Welcome to our community, full of great ideas on developing your FileMaker solutions effectively,
for peer-to-peer support of the FileMaker Platform and related products and services.
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
The FileMaker Let function is your tool to make a calculation readable, well formatted and easy to debug. Let us discuss how it can be used.
The post Like a Boss: Let us Discuss the FileMaker Let Function appeared first on Geist Interactive.
View the full article
[ Edit: 3/16/2016 - With the help of some other people, we have been able to recover, or recreate some of the original images from original thread. ]
Security is always a big topic when it involves data, or people, or possessions. Recently, over on the FileMaker Community, there was a very beneficial discussion regarding security. Unfortunately, that discussion was the victim of a necessary action...and was deleted. It was deleted, because the discussion was tied to a video that, as was det
Hi all,
Today I'm happy to announce the release of Elemental for FileMaker. This is a free fully unlocked solution containing some cool user interface and design stuff that I hope you find useful and can incorporate into your own solutions.
You can grab a copy now at https://www.elemental-fm.com
In Elementals first version you'll find the following:
Avatars
Over 20 API integrations with avatar generators. These are uniquely generated based on a name y
The FileMaker Script Debugger is powerful. Its features are often overlooked. In this post we examine the buttons that control stepping through a script.
The post Like a Boss: Using the Script Debugger to its Full Potential appeared first on Geist Interactive.
View the full article
Sometimes you need to add a field to an existing database that should have values for all the already existing records in the table.
Say you’ve added a new field on an existing database.
It’s not a calc field, but will have an auto-entered calculation field that will always be filled out.
For example, in the table People you add a field called “Full Name”. It’s a combination of First Name and Last Name fields which are in the same table. = First Name & “ “ & Last Name. You want users
Sometimes you need to add a field to an existing database that should have values for all the already existing records in the table.
Say you’ve added a new field on an existing database.
It’s not a calc field, but will have an auto-entered calculation field that will always be filled out.
For example, in the table People you add a field called “Full Name”. It’s a combination of First Name and Last Name fields which are in the same table.
= First Name & “ “ & Last Name.
You want user
Sometimes you need to add a field to an existing database that should have values for all the already existing records in the table.
Say you’ve added a new field on an existing database.
It’s not a calc field, but will have an auto-entered calculation field that will always be filled out.
For example, in the table People you add a field called “Full Name”. It’s a combination of First Name and Last Name fields which are in the same table.
= First Name & “ “ & Last Name.
You want user
In applications such as Mail, you may notice that window names can be dynamic, dependent upon the contents of a field. In the case of Mail, the subject dictates the window name. In this article I'll demonstrate a way this can be replicated for FileMaker, and more importantly, how these dynamic windows can easily be selected again once created…
Read the Full Article Here…
If you have spent any time developing in FileMaker, or programming in almost any language, you will be familiar with the concept of a loop. When scripting your loops you probably have a favorite method that you use. This article presents and compares a number of looping techniques that can be used in FileMaker in an attempt to locate the fastest method…
Read the Full Article Here…
Welcome to the first posting to my new FileMaker Security blog. From time to time, I’ll be discussing issues of significance and importance related to FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Server security. In all these discussions I will keep foremost the concept that security is supposed to be focused on the preservation of the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA) of digital assets, and sometime of physical ones.
This first posting will focus on issues related to cloud computing secu
One of the shortcomings of FileMaker is its inability achieve easy cross-tabular reports and data entry in a normalized structure. There are various techniques to replicate cross-tabular interfaces, but they often involve many relationships for either the columns/rows, or are for display only. The goal of this article is to present a lightweight method for cross-tabular data entry using as few relationships & fields as possible.
