Community Videos, Tips, & Techniques, Articles.

We talked about various things at the FileMaker conference in Rome and security is a concern for everyone. Especially as scripted attacks got frequently. Rename Admin Have you ever put a FileMaker Server on the internet? You may note that people knowing your address try to connect with various account names and passwords. You may want to rename the Admin user everywhere to another name. Since there is a chance someone may try the Admin account and FileMaker locks accounts for 5 minutes if you have 5 incorrect passwords for login within 5 minutes, you may run into the Admin account be blocked. Just use a different name to avoid this. Stop using the defa…

Robert Holsey, Product Manager for Claris Studio, joined us for a full walkthrough! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

When receiving invoices in electronic formats, you have several tasks to implement: Receiving invoice via email. You may use our CURL functions to regularly download emails from your IMAP postbox and use our EmailParser functions to get the attachments. That may include the ZUGFeRD PDF invoice file. Or a pure XML file with invoice data. Extract XML for invoice from PDF Use DynaPDF functions (Lite license or higher) to extract XML from a PDF file using functions for embedded files. We have sample projects for this included with the plugin download. Validate the XML to match the schema using the ZUGFeRD …

In case you missed it, we dropped a new version of FM Starting Point last month! Check out what’s changed in our FREE & UNLOCKED CRM in this LiveStream recording. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Check out the FMTraining.tv website. Richard Carlton and his team do a daily free live stream about FileMaker to watch. A few days ago Christian Schmitz from Monkeybread Software joined a live episode to talk a bit about the MBS FileMaker Plugin. Watch it on YouTube. We check what is new in 14.4 release: Announcements, new functions and Release Notes. More videos 14.4 MonkeyBread FileMaker Plug-in Release MonkeyBread Plug-in Q&A with Christian Schmitz The FileMaker MonkeyBread Plug-in - 14.3 Update with Christian Schmitz The FileMaker MonkeyBread Plug-in Q&A Exporting FileMaker Settings into Excel Files u…

Back from the conference in Liechtenstein, I wrote down a few of the tidbits we learnt. Missing serial numbers If you use serial numbers for new records in FileMaker, you may notice that sometimes the serial numbers have a gap. Why could this happen? Someone deleted a record Someone created a record, but never committed it. FileMaker crashed or network got disconnected while a transaction runs, so it never completes. You need to know that on record creation, the client will request a new serial number from the server. If the record doesn't get committed or gets reverted, the serial value is used, but no record saved. If you like to make …

Our LiveStream for tomorrow (Friday the 11th) has been canceled due to staff traveling. However, make sure to check back Monday the 14th at 1PM Pacific for a full week of OData and FileMaker with John Renfrew! Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=4114331399492605121190903096102540420383281273793950072154 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Once you've watched HOnza's previous video, "How to Build a Stand-Alone iOS app with Xgode", come back to learn how to build a Native iOS app that connects to FileMaker Server! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Want to learn how to build a stand-alone iOS app without knowing how to use Xcode? Check out this recording of HOnza demonstrating how you can easily accomplish the same results with 24U’s tool - XGode! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Start off your week with a new Nick Hunter 5 Day mini-series on Vertical Schema Design! Today at 1PM pacific we kick off with Day 1. Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=2251217748548876925851683431214709095820730392827675320563 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

360Works’ MirrorSync is the best way to sync data from off-line Claris FileMaker files once you have network access again. Join Jesse Barnum this Friday at 1PM Pacific to see how we have pre-setup FM Starting Point 2024 to work with MirrorSync! Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=1017080104128990964223697233078829896421059518245012899635 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Robert Holsey, the Product Manager of Claris Studio, joins us as he dives into the latest improvements to Claris Studio! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Who better to test the performance of Claris FileMaker 2024 than HOnza, "the mad optimizer"! Join us as we discuss the results from various performance tests and what they mean for your FileMaker solutions. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Kristian Olsen joins us to discuss the Dynamic Portal Sorting add-on in our FileMaker add-on manager, WolfPack. Welcome to the Pack! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

