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FileMaker 2026 Released

FileMaker Hacks

A blog by Kevin Frank in Affiliate Blogs

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Entries in this blog

GetFieldName Revisited

Long time readers of this blog will be familiar with the following scenario — An ExecuteSQL expression is given, e.g., ExecuteSQL ( " SELECT SUM ( net_amount ) FROM cc_transactions WHERE batch_date = ? AND batch_region = ? AND card_type = ? " ; "" ; "" ; $theDate ; $theRegion ; $theCard ) …followed… Continue reading GetFieldName Revisited View the full article

Virtual Portal, part 2

Demo file: virtual-portal-v2.zip (requires FM 18 or later) This is a quick follow up to the Virtual Portal article I posted the other day. As you may recall, the objective was to use virtual list to display disparate entities in a portal… …via an array like this… …which was auto-generated via a Hide Object calculation… Continue reading Virtual Portal, part 2 View the full article

Virtual Portal, part 2

[Note: several hours after posting this article I realized the “Hide Object” calc could be streamlined. Screen shot and demo have been updated to reflect this.] Demo file: virtual-portal-v2b.zip (requires FM 18 or later) This is a quick follow up to the Virtual Portal article I posted the other day. As you may recall, the… Continue reading Virtual Portal, part 2 View the full article

Virtual Portal

Demo file: virtual-portal.zip This is a follow-up to last month’s article on virtual list, and this time we’re going to explore a way to use virtual list in a portal. Imagine you have built a system where a Company can be a parent of a Mill, Refinery, Estate, or another Company. Each of these entities… Continue reading Virtual Portal View the full article

Virtual Portal

Demo file: virtual-portal-v1b.zip This is a follow-up to last month’s article on virtual list, and this time we’re going to explore a way to use virtual list in a portal. Imagine you have built a system where a Company can be a parent of a Mill, Refinery, Estate, or another Company. Each of these entities… Continue reading Virtual Portal View the full article

Virtual List Simplified

Demo file: virtual-list-simplified.zip Note 1: The example in today’s article and demo file 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 will not exactly match those you encounter in the demo. Recently I had the pleasure of discussing virtual… Continue reading Virtual List Simplified View the full article

Virtual List Simplified

Demo file: virtual-list-simplified.zip 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 will not exactly match those you encounter in the demo. Recently I had the pleasure of discussing virtual list with Paul… Continue reading Virtual List Simplified View the full article

Table Of Contents for FileMaker Hacks

As 2019 draws to a close, I am mildly astonished to note that FileMaker Hacks is now nine years old. As promised in my recent conversation with Jeremy Brown, and in response to a number of  reader requests, here, for the first time, is a comprehensive table of contents (as of December 2019). While some… Continue reading Table Of Contents for FileMaker Hacks View the full article

Table Of Contents for FileMaker Hacks

As 2019 draws to a close, I am mildly astonished to note that FileMaker Hacks is now nine years old. As promised in my recent conversation with Jeremy Brown, and in response to a number of  reader requests, here, for the first time, is a comprehensive table of contents. While some of these articles have… Continue reading Table Of Contents for FileMaker Hacks View the full article

2-Column Magic Value Lists, part 2

Disclaimer: the techniques shown in this article are provided on an as-is basis. Use with appropriate caution and at your own risk. Introduction This is a quick follow-up to last month’s article on 2-Column Magic Value Lists, and, to avoid repetition, will assume the reader is familiar with that material. A colleague pointed out that… Continue reading 2-Column Magic Value Lists, part 2 View the full article

2-Column Magic Value Lists, part 2

Disclaimer: the techniques shown in this article are provided on an as-is basis. Use with appropriate caution and at your own risk. Introduction This is a quick follow-up to last month’s article on 2-Column Magic Value Lists, and, to avoid repetition, will assume the reader is familiar with that material. A colleague pointed out that… Continue reading 2-Column Magic Value Lists, part 2 View the full article