Read the Full Article Here…
Pretty much everything in FileMaker comes with some form of comment box to let you add more information - such as fields, menus, custom functions, calculations, scripts, and the graph. However the one area lacking in a comment box is value lists, unless that is, you think a little outside of the box…
Read the Full Article Here…
When FileMaker 11 was released, one of the lesser documented changes in behavior concerned the defining of menu names when dealing with Custom Menus. When any menu element has an empty name, an interesting thing happens…
Read the Full Article Here…
All too often, the Refresh Window script step is used with the 'Flush Cached Join Results' option checked. Sometimes this is through lack of understanding, but other times it is required to refresh those pesky relationships which have trouble re-evaluating. This article explains why Flush Cache can be detrimental on performance, and offers an alternative and more efficient method for refreshing relationships…
Read the Full Article Here…
There are many ways in which users can select records, so that each user can keep their own unique selection. This particular method uses a portal showing related records as a selection tool. The main technique involves using a value list & checkbox to easily achieve selection with no scripting required…
Read the Full Article Here…
Recently I was working on building a large layout which is used for both printing and data-entry. One of the requirements was I needed to show a lot of "private" information that the data-entry person needed to see, but was not to be printed. The issue was solved using a very cool property of sub-summary parts…
Read the Full Article Here…
or even use an old one… just HAVE a plan, and STICK to it. A few thoughts for the next time we make a brand new database: We should set some strict naming and formatting conventions so that all the names used for tables, field, layouts and scripts use the same rules, allowing us to construct references based on variables and knowledge of our naming conventions. I suppose there still remains the problem of what happens if we change some names… but maybe we could use one login to set up names of s
or even use an old one… just HAVE a plan, and STICK to it.
A few thoughts for the next time we make a brand new database:
We should set some strict naming and formatting conventions so that all the names used for tables, field, layouts and scripts use the same rules, allowing us to construct references based on variables and knowledge of our naming conventions. I suppose there still remains the problem of what happens if we change some names… but maybe we could use one login to set up names of
Using Popup windows is common FileMaker technique for showing more information, managing dialogs, and running wizards to name a few. However, all to often little care is given to the aesthetics of creating and positioning a popup, leading to an unpolished and half-finished feel. This article gives some pointers on how you can create popups that are clean, efficient, and correctly positioned…
Read the Full Article Here…
This article demonstrates how you can filter a relationship to one table, by using information located in a related table. The example I will be using is filtering a relationship to a Customer table, but by searching on a customers related Contacts, which are in an entirely different table…
Read the Full Article Here…
You may be familiar with the Sort Records dialog in FileMaker which allows you to display records sorted by one or more fields. What you may be less familiar with is the ability to more explicitly define a sort order with the assistance of a value list. This article gives an introduction to this often overlooked feature, and provides a few examples along the way…
Read the Full Article Here…
The first in a series on the subject. This article presents a very simple and easy to setup method of navigation for a database, making use of repeating fields. An example file is also included so you can check it out for yourself!
Read the Full Article Here…
I've always wondered how many FileMaker dialogs you can have open at once, or more specifically, how many can you "string" together before hitting the limit, if there is one. So, though a little trial and error, I set out about trying to find the path to the most dialogs, and here is what I came up with…
Read the Full Article Here…
In this article I will demonstrate a very nice way to format a portal using conditional formatting. This method is suitable for portals whose underlying relationship is sorted by a grouping/category field - similar to if it were like a sub-summary report. The easiest way to explain it is to just get stuck in with an example, so here we go....
Read the Full Article Here…
When writing a script to carry out a particular task, ask yourself what conditions need to be true for this script to run properly. Sometimes, a script will do something which can potentially fail, and cause a cascade effect or errors, IF the initial conditions were incorrect. It is always a good idea to check for suitable conditions before doing anything in the script…
Read the Full Article Here…
In part two, I demonstrated how to implement the basics of the join table solution in FileMaker. While the solution works fine as an illustration for join tables, it lacked many of the basic interface features that would make it a usable solution. In part three, I will show how to implement some of these features, namely the following: Better selection of a Student for an Enrollment, Deletion of Enrollments & Prevention of “over-enrolling” a course…
Read the Full Article Here…
The Replace Field Contents command/script step is a very powerful tool for updating field values across records in your found set. This article goes into depth about the use of this command, some of its benefits, and some of the potential pitfalls you need to be aware of…
Read the Full Article Here…
