Check out this great article here!

Also included is a detailed example file to get you started.

Check it out here, and please leave a comment if you like it!

Dynamically sorting portals has always been a struggle for FileMaker Developers — in this new #FileMaker Weetbicks article we introduce a method using Value Lists which avoids unstored calculations and is compatible with FileMaker Server's ability to sort records. We also go in depth on the journey to come up with this approach and along the way you may just learn a bit about Value Lists and how they can be sorted, along with some of the challenges involved.

Read the Full Article & Download the Example File Here!

As always an example file is included, thank you for reading.

Weetbicks

In this article we're talking about record duplication - specifically multiple records including both parent and related child records. We discuss various different approaches and spell out the pros and cons of each.  We hope this article proves educational and gives you some ideas around ways to duplicate data.

As always we have built a thorough example file to inform and showcase the different approaches.

Click Here to Read the Full Article & Example File

Thank you for reading and your support!

Daniel

This article is about utilising a technique to allow for instant script execution when an object is hovered over. We use this technique for building various dynamic navigation controls that respond to the users interaction without them clicking the mouse.

We also go into a bit of background history on this technique as well as show some alternative uses.

As always, an extensive example file has been included.

Click here to check it out.

Thanks for reading.

I have just published a new article at FileMaker Weetbicks.  This is part 2 of our navigation series and in this article we talk about solution navigation. We extend upon the navigation framework from part 1 and leverage it to build a contextless button bar navigation control that can be used for solution wide navigation, or for script execution.

You can check the article out here, along with a detailed example file.

Thanks for reading!

Daniel

I've just published a new article at FileMaker Weetbicks entitled "Navigate the DF Way - Layout Sections". This is the first in a series of articles dealing with the topic of navigation. In this first article we talk about navigation within a single layout. Example file included as always.

https://www.teamdf.com/blogs/navigate-the-df-way-layout-sections/

Thank you for reading,

Daniel

In this article we talk about an age old situation in FileMaker where two Auto-Enter calculations reference one another. We explain the order of execution and why this never leads to a desired result. We then show a cool solution to this issue such that you can build circular references that work the way you want them to.

Example file included as always.

Check out the article here!

Thanks for reading!

Daniel

I have just posted a new article at FileMaker Weetbicks entitled "A Clever CSS Chat Display". I hope you like it.

In this article I present a very easy to implement CSS-based chat 0 which is perfect for implementing a messaging system in your solution.  The chat display is presented as a standard instant messaging format with a two-sided conversation. It is also able to handle formatting, and messages of any size.

As always an example file is included which should contain everything you need to get started.

You can check out the article here

Thank you for reading

Daniel.

I have just posted a new article & example file entitled "A Cooler Color Picker". In this article we present a javascript based color picker utility which can be reused multiple times on a layout, or across multiple different windows at once. We present it in both popover & card window varieties (so it can be usable within a portal). We also show a quick and simple way to generate a color swatch from the chosen hexadecimal code, as well as some other interesting tidbits in the article.

https://www.teamdf.com/blogs/a-cooler-color-picker/

We hope you enjoy, and be sure to leave a comment if you have feedback or questions!

Cheers

Daniel

The final technique in our best of 2021 series sees a nice way to silently commit idle users who have left a record in an uncommitted state. This is great for situations where a user locking a record has the potential to impact other users (or developers).

You can check out the article & example file technique here

Thank you for reading and supporting FileMaker Weetbicks in 2021 and we look forward to bringing you more content in 2022 - Merry Christmas!

Number four in our best of 2021 series is a wee bit of code I have utilised many times throughout the year to run a script server-side using Perform Script on Server. This has proven a real time saver being able to write a script and then add one line of code to the top of it to force it to run on server - ideal for those times where you need to run a script quickly

You can check out the article along with an example file with the code here

Cheers!

Daniel

Part 3 in our Best of 2021 series is a little utility I built to help developers interrogate pressed keystrokes and modifier keys - very useful when writing scripts where modifiers or keystrokes are used.

You can check it out below. Stay tuned for the final 2 articles coming in the next few weeks.

Check out the article here

Regards,

Daniel

Number 2 in our Best of 2021 series is how to easily grab a record in JSON notation, with just a single script. A neat little tool which can aid in API integration as well as proving useful as a tool when trying to debug end user issues. You can check out the article below along with an example file that illustrates the technique so you can use it in your own solutions.

https://www.teamdf.com/blogs/get-record-as-json

Thanks for reading

Daniel

2021 is nearly over and so I thought I would take look back and share some of my favourite techniques and code bits I wrote in 2021. I've picked my favourite 5, starting with Multi-Row Portal Selection. This technique is all about intuitive OS style row selection utilising modifier keys - example file included as always.

Check out the best of here!

Stay tuned over the coming weeks for more of my favourites.

Weetbicks

In this article we take a look at pivot tables, their use, and their integration into FileMaker through using the PivotTable.js library.  We look at others who have pioneered this integration before, and then extend on those by building in saving and loading of presets. This opens up a world of possibility for your end users who can now build and save their own pivot table configurations.

Click to read the full article along with a lovingly crafted example file you can download.

Thanks for reading!

Daniel

In this article we showcase a range of Logo and Profile picture retrieval APIs and how they can be integrated into your FileMaker solutions to automatically download images for your contacts.

We also show how background content can be removed from these images, again through using background removal APIs.

Finally, we talk a bit about why using these could benefit your solution and when all else fails what other options are available for adding some visual presentation for contact information.

You can read the full article here at FileMaker Weetbicks!

We also show how to render solid fills without the use of a web viewer (for portal display) and how to determine optimal color for text placed on top of your background fills.

As always, an example file has been lovingly crafted to help you explore these techniques

You can read the article and download the example file here.

Thank you for reading!

elemental_log is our take on audit logging. Built to be super fast to log changes and even faster to integrate into your own solutions. In just a few minutes you can add a full JSON based audit trail to your solution that can track changes to whatever fields you want.  We've also included an intuitive configuration tool for choosing what to log - no hard coding required.

Other Features include:

• Fast - We've put a LOT of effort into making this as fast and scalable as we can, and we think the results are pretty awesome.

• Easy - A lot of care has been put into building our simple and intuitive integration process.  You can get up and running in just minutes.

• JSON based - We love JSON and have used this as the basis of our logging framework.

• Preparation is a breeze - we've built tools to help you prepare for logging, just click and you're done.

• JSON to FileMaker - JSON is the starting point, but the real power is in our Populate tool to transform this into FileMaker records in an audit log.

• Full Audit log viewer - We've included an easy to use audit log viewer to allow developers to find those changes they need.

• Contextual viewer - this is cool! You can run this viewer from anywhere in your own solution to see all changes related to the records (and related records) on your layout - with no other work required!

• Fully documented and supported

We're so happy with this and hope you will be too.

You can download a trial today at http://www.elemental-fm.com . This lets you see it in action to determine if it is right for you.

Check out the full article here!

Thanks!

You can read the full article here

To accompany the release of Elemental I've written an article at FileMaker Weetbicks all about it, it's features, and what extra goodies you might find lurking in the solution.

You can check out the article here: