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Featured Entries

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
- 5,555 views
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
- 5,510 views

Thinking About Value Lists, part 2

In part 1 we explored a particular type of value list: the field-based two-column variety, based on all values, and set to show values from the second column only… …and today’s article assumes familiarity with that material. This time around we’re going to look at some challenges and issues that can arise when using filtered [...] Source

Kevin Frank

November 7, 2012

Database | Server Performance | Virtualization | Technology Consultants

FM Academy Webinar - Skeleton Key: FileMaker Server - Beyond the Admin Console Join Us Thursday, November 15th for a free one-hour webinar at 2pm (EST) / 1pm (CST) / 11am (PST). Hosted by Alan Kirtlink at Skeleton Key, we will show you how to select and configure the ideal server for your organization. <p> Source

Skeleton Key

November 7, 2012

Apple Event | Custom Apps | iPad | iPhone

Join Us for a Custom Business App Workshop at Apple Store - West County Center Join Mark Richman, Skeleton Key, on Tuesday, November 13th at the Apple Store, West County Center from 8:30am to 10am (CST). Mark will host App Spotlight : FileMaker workshop. During the workshop, Mark will expertly demonstrate how FileMaker Go and FileMaker 12 make it easy for anyone to create custom business apps for iPad and iPhone. read more Source

Skeleton Key

November 5, 2012

PDF version of FM 12 ExecuteSQL Reference

Beverly Voth has produced a PDF version of The Missing FM 12 ExecuteSQL Reference with some additional material not available in her original posting from October 19th. And the SQL4_fmdev2.fmp12 demo file has been updated with new queries. Thank you Beverly for this major contribution to the FileMaker community. Source

Kevin Frank

November 2, 2012

What’s wrong with FileMaker feature requests.

I think this quote finally gets at what bugs me about so many FileMaker feature requests–the long lists of things that would somehow make one’s life as a developer easier: Programmers are obsessed with ease rather than simplicity (thank you Rich Hickey for making this point); or, what t he experience of programming is instead of what the resulting program is like . This leads to useless conversations about semicolons and whether we need a preprocessor that eliminates curly braces. We sti

John Sindelar

November 2, 2012

The internet, brought to you by Diesel.

Thought everyone would like to see what it’s taking to keep FogBugz up after Sandy: http://status.fogcreek.com/page/2/ Hint… Source

John Sindelar

November 1, 2012

FileMaker Server | Module 10 | Training Series | Mark Richman

Follow-up to the recent 'FileMaker Training Series: FileMaker Server' Web Seminar On Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 I delivered two web seminars for FileMaker Inc. to complete their three-part series on the FileMaker Training Series for FileMaker 12. This post is my follow-up to that event, and includes links to resources I mentioned during that event, as well as a few relevant Questions & Answers I fielded via email afterwards. If YOU have any questions that did not get answere

Skeleton Key

October 30, 2012

Starter Solutions | Webinar | FM Academy | IT Solutions

FM Academy Webinar - IT Solutions: Working With and Extending FileMaker 12 Starter Solutions Join Us Thursday, October 25th for a free one-hour webinar at 2pm (EST) / 1pm (CST) / 11am (PST). The topic is, working with and extending the FileMaker 12 starter solutions, hosted by Jerry Salem at IT Solutions. Register here. FileMaker 12 includes a whole new set of starter solutions built from the ground up for the new version of the product. They are beautifully styled using the new th

Skeleton Key

October 19, 2012

The Missing FM 12 ExecuteSQL Reference

There seem to be many questions about the usage of SQL (Structured Query Language) with the ExecuteSQL function in FileMaker 12. This tutorial attempts to explain some of the SQL terms, if you are new to writing SQL statements. Since there are already many examples of how to write the ExecuteSQL queries, links to these [...] Source

Kevin Frank

October 19, 2012

Triggering a server-side script Part I

David Jondreau

October 18, 2012

Triggering a server-side script Part I

FileMaker does most of its processing client side. That means when a client wants to do a find, or show the result of a calculation, the data necessary to do the action is transferred from the server to the client and the client calculates the result. This is handy because you don’t need super powerful servers and the amount of load put on the server itself is reduced. But there’s a tradeoff, in some circumstances, it can also be extraordinarily painful. If a lot of data needs to be moved, the t

David Jondreau

October 18, 2012

Triggering a server-side script Part I

David Jondreau

October 18, 2012

Outer Joins in FileMaker 12, part 2

Last week in part 1 we looked at four “outer join” reporting approaches. Two of them involved ExecuteSQL, and I ended that section with the plea: Of course it’s possible that you, dear reader, know some FileMaker SQL voodoo to speed things up, and would be willing to share? Well Dr. Osamu Noda of Japan [...] Source

Kevin Frank

October 12, 2012

FileMaker Server | Module 10 | Training Series | Mark Richman

Join Mark Richman For This FileMaker Web Event FileMaker Training Series: FileMaker Server On Tuesday, October 16th, FileMaker invites you to “FileMaker Server,” the last session in a three part webinar series based on the new FileMaker Training Series for FileMaker 12. The webinar is from 8am - 9am (PST) / 10am - 11am (CST) / 11am - 12pm (EST). read more Source

Skeleton Key

October 9, 2012

“Modular” Sync and the Urgency of Mobile Work

Some common themes are emerging from a number of GoZync deployments we’ve completed recently, and one of them is that folks need their sync to be modular. Even in one-task applications there isn’t just one kind of record being synced, or one sync environment. Here is what we’re seeing recently… • Not all data has the same timeliness. In our construction inspection app inspectors need to get the textual data from the inspection back to the office immediately (so builders’ checks can be cut) but

John Sindelar

October 9, 2012

Storage Problem?

Like a crazy hoarder I mistake the root cause of my growing mountain of incomplete work. The hoarder thinks he has a storage problem when he really has a ‘throwing things away problem’. I say I am ‘time poor’ as if the problem is that poor me is given only 24 hours in a day. It’s more accurate to say… what exactly? …from here. Source

John Sindelar

October 6, 2012

Data Entry | Software Development | SKU | Database Consultant

Eliminate Double Data Entry There are two things you can do in business to improve profits: increase top line revenue and cut costs. Opportunities to increase top line revenue can be elusive, and often depend on forces outside your control. Preventing your staff from entering data two, three or even four times – on the other hand – is a prime opportunity to cut costs. read more Source

Skeleton Key

October 5, 2012

Outer Joins in FileMaker 12

Recently I had an on-screen reporting challenge, and decided to try several different approaches to see which would be fastest. Starting with two tables: one containing 20 Employees, and the other containing 2,000 Sales Data records for the current year… …display daily sales totals per employee in a seven-day grid, like so: Of course, as [...] Source

Kevin Frank

October 3, 2012

Running an iPad database as a Kiosk

Doug Alder of HomeBase Software out of Vancouver, BC posted an excellent explanation of locking down an iOS device to use an FM Go database in “Kiosk” mode, using the Accessibility options. While you’re there, check out his FileMaker Timeline (which isn’t working in Chrome for me, but in Firefox it looks great). Source

David Jondreau

September 28, 2012

Running an iPad database as a Kiosk

David Jondreau

September 28, 2012

Running an iPad database as a Kiosk

David Jondreau

September 28, 2012

Running an iPad database as a Kiosk

David Jondreau

September 28, 2012

Best FileMaker 12 Feature

Filemaker 12 has now been out for a few months and we have had a chance to use all the new features in anger. But which is the stand out improvement to FileMaker The new themes allow you to create a reasonable looking system very quickly and then at the touch of a menu item... Source

Paul de Halle

September 26, 2012