In this article we want to introduce you the new functions from the MBS FileMaker Plugin in version 14.4. JSON We have added a couple of JSON functions for you that you can use to create, update or delete records in your database. With the JSON.InsertOrUpdateRecordfunction, you even have the option of changing a data record if it already exists or creating a new one if it does not exist yet. With JSON.UpdateRecords and JSON.DeleteRecords, not only one record can be changed or deleted, but several records can be modified or removed at the same time. If you only want to create, change or delete one data record, you can use the JSON.InsertRecord, JSON.UpdateRecord …

Learn how to use AI to improve voice dictation and parsing in your FileMaker database this Friday at 1PM Pacific! Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=2802666704774893587043204545244276814354407858145612988342 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

For years we had XLST 1.0 and XQuery in the plugins using open source libraries. We could add the Saxon processor library for XLST, XQuery and XML Schema functionality. But that library has a cost as a commercial library, so making a plugin would only work if we have enough people taking it. We are collecting a list of developers interested in this to know whether it is feasible to do this. We could have: XSLT 3.0 Processor Saxon Professional supports the latest version of XSLT (3.0) for transforming XML documents into various formats (HTML, text, other XML formats). It supports full XPath 3.1 and XQuery 3.1 standards. XPath …

Christian Schmitz will be joining us Thursday at 1PM Pacific to talk all about the 14.4 release of the MonkeyBread FileMaker Plug-in! Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=3683323708626919746686232526087488655348382993032262841254 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Let's say you received an electronic invoice in Germany or France as a PDF document with embedded XML. You like tp use DynaPDF to extract the XML and we have a sample file for you, which we like to explain here. So let's take a look on the main script to extract the attachment with the XML. First we initialize DynaPDF and have the script load the dynapdf library. Then we open the invoice PDF with DynaPDF.OpenPDFFromContainer function and then use DynaPDF.ImportPDFFile function to import the content of the PDF into memory into the working PDF. # Make new PDF environments Set Variable [ $pdf ; Value: MBS("DynaPDF.New") ] # Load PDF from con…

With over 7000 functions for the Claris FileMaker platform, there is always something new to learn about the MonkeyBread plug-in. Christian Schmitz answers a series of questions, comments and concerns in this Q&A. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Join Nick Hunter in this mini-series all about tailoring layouts for Claris FileMaker Go, the client that allows you to run FileMaker solutions on iOS devices. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

A few days ago we got a request on whether we can directly integrate ChatGPT to the ScriptWorkspace in FileMaker. Since we have already plenty of extensions to the ScriptWorkspace on macOS, we can just add a menu command for this. For Windows, the same thing could be done as a hotkey. If you like to use this, you need to have your own API key and organization ID for ChatGPT and please insert it right into the sample code. Once you have the Let statement, you can pass it to the SyntaxColoring.AddContextMenuCommand function to add as a menu command. To get the Let statement below, we started with a short script to use our CURL functions to query a com…

When it comes to handling PDF documents, FileMaker developers have a robust ally in DynaPDF and the MBS FileMaker Plugin. This powerful combination opens up a world of possibilities for creating, modifying, and managing PDF files directly within your FileMaker solutions. Let’s dive into the key capabilities that DynaPDF and the MBS FileMaker Plugin bring to the table. For each point we can link to the relevant functions and on the documentation pages, you find listed examples and further blog articles. 1. Create PDFs from Scratch With DynaPDF and the MBS FileMaker Plugin, you can effortlessly generate PDF files directly from FileMaker. Whether you need to cr…

Claris Connect: "The power to integrate with anything". Join the Product Manager of Claris Connect, Edward Lee, to see what this product could do for you! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

We recently got the 60th live stream on FMTraining.tv with Christian Schmitz talking about MBS Plugin for FileMaker. Richard and his team even prepared a cake for this event. 60 sessions in about 3 years is a lot and we like to have more in the future. Watch the cake being presented on YouTube Regularly we make new live streams talking about new MBS Plugin versions and Q&A sessions. But we like to get ideas for new topics to make separate special live streams. These can show examples and do live coding, which also shows how we debug issues on the way. Please let us know what topics you like to see coming up!

