FileMaker Web Publishing Community (DevCon 2003), she’s been… Continue reading Claris Studio (part 3) – Spreadsheet: Details, please!View the full article

Claris Studio (part 2) – Integration with Claris Pro

About the author: Beverly Voth has been in the Claris FileMaker community many years. In addition to FileMaker Pro & its integrated products, she is a Full Stack Web developer & SQL database administrator. The only recipient of the FileMaker Excellence Award for Outstanding Contribution to the FileMaker Web Publishing Community (DevCon 2003), she’s been… Continue reading Claris Studio (part 2) – Integration with Claris ProView the full article

Claris Studio, Tell Me More!

About the author: Beverly Voth has been in the Claris FileMaker community many years. In addition to FileMaker Pro & its integrated products, she is a Full Stack Web developer & SQL database administrator. The only recipient of the FileMaker Excellence Award for Outstanding Contribution to the FileMaker Web Publishing Community (DevCon 2003), she’s been… Continue reading Claris Studio, Tell Me More!View the full article

JSON Custom Functions for FM 19.5, part 2

Demo Files JSON Custom Functions for FM 19.5, part 2 JSON Insert and Update for FM 19.5 Note: some of the CFs have been revised and/or renamed since part 1, so if you plan to use these CFs, make sure to download today’s “part 2” file. Introduction Welcome back to JSON Custom Functions for FM… Continue reading JSON Custom Functions for FM 19.5, part 2View the full article

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