2-Column Magic Value Lists

Disclaimer: the techniques shown in this article are provided on an as-is basis. Use with appropriate caution and at your own risk. Acknowledgements: today’s article would not have been written without the inspiration provided by Bruce Robertson, John Ahn (FM 12 ExecuteSQL Unconference Session), Andries Heylen (Magic Value Lists), Marcel Pinyero (How to Extend FileMaker… Continue reading 2-Column Magic Value Lists View the full article

2-Column Magic Value Lists

Disclaimer: the techniques shown in this article are provided on an as-is basis. Use with appropriate caution and at your own risk. Acknowledgements: today’s article would not have been written without the inspiration provided by Bruce Robertson, John Ahn (FM 12 ExecuteSQL Unconference Session), Andries Heylen (Magic Value Lists), Marcelo Piñeyro (How to Extend FileMaker… Continue reading 2-Column Magic Value Lists View the full article

FM18: JSON.InsertArrayElement

Disclaimer: the technique shown in this article is provided on an as-is basis. Use with appropriate caution and at your own risk. Demo file: JSON-Array-Custom-Functions.zip (requires FM 18 or later) Have you ever noticed that FileMaker does not provide a JSON function to insert a new element into an existing array? For example, given this… Continue reading FM18: JSON.InsertArrayElement View the full article

FM18: JSON.UpdateArrayElement

Disclaimer: the technique shown in this article is an attempt to work around an annoyance that can crop up when using FileMaker’s native JSONSetElement function. Use with appropriate caution and at your own risk. Acknowledgement: I owe a debt of gratitude to Paul Jansen for many illuminating JSON-related discussions over the last year or so.… Continue reading FM18: JSON.UpdateArrayElement View the full article

Fixed in 18: List + GetNthRecord Bug

Recently I was working in FM 17 and ran into an unexpected bug. My use case was more complex than this, but the following bare bones demo illustrates the problem. Demo file: List+GetNthRecordBug.zip Given two tables joined via a standard primary-key-to-foreign-key equijoin relationship… This works as expected. You might think you could get rid of… Continue reading Fixed in 18: List + GetNthRecord Bug View the full article

New in FM 18: While, part 2

Today we’re going to dig a little deeper into the new-in-18 While function, and to avoid repetition, will assume readers are familiar with last month’s article on SetRecursion and While. We’ll examine some new examples ranging from basic to advanced, talk about the circumstances under which While can use variables previously declared via Let, and […] View the full article

New in FM 18: SetRecursion and While

Author’s note: Inevitable comparisons will be drawn between the new While function and the venerable CustomList custom function, which I wrote about at length several years ago. Preliminary testing indicates that CustomList is faster under certain circumstances and While is faster under others. In my opinion, both of them belong in your developer tool kit. […] View the full article

Magic Portals

Today we’re going to look at a design pattern I’ve recently been using to accommodate a client requirement: to be able to view and edit a parent, all related children, and all related grandchildren via a single “flattened” interface. Demo file: magic-portals.zip (requires FM 16 or later) Some Background Information Invoices received from vendors are […] View the full article

Bill of Materials

Editor’s note: Geoff Gerhard of Creative Solutions is one of those “quiet” developers who has been helpfully sharing his knowledge in online FileMaker forums for more than 20 years. I personally have benefited enormously from his expertise, and am pleased to feature his first appearance as a guest author here on FileMaker Hacks. Demo file: […] View the full article

Disabling New Window

Today I want to talk about a potential problem lurking in a small percentage of FileMaker solutions, and discuss various options for mitigating it. As you may know, there are three ways to display a new window… Via the New Window script step Via the Go To Related Record script step Manually via Window > […] View the full article

Faux Subsummaries with Variable Height Rows

Recently we’ve looked at two methods to generate a “faux” subsummary to address a shortcoming of FileMaker native subsummaries… namely that in a multipage report you can have orphaned entries at the top of a given page with no indication of what parent entity they belong to. The methods were documented here: Conditional Summary Report […] View the full article

Faux Subsummaries via JSON + Virtual List

Today we’re going to take another look at a challenge we discussed last time (in Conditional Summary Report Header)… namely how to cajole FileMaker into displaying a subsummary, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, at the top of a report page when items in the group begin on an earlier page. Demo file: Faux Subsummaries via […] View the full article

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