Robert Holsey, product manager for Claris Studio, returns to the LiveStream this Friday at 1PM Pacific for a full walkthrough! Register for the LiveStream and to learn how to use Claris Studio: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=2440935930635589670323940376537231936238199907695169748872 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

We are happy to announce that a new version of FM Starting Point is coming out this week! Get a preview of what’s changed in our FREE & UNLOCKED CRM this Thursday at 1PM Pacific. Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=2965899113917229940803793394376984752621392674990996937013 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Next in our lineup of Claris special guests is Rosemary Tietge! In this LiveStream, Rosemary discusses what Claris thinks is the best practices to upgrading your (or your client's) version of FileMaker. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Today eighteen years ago we released the MBS FileMaker Plugin in Version 1.0. Here the original announcement: Read also: 4000 functions in 10 years and 5000 Functions in MBS Plugin. Thanks for the support over years.

Want to learn more about hosting options for your Claris FileMaker database? Sangita Banerjee, the Claris FileMaker Cloud project manager, joined us for a FileMaker Cloud overview! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

In case you missed it, Claris shipped FileMaker Pro 21.0.2 not too long ago. Andy LeCates joined us around that time to discuss the release along with all the bug fixes that came with it! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Catch HOnza for a second day in a row this Friday at 1PM Pacific. This time he will be showing us how to build a Native iOS app that connects to FileMaker Server! Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=1955864040191522806216068887221715742666758035885383769396 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Tune in this Thursday at 1PM Pacific to learn how to build a stand-alone iOS app without knowing how to use Xcode. HOnza is here to demonstrate how you can easily accomplish the same results with 24U’s tool - XGode! Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=1316460348288173319848668677702703586486367379907714787583 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Check out the FMTraining.tv website. Richard Carlton and his team do a daily free live stream about FileMaker to watch. A few days ago Christian Schmitz from Monkeybread Software joined a live episode to talk a bit about the MBS FileMaker Plugin. Watch it on YouTube. We answer questions from the live stream. This includes Overlay functions with Drag & Drop or hosting a web viewer. We check file dialogs and Drag & Drop as way to import lots of files into FileMaker. We check MapKit functions, progress bar in portals, cropping images and try a window moved script trigger. Thanks to everyone bringing questions! More videos MonkeyBre…

The Missing Admin Tool is a FREE tool that helps you manage your FileMaker Server. With us is Claus Lavendt to talk about the latest updated version of the Missing Admin Tool. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Although this Open Q&A has already passed, there may be an answer for a question you have. Check out this LiveStream to learn more about improving your Quick Find speed in Claris FileMaker. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

When managing and optimizing FileMaker databases, understanding the details of your data is crucial. Whether you’re looking to optimize performance, audit data quality, or get insights into database structure, having precise statistical information about your database can be invaluable. The MBS FileMaker Plugin offers powerful functions for querying detailed statistics on fields, records, and entire tables. In this blog post, we’ll explore three key functions — FM.FieldStatistics, FM.RecordStatistics, and FM.TableStatistics — and how to use them to gain deep insights into your FileMaker databases. 1. FM.FieldStatistics: Dive into Field Details The FM.FieldS…

Greetings from the Australian FileMaker conference. It just started and we are happy to meet so many developers from the Asia Pacific area. Lots of attendees from Australia and New Zealand, but also up to Japan or Dubai. And some usual suspects from USA, Canada and Europe, who just like me love to explore the world. In total 110 people came including the Claris representatives. There will be a short MBS Presentation to highlight a few new things in the plugin. Learn what is new in MBS Plugins this year. If anyone needs a license, you can place an order in our MyCommerce web shop via our pricing page and use coupon code FileMakerConference for a 20% discount on …

Interested in the Claris FileMaker platform but still on the fence? Join us as we discuses why this is "the ultimate tool for building the custom operational apps that teams rely on". Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Join Robert Holsey, the Product Manager of Claris Studio, on Friday at 1PM Pacific, as he dives into the latest improvements to Claris Studio! Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=150611565253544396124226612616494237178858579423459849544 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Recently clients asked to get a quick way to insert records with JSON data. As soon as that was done, the next one asked for updating and then of course for our insert and update. We had these functions for years: FM.InsertRecord FM.InsertOrUpdateRecord FM.InsertOrUpdateRecord2 FM.InsertOrUpdateRecord3 FM.InsertOrUpdateRecord4 FM.InsertOrUpdateRecord5 FM.UpdateRecord FM.UpdateRecord2 FM.UpdateRecord3 FM.UpdateRecords FM.UpdateRecords2 FM.UpdateRecords3 FM.DeleteRecord FM.DeleteRecords And all these functions are very handy, but how about passing parameters as JSON? …

