ISO FileMaker Magazine

", "forceHTML5": true, "forceSSL":true}' class="video-js vjs-default-skin" width="640" height="360" controls="controls" preload="auto"> DynamicMenuSystem_Full.mp4 By Matt Petrowsky Helping users navigate your FileMaker solution is one of the primary objectives of any developer. When it comes to menu systems, you'll find everything from simple buttons on a layout to the complex use of portals and other FileMaker objects such as the newer Popover object. In this video and technique file, you'll find a clean implementation of Global variables which support an unlimited number of dynamic menus. These menus can be changed based on their count and functionality…

No Access? Watch the preview video here. HTML2PDF_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size ConvertHTML2PDF.zip 163.6 KB By Matt Petrowsky Outside of plain text, you can't get much more standard than HTML and PDF. They're pretty much agreed up by all major operating systems and the users who use them. FileMaker certainly supports embedding PDFs within container fields and HTML is quite easily integrated into Web Viewers. Using HTML within FileMaker is one of the most flexible ways to present information. About the only thing you could wish for, (Yes, I'm sure you could wish for a lot of things) is any easy way to convert your HTML into a PDF. Here's the cool thing, it'…

No Access? Watch the preview video here. MarkingSubsummaryRanges_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size MarkingSub-summaryRanges.zip 167.19 KB By Matt Petrowsky Working with subsets of data is an extremely common activity within a database. Automating the selection of subsets is also a common objective. In this video tutorial, the various ways to select, identify and mark a range of records is what's covered. If you've found yourself wondering what the best method for marking a range of records is, then look no further. The technique file provided and the associated video will both educate and inspire you when working on your own solutions within FileMaker Pro. Usin…

", "forceHTML5": true, "forceSSL":true}' class="video-js vjs-default-skin" width="640" height="360" controls="controls" preload="auto"> ReducingFieldCounts_Full.mp4 By Matt Petrowsky Unlike other programming languages, where the database is often separate from the language used to code solution logic, FileMaker includes everything, all wrapped up into one potentially giant mess of spaghetti. In order to avoid the often inevitable pitfalls of being overly complex, you must code your FileMaker solution with efficiency and simplification in mind. FileMaker has many places where logic can exist in. It can be on an object, in a parameter, within a script, wit…

No Access? Watch the preview video here. HijackFindMode_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size HijackFindMode.zip 161.08 KB By Matt Petrowsky One of the fastest ways to load records into a found set is to simply perform a Find. What becomes a bit difficult, beyond your most basic single field search, is filtering the results of what the user has specified by the requirements of the solution. What needs to happen is a plain and simple hijacking of FileMaker's Find mode. This can easily be done with the features provided by FileMaker Pro. You just need to know where and how to hook things up. Most intermediate to advanced users know about FileMaker's Custom Menu Sets…

No Access? Watch the preview video here. DatabaseNotifications_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size DatabaseNotifications.zip 149.8 KB By Matt Petrowsky Bad joke: How do you know when your database has a problem? Answer: Simple, you make a query about it - and have it notify you. Ok, all jokes aside, you're taking the time to create a wonderful work of technological art by creating a database which will solve all kinds of real world problems. The problem, however, is you may not know when things go right, or wrong, within your database. Probably, because you haven't taken the time to code in some type of notification system. Fortunately, this is quite easy. The…

", "forceHTML5": true, "forceSSL":true}' class="video-js vjs-default-skin" width="640" height="360" controls="controls" preload="auto"> D3CustomCharts_Full.mp4 By Matt Petrowsky FileMaker does data, and it does it well - and easily. What FileMaker doesn't do "as" well is data visualization. This isn't because it couldn't. It's because they just haven't been able to focus on it as much. Sure, you can format portals, use repeating fields and use conditional formatting for all kinds of display magic, but you won't realize the same results as you could with a tool or language built specifically for data visualization. In my humble opinion, they shouldn't wor…

No Access? Watch the preview video here. Breadcrumbs_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size Breadcrumbs.zip 151.33 KB By Matt Petrowsky Oh, the wonderful navigational aid of breadcrumbs. It always seems like the web has it all. Yes, you can do pretty much anything within a web viewer. But wait! You don't want to use a web viewer? Shouldn't you be able to make this happen natively? Well, sure. Why not? You can make it happen with FileMaker 13 and higher! This video and its technique file present a native way to implement navigational breadcrumbs. It accomplishes this task with a minimal amount of effort and can be localized as well. It won't break if you rename yo…

No Access? Watch the preview video here. BarcodingInFMP_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size BarcodesInFileMaker.zip 120.45 KB By Matt Petrowsky Do you really have a full hour for learning almost everything there is to know about generating barcodes from within FileMaker?* No? Then just skip this video, because it certainly does cover all the bases about using and generating barcodes. Whether FileMaker native, plug-in based, Javascript, Java, apps, command line or just simple barcode fonts, it's addressed in this video. If you ask the barcode question at an online forum, you may get a few responses, but those you receive will likely be based on the author's pers…

", "forceHTML5": true, "forceSSL":true}' class="video-js vjs-default-skin" width="640" height="360" controls="controls" preload="auto"> PSoS_Full.mp4 By Matt Petrowsky Perform Script on Server is the one step which will change how you develop FileMaker solutions FOREVER. Yes, I said that with all caps! This is exciting! There's so much power in how it can be used, that it truly is a game changer. This is fundamentally why the web is so popular. It works like this. Your client, a web browser, makes a request to some beefy server and it wrangles the data and then reports back with the compiled results. This is essentially what this new script step does, b…

