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Featured Entries

Hacking Your Own FileMaker Platform Solutions

By Steven H. Blackwell April 7, 2016

Hacking Your Own FileMaker Platform Solutions Should FileMaker Platform developers mount hacking attacks on their own solutions? At first glance, this may seem an odd question. But I believe that the answer is “Yes, we should.” Consider this. As developers we see our solutions from a totally different perspective than Threat Agents see them. Without practicing our own hacking skills, we can become blind to the vulnerabilities a Threat Agent can exploit to compromise the Confidentiality
- 1 comment
- 5,991 views
A Conversation About '2 Factor Authentication'

By Josh Ormond February 8, 2016

[ 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
- 1 comment
- 6,033 views

To Be … Or Not to Be – A FileMaker Certified Developer

To Be … Or Not to Be – A FileMaker Certified Developer Should You Hire Only FileMaker Certified Developers? How Do Developers Earn Certification and What Does it Mean? We asked a bunch of developers about the certification process and its impact on their work. As a consumer, you want to know what you’re paying for when you hire a developer with the FileMaker Inc. seal of approval. How do developers get certified — and what, eXactly, does it mean? “I do think the certificate process

eXcelisys

January 31, 2019

FIleMaker Script Steps Reference: Worth the look

The Script Step reference pages in FileMaker's help is a useful source for all developers, new and experienced alike. It's worth our look once in awhile. There's a lot to learn and to be reminded of on each page. The post FIleMaker Script Steps Reference: Worth the look appeared first on Geist Interactive. View the full article

Todd Geist

January 31, 2019

FileMaker Help Functions: Always more to learn

The FileMaker help functions pages are a worthy set of documents to review many times in a developer's career. There's a lot of information about each function. Here we take a look at the pages and see how their set up. The post FileMaker Help Functions: Always more to learn appeared first on Geist Interactive. View the full article

Todd Geist

January 30, 2019

Geist Interactive Hosts Local CIO/CTO Focus

Geist Interactive is sponsoring the CIO/CTO Focus event series. The next event will be Feb 19, 2019, and will feature a discussion with leading Chief Information & Chief Technology Officers (CIO & CTOs) from the area. Todd Geist, CEO of Geist Interactive will be moderating the event. Register using the link below. The post Geist Interactive Hosts Local CIO/CTO Focus appeared first on Geist Interactive. View the full article

Todd Geist

January 29, 2019

FileMaker Help: A Worthwhile Read

The FileMaker help guide is a useful set of documents, and we can use the context-sensitive help feature to get to the relevant help pages quickly. It is worth our time to review what is written. The post FileMaker Help: A Worthwhile Read appeared first on Geist Interactive. View the full article

Todd Geist

January 29, 2019

Universal Tagging System

One of the most wonderful aspects of FileMaker, or any development project, is implementing a portion of the software which can be used system wide. Meaning you don't have to recreate functionality over and over again in order to benefit from what you implement initially. Especially when it can be used in all locations universally. In this video, I show you how to implement a Universal Tagging System in which you can apply tags to any other element you're managing within your database system. A

FileMaker Magazine

January 28, 2019

Out with the Old, In with the New — Updating PHP is Essential for You!

Out with the Old & In with the New, Updating PHP is Essential for You! Why PHP & WordPress Updates Should Top Your New Year’s “To Do” List By Michael Suhrbier, eXcelisys Web App Developer What is PHP? Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) is an amazing and popular server-side programming language used in web development. How prominent is it? Well, it’s powerful enough to run the biggest blogging system on the web (WordPress) and the largest social network platform in the world (Facebook)!

eXcelisys

January 24, 2019

Back and Forward

I've always been intrigued with how to mimic a web browser's back and forward buttons... as have many other developers. While I don't usually include them in a professional solution, I do find the exercise of creating an airtight historical navigation solution challenging. I prefer well designed navigation over history buttons. Therefore, I present this article as a brain teaser and not necessarily as a recommended solution. But, I'll let you make the decision. I'll go into why I don't think his

John Mark Osborne

January 22, 2019

Back and Forward

John Mark Osborne

January 22, 2019

Advanced JSON Script Parameters

While many FileMaker solutions will manage multiple parameter passing in very simple and straight-forward ways, there are some solutions which you know will grow over time. Because of this expected growth, you may want to have an additional level of comfort knowing you've implemented a very strict system for managing data transfer between scripts. You also may be interested in working with external APIs and connecting to systems and data which is provided via the currently popular format of JSO

FileMaker Magazine

January 18, 2019

Creating and Using Invisible Window IDs

Editor’s note: I first became aware of Paul Jansen when I licensed his FMTools in the late 1990s, and I finally had the pleasure of meeting him last June at dotFMP after 20 years of online and voice communication. It’s an honor and a privilege to welcome him to FileMaker Hacks as a guest author. […] View the full article

Kevin Frank

January 14, 2019

Holiday Light Maker Finds Peace on Earth with Sales Quoting & Fulfillment App

Holiday Light Maker Finds Peace on Earth with Sales Quoting & Fulfillment App FileMaker Platform Brings Bright Sparkle to Global Operations at Christmas Northeast / Nicolas Holiday Just as Santa relies on the elves to keep his North Pole toy shop churning, holiday light manufacturer Christmas Northeast / Nicolas Holiday depends on the FileMaker Platform to manage sales and distribution of its bulbous bling. As the sole manufacturer of all GE-branded holiday lighting products, the compa

eXcelisys

January 11, 2019

Survival Guide (7 of 7): Find, Hire & Work with a Software Developer, Successfully!

Survival Guide (7 of 7): Find, Hire & Work with a Software Developer, Successfully! Bringing Your Vision to Life: Development, Testing & Deployment Development styles — What to eXpect Broadly speaking, there are three common approaches to development: agile, waterfall and prototyping. All are intended to get to the finished product in an efficient manner, but each takes a different approach. The agile development style practices discovery as development unfolds and requires

eXcelisys

January 11, 2019

FileMaker Integrations

FileMaker Adobe InDesign Integration

FileMaker can easily integrate with Adobe InDesign and create powerful InDesign documents by generating XML out of FileMaker. With a bit of additional development, you can even automate the process of placing text and photos directly on the page for designs that rarely need adjustments. Save time and reduce human error by automating repetitive Adobe InDesign processes and eliminate double data entry. Read the full article: https://dbservices.com/blog/filemaker-adobe-indesign-integration

dbservices in FileMaker Integrations

January 9, 2019

Single Source of Truth

Having worked with FileMaker for well over 20+ years, and experiencing a wide variety of data models, it's always possible to get into a situation where you need to re-evaluate the data decisions you've made with regards to your structure. The data model you may have initially thought would handle all situations may need to be modified. Knowing about the multiple options you may have available for structuring your data makes a big difference when you start to consider simply "adding that new fi

FileMaker Magazine

January 8, 2019

Maybe You Missed These

It was almost two years ago that the Philosophy of FileMaker released it's first article. I write new articles almost every two weeks so there's a lot of information to filter at the Philosophy of FileMaker web site. That's why I thought it would be a good idea to talk about my favorite articles from the first year of blogging. You may have missed some of these articles and, if I list my favorites and why they're my favorites, maybe they'll answer long standing questions. View the full article

John Mark Osborne

January 8, 2019

Maybe You Missed These

John Mark Osborne

January 8, 2019

Time Picker Widget

It's a curious question and the answer may be good or bad depending on your perspective. "Why doesn't FileMaker have a time picker?". It has a calendar widget for working with date fields, why not time values? The solution to the problem, as is often the case, can be managed by simply creating your own picker. In fact, if you don't like FileMaker's desktop based date picker you can create any variation you desire based on being able to create any style of layout you can imagine. While the same

FileMaker Magazine

December 31, 2018

Tips ’n’ Tricks, part 3

It’s been a few years since we last had a tips ‘n’ tricks article here at FileMaker Hacks… long enough for some new items to accumulate in the old developer bag of tricks. (If you like this sort of thing, you may also want to check out part 1 and part 2.) Some of these […] View the full article

Kevin Frank

December 31, 2018

Google Maps APIs

Unless you've got a billion dollars to send out tens of thousands of cars with specially fitted technology mounted on their roofs; and, you can send them all across the planet, then you'll likely need to rely on mapping data from a third party. So, here we go with learning how we can leverage Google Maps APIs within FileMaker. This video will cover the essential knowledge you need in order to make the requests about geolocations whether they be latitude longitude coordinates or an address. As

FileMaker Magazine

December 17, 2018

FileMaker Integrations

FileMaker Outlook Calendar Integration

For many professionals, their calendar is an important tool that helps keep things running smoothly. In this article we cover how to integrate your Outlook calendar with FileMaker to keep you staying on top of your efficiency game! Be sure to check out our tutorial: https://dbservices.com/articles/filemaker-outlook-calendar-integration/ dbservices.com

dbservices in FileMaker Integrations

December 17, 2018

Duplicating a Portal

Clients are always asking me why the contents of portals do not duplicate along with a record. It makes sense. Portal data looks like it's part of the parent record so it should duplicate just like the local fields, right? After explaining how relationships work, the client still wants the related data to duplicate. The great thing is, the script isn't that difficult to write. There's just a few gotchas, opportunities for efficiency and, of course, the patented Philosophy of FileMaker considerat

John Mark Osborne

December 11, 2018