When you’re bulk uploading photos, it’s easy to accidentally upload the same photo twice. Learn how to detect and delete duplicate images in FileMaker! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

You've told yourself you'll upgrade your FileMaker Pro version "next year", year after year after year, and now it is extremely out of date. Not to worry, Richard is here to show you how to rescue your file, if possible! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

FileMaker WebDirect allows a user to access a FileMaker solution via a web browser, but as a developer - how do you build a solution that will perform well in a web browser? Join Nick Hunter in this multi-day webinar on everything WebDirect. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Learn how to use dynamic portal sorting via an add-on this Friday at 1PM Pacific with Kristian Olsen! Kristian will be covering the add-on pack, WolfPack. Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=3468161029954177139214133331073087562813347986518513924653 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Have questions about the MonkeyBread Plug-in? Join Christian Schmitz this Thursday at 1PM Pacific for an open Q&A! Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=4095341560389751366554074874639452802593101144492328815374 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

FileMaker relationships seem to be a friction point for a lot of beginner developers. Not to worry, Richard is here to discuss troubleshooting your FileMaker relationships! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Some may have decided to wait this long before updating their FileMaker Server to the latest Claris FileMaker 21 release. If so, this FMS Q&A with Jacob Taylor may address any last concerns you may have. Future LiveStreams:https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Importing and updating massive amounts of data can seem daunting and time consuming but that doesn't have to be the case. In this 6-day webinar, Nick Hunter shows how to speed up your import from weeks to hours! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

The Product Manager of Claris Connect, Edward Lee, is here to talk about what Claris Connect is, and what it can do for you. Don’t miss out this Thursday at 1PM Pacific! Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=4445754262715125500879314321450777203470617475082130413739 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

We often recommend developers NOT use validation field options but what are the alternatives? Nick Hunter is here with a 3-day webinar on better methods for validating without the validation tab in FileMaker. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Christian Schmitz joins us to talk about his MonkeyBread Plug-in with over 7300 functions! Learn how you can extend your Claris FileMaker solution in some amazing ways. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

The Execute FileMaker Data API can now be used to create and delete records as of FileMaker 2024. Check out this LiveStream recording with Calvin Mosiman to learn more! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

On Friday at 1PM Pacific, Rosemary Tietge will join us to discuss what Claris thinks is the best practices to upgrading your (or your clients) version of FileMaker. Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=4222249202656233929157081946400525804427170282253992235855 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Want to learn more about hosting options for your Claris FileMaker database? Join Sangita Banerjee, the Claris FileMaker Cloud project manager, this Thursday at 1PM Pacific for a FileMaker Cloud overview! Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=2296863661155176511332513136544890631685856346374599611316 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Did you know that in Release 14.3 we have added the option in the Quicklist area to output the Quicklist entries as a JSON text array? You can simply use the QuickList.JSONArray function to do this. Today I would like to introduce you to this function in comparison to a function that was added last year: QuickList.JoinJSON. Quicklist entries as JSON array Let's take a look at an example where we want to write entries in a quicklist and have them returned later as a JSON array. First we create a quicklist and enter a few entries there. We can then extend this list as needed afterwards, as we do with blackberry, for example. Finally, we want to get this quicklist …

"Global field values are global to the FileMaker user, not to the database file." If this statement is confusing to you, join Nick Hunter as he walks through Global Fields and how to use them cleverly. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Today I would like to introduce you to a really cool function from the latest release of the MBS FileMaker Plugin. It's about the DragDrop.AttachToOverlay function. This function combines 2 areas from our plugin. The possibilities of drag and drop and our overlay windows. We introduced our overlays for the first time at the beginning of this year. These are areas that you can create on the screen, give them a background, which you can move freely as you wish and which you can use with several mouse events, such as click, enter or exit. At the beginning of the year, we published the blog article Overlay windows for FileMaker. The second part we want to talk about tod…

In this 2-day Custom Publishing Mail livestream series, Nick Hunter will be demonstrating his latest techniques for using Publishing Mail with brand new Layout Calculations! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Kyle Williams is back with a new demo file that allows you to leverage the power of the web viewer! Learn how to create dynamic tab controls that provide new capabilities not previously possible in FileMaker. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Join Andy LeCates from Claris this Friday at 1PM Pacific as he goes over the latest release of FileMaker Pro, 21.0.2. This release is full of bug fixes and we’ll be there to discuss and answer your questions! Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=2197839630568639503779859077666293393756675132093062298033 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Claus Lavendt returns to our LIveStream this Thursday at 1PM Pacific! Don’t miss out on learning all about the free Missing Admin Tool for FileMaker Server. Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=858036021690279360514532505712411851522004286480452095905 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

FileMaker allows you to take the skills you learn as a beginner and build upon them as you progress as a developer. Hidden objects are a great example of this! Join Nick Hunter as he demonstrates their use without complex scripts! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Portals can open a world of connections in your Claris FileMaker database but what if you want to show data from two relationships away? Join us this Friday at 1 PM Pacific to learn more about Multi-Hop Portals! Register for this LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=430191602848357869404161515800889716449799881665119050363 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Do you have ideas on optimizing the way your team works but don’t have a way to make it happen? Join us this Thursday at 1PM Pacific as we discuss why Claris FileMaker could meet all your needs! Register for this LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=2215934685624723237089956338601111702986870553397197049205 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

A Bill of Materials (BOMs) is a list of raw materials needed to manufacture an end product and an integral part of some businesses. Check out this mini-series to learn how to create your own indented invoices! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Struggling with Pop-up menus because of complicated relationships? Join Nick Hunter as he demonstrates a Data Picker! This "context free" technique may be the solution you're looking for. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Calvin Mosiman is back and he is here to discuss pivot tables! Join us as we take apart a Pivot Table sample and break down everything you need to know about pivot tables. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Do you have a FileMaker file in an old format from several years back? Join us Thursday at 1 PM Pacific to find out how to upgrade to the latest format and the problems you may run into. Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=3164990675642915004704501516907104608154409287223035579414 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Today at 1 PM Pacific time is the first day of Nick Hunter’s brand new LiveStream series on FileMaker WebDirect! We will run through all aspects of building a solution which will perform great on WebDirect and much more. Register for the LiveStream: https://fmtraining.tv/register.php?eventid=5432926701084195961000550691684000436338429737331476983243 [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Introduction to ZeroTier: build modern, secure, multi-point virtualized networks of almost any type. Jacob and Richard are here to talk about how they use it in their day-to-day business. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Christian Schmitz returns with the Claris FileMaker Monkeybread Plug-in 14.2 release. Learn about all the new functions and capabilities you could implement to your FileMaker database! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

In this article Stefanie introduces you to the new functions from the MBS FileMaker Plugin in version 14.3. Python I would like to introduce you to the highlight of this release right at the beginning. You can now use Python in your projects with the help of the MBS FileMaker Plugin. This programming language, which appeared in the 90s, is one of the most popular of its kind and is used by many developers. We are therefore pleased to be able to open up this world to you in this release. Use our Python functions to load a local Python library and evaluate expressions or run scripts. Get and set variables in Python to exchange data in memory. The Python code can op…

Caution, oversized load ahead! Join Richard as he demonstrates how to move Claris FileMaker data in bulk using the Data Migration Tool. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Is your FileMaker performance suffering because you have a spider-web Relationship Diagram? Richard is here to discuss how to untangle your relationship graph into an anchor-buoy design! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Users get distracted and records get abandoned. Join Richard as he discusses how to save your user's "forward progress". Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

A common problem clients have is to install the right plugin file on Linux. It seems to confuse some clients which Linux variant they have and then the plug-in won't load. Plugin location The MBS Plugin on a server goes into three folders: FileMaker Server/Database Server/Extensions FileMaker Server/Web Publishing/publishing-engine/cwpc/Plugins/ FileMaker Server/Web Publishing/publishing-engine/wip/Plugins/ First is for server side scripts, second for WebDirect and third for Data API. Once you put the plugin into the folders, check admim-console to activate plugins for all three and for server scripting activate MBS plugin. If the plugin doesn't show there…

Nick Hunter is here to explain how you can use data filters with relationships instead of finds. Learn how this technique allows you to filter records AND portals! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

When you like to position something in a window in FileMaker Pro, you may wonder what toolbars are visible to the user. The user may have the normal toolbar and below and for some toolbars you an ask the state, but not for the formatting bar. You can ask FileMaker with Get(AllowFormattingBarState) whether the formatting bar is allowed to show. And using the Allow Formatting Bar script step you can turn it on or off. But beside just turning it on or off to make sure you know the state, we could help with a function to know the state. Our first try was to check the checkbox for the menu entry. While the plugin can check the checkbox state with Me…

If your user needs to compress one file and send it via email, they can compress the file in Finder or Explorer and attach the file to an email and send it off. But what if you ned to do this 100 times and you need a script to do this? Send XML File as Zip Let's start with a XML (or JSON) export from FileMaker which you like to email with MBS FileMaker Plugin. You could just add the XML directly as an attachment with SendMail.AddAttachmentText function and call the job done: Set Variable [ $r ; Value: MBS( "SendMail.AddAttachmentText"; $email; $XML; "UTF-8"; "export.xml"; "application/xml") ] But let's use our new Archive.CompressText functio…

Check out the FMTraining.tv website. Richard Carlton and his team do a daily free live stream about FileMaker to watch. A few days ago Christian Schmitz from Monkeybread Software joined a live episode to talk a bit about the MBS FileMaker Plugin. Watch it on YouTube. We talk about error handling with ClearErrors and ErrorLog, HadErrors, AddToErrorLog, Text.TextToHTML and DynaPDF.CreateTextField functions. More videos The FileMaker MonkeyBread Plug-in Q&A Exporting FileMaker Settings into Excel Files using the MonkeyBread Plug-in The Claris FileMaker MonkeyBread Plug-in 14.2 Release FileMaker MonkeyBread Plug-in Pre…

You've discovered how incredibly useful the Claris FileMaker platform can be but now you're asking yourself, "How Do I Buy Claris FileMaker?" Check out this LiveStream where we break down the licensing. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

We got trial keys about 6 years ago added to our FileMaker and Xojo plugins. A trial key is only valid for a limit time and allows to test all features without demo limitations. Due to the time limitation of the key, you can use it for a few weeks. The key later expires and you are back to demo mode or you order a license to get a permanent license. We setup a form to request a license key: Request Trial License Key We may limit who can get a trial and filter out the requests looking like spam. But so far we issued over 1800 trial keys to various people. Please understand that trial keys are not intended for deployment of solutions as keys expire. Our regula…

The Substitute function, "Returns a text string with every occurrence of searchString in specified text replaced by replaceString.", but what does this mean? Nick Hunter is here to further explain how it works!! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

There are six conferences left for FileMaker this year and still time for you to sign-up to one and enjoy meeting your fellow developers. Meet Claris staff and us to ask your questions, bring ideas and show what you do with FileMaker. Reconnect.fm 5th to 6th September 2024 in Brisbane, Australia With over 150 attendees this is the biggest conference for FileMaker in Australia and the whole southern Asian area. Meet Claris staff including Clay Maeckel (Software Architect) and (VP Global Sales) to calc about what's under hood and whatever sales and licensing questions you have. Your chance to visit Australia and meet the locals! MBS is sponsor…

There is a little thing we can easily do in FileMaker when creating new records. We can get the ID of the new record. But if we insert via SQL, we can't get it. Usually we workaround by using UUIDs and then put in a new UUID for the record into the insert command. This way we know in advance which ID the new record will have. Now in PostgreSQL you can use INSERT command with RETURNING option to return the new record ID. As we can use our SQL functions to connect to PostgreSQL databases, we can use that feature here. We skip the connection part and directly create an INSERT command to create a new record in table Persons. We pass values …

What happens when you need a record from an unrelated table and you can’t make the relationship? Richard is here to discuss the art of Table Occurrence Group (TOG) hopping! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Recently a client asked about whether we can do MQTT inside FileMaker to subscribe to a topic and receive messages or even send messages. Let's summarize what MQTT is for you: MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is a lightweight messaging protocol designed for devices with limited resources and for low-bandwidth, high-latency, or unreliable networks. It operates on a publish/subscribe model which allows for efficient distribution of information to many receivers. We discovered that we have MQTT capabilities built-in to the CURL library. Just use an URL with "mqtt://" followed by IP or domain name of the server. In the path of the URL goes th…

Back to basics! Richard is here to cover Anchor buoy and FileMaker relationships for beginners, step by step, with a fresh file. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

For MBS FileMaker Plugin 14.3 we add the possibility to evaluate Python code in FileMaker and run scripts. This enables you to integrate existing Python code and use it in FileMaker. That may be a quick calculation to calculate a checksum, process some text, JSON or XML data or to utilize an existing script by running it within FileMaker. Python comes with hundreds of available modules that you can import and use. Initialization Depending on the platform, you install Python libraries in different ways. For macOS you can use Homebrew command line tools to install the python package. For Windows you can download the official Python installer and run …

In the last days we had a discussion with a client about FileMaker 2024 and the quick open feature. The user may press Command-K (macOS) or Control-K (Windows) and search for things. This includes layouts and scripts and they can go to layouts and run scripts, when you wouldn't expect it. We love to give everyone a reminder on a little security thing: Any script in FileMaker may get called anywhere by anyone. When you write a script, you usually make assumptions. The script expects to be in a certain layout on a specific record to do its job. You expect it to be called because a user pressed a specific button or used the custom menu to only call i…

There are new JSON functions with the FileMaker 2024 release: JSONMakeArray and GetLiveTextAsJSON! Corn Walker is here to discuss what these functions are, and how these improvements help. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

In FileMaker Pro 21, the Revert Transaction script step is now supported in sub-scripts. Corn Walker is here to break down the impact that this change will have on your transaction scripts. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Recently a client asked how to show 3D models in FileMaker on Windows. We looked for various solutions and on the end came to using JavaScript viewer for 3D objects: js-3d-model-viewer. To show a file, you would export it to a temporary folder with FileMaker. You put the JavaScript file into the same folder and have your script export also the html file there. The HTML file needs to reference the model file by name. Although you could just name the model file the same each time and just use the same html. To access local files in the same folder, you need to overcome Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) rules. Basically all files must be hosted on the same…

One of the big billets for FileMaker 2024 (a.k.a. FileMaker 21.0.1) is that FileMaker now interacts with AI. Vince Menanno and Will Miro are back for a second day to explain more new AI features! Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

We recorded the MBS Plugin talk at the dotfmp 2024 FileMaker conference in Berlin: We talk about SystemInfo.MacMemoryHostStatistics function CURL functions for MQTT Python functions to evaluate and run Python code within FileMaker Shell functions to ping a server Using GraphicsMagick functions for drawing progress bars WebViewer functions to print HTML as PDF file DynaPDF functions to layout books automatically in scripts Show XL functions to create conditional formatting in Excel files. Matrix functions for CSV handling Data detector on macOS to identify data in text Search scripts for Windo…

Recently at the dotfmp conference, we talked about storing text vectors for LLMs in FileMaker as container instead of text to save space. But does it? Let's check with current FileMaker Pro. We can store text in a FileMaker database. The size to store the record is a bit more than the text. Our test table has primary key, two time stamps and the account name for creation and modification. With the overhead for managing the blocks this takes about 270 bytes per record in our test database. If you store the text in a container field, you basically get the text stored and there is a 12 byte overhead for the container, if you just write text there. Set Field [ …

AI integration with the Claris FileMaker platform is here with the 2024 release! Join Vince Menanno and Will Miro as they dive into AI Semantic Search at a beginners level. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Hundreds of bug fixes are yet another amazing component of the Claris FileMaker 2024 release. Join Richard and Jacob as they highlight some of the major bugs that were fixed. Future LiveStreams: https://fmtraining.tv/#LIVE [email protected] www.FMTraining.TV www.FMStartingPoint.com www.rcconsulting.com

Buried deep in the release notes for FileMaker Pro 2024 (a.k.a. version 21.0.1) is a dramatic announcement: the Xalan XSLT processor has been replaced with libsxlt. Although both processors conform to the XSLT 1.0 specification (more on this later), they do differ in several aspects. This could have an impact on your existing stylesheets: Extension functions If you have been relying on extension functions in the Xalan namespace, you will need to replace those with their EXSLT equivalents in their corresponding namespace: xalan:nodeset ==> exsl:node-set (xmlns:exsl="http://exslt.org/common") xalan:distinct ==> set:distinct (xmlns:set="http://exsl…