No Access? Watch the preview video here. HyperlinkingRecords_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size HyperlinkingRecords.zip 249.06 KB By Matt Petrowsky There's often a time when that fateful question is asked while developing in FileMaker. What's the question you ask? Well, it's this one. "Wouldn't it be cool if FileMaker supported native hyperlinking?" Well, now that's an idea. Maybe it doesn't support it natively, but you sure can make it happen. It's all a matter knowing what FileMaker provides in order to make it a reality. Using some built-in FileMaker functions, in conjunction with fmp:// url and some Custom Function magic, you can certainly make the process…

No Access? Watch the preview video here. MergedImportTracking_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size MergedImportModificationTracking.zip 267.8 KB By Matt Petrowsky When developing within FileMaker, there are often times when I'm surprised at how much "figuring out" is required to solve a problem. In this video article I provide a great deal of information about a problem I was having with managing a recurring import of some inventory data. The data being imported was constantly changing and came from an external source where only a few fields are controlled by the user. With the original FileMaker system, it was structured in such a way where the "clean slate" appr…

Attachment Size HTMLImageMaps.zip 143.93 KB By Matt Petrowsky Just like fashion, there are certain technologies which often cycle around and find new life in our modern tech world. A great example are animated gifs. And speaking of making the rounds, don't forget about the 20 plus year old tech of HTML Image Maps. Since FileMaker Pro has integrated Web Viewers and with the addition of FileMaker's fmp:// url, we've long been able to integrate images with irregularly shaped areas offering any number of polygonal objects which are user clickable. If you deal with any kind of map, seating chart, irregular shaped real-world object which requires specific define…

No Access? Watch the preview video here. Base64Icons_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size Multi-StateToggleGraphics.zip 1.1 MB By Matt Petrowsky For me, it's always been one of those itches I could never quite scratch. You know, the fact that in order to show some of your user interface graphics you needed to store these graphics within your database - along with your data. In fact, it's pretty much accepted that you create container fields, many times within a dedicated table, to store graphics and resources. The issue I had with this approach was not that it needs to be done, but the fact that the user interface graphics were not separated out from the rest of …

No Access? Watch the preview video here. HTMLEmail_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size HTMLEmails.zip 105.26 KB By Matt Petrowsky For the email purist, the only valid email is a plain text email. For the rest of the world there's HTML email. Currently, FileMaker only supports native sending of plain-text emails. The available Send Mail script step is certainly a capable solution for sending your plain-text emails - and solves the problem most of the time. You can use your own SMTP servers or send email via a free hosted email account such as Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail. If, however, your goal is to join the rest of the marketing world and make your email corresponde…

"}' class="video-js vjs-default-skin" width="640" height="360" controls="controls" preload="auto"> FileMakerDeployment_Full.mp4 By Matt Petrowsky Simply creating a single FileMaker file to store your data is a perfectly fine way to start your solution. However, the first few times any number of users start complaining about the workflow taking too long, is when you may need to evaluate your architecture. For sure, FileMaker Pro is a very capable platform. Like any thing else in the world of tech, there are less efficient implementations and highly optimized solutions. A knowledgable developer will known how to squeeze every bit of performance out of the …

No Access? Watch the preview video here. EndlessSliders_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size EndlessPictureSliders.zip 839.55 KB By Matt Petrowsky One of the fun aspects of working with FileMaker, or any other programming environment, is coming up with creative solutions to using the provided tools. In this case, it's FileMaker 13's new sliders which provide some really cool functionality. When paired with Get ( TriggerTargetPanel ) you can simply use the Slider control for the purpose of capturing a swipe on a mobile device. When you combine this knowledge with desired features, such as showing a (theoretically) endless number of pictures, you arrive at a soluti…

No Access? Watch the preview video here. PopoverMenus_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size PopoverMenus.zip 202.16 KB By Matt Petrowsky Having access to one of the more recent and most prevalent UI patterns within FileMaker is extremely empowering. Using Popovers and portals, it's now possible to create solution wide menu systems which can be used for navigation, actions or whatever you see fit. When you combine global variables, with the Virtual List technique and popovers, you can significantly decrease the amount of time it would normally take to maintain even a moderately complex menu system within a FileMaker solution. It only takes a bit of creativity and f…

"}' class="video-js vjs-default-skin" width="640" height="360" controls="controls" preload="auto"> MobileUIPatterns_Full.mp4 By Matt Petrowsky FileMaker 13 introduced a number of new features. While the feature list seemed a bit short, at least to the feature greedy developer, the new mobile specific features of Gesture taps, Popovers and Sliders will provide a wide variety of new functionality for months to come. In the case of mobile design, the number of UI patterns which can be emulated now within FileMaker has grown significantly. Beyond straight-forward popovers, you can combine both older and newer functionality to accomplish some really cool stuf…

No Access? Watch the preview video here. MultitenancySecurity_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size MultitenantSecurity.zip 113.44 KB By Matt Petrowsky Crafting a complex security setup within FileMaker can be a bit daunting. Possibly, because of how you interact with and establish security within FileMaker. Despite what may seem obvious, it isn't just about what FileMaker's default security provides, but how you integrate the controls which you have access too. When solution security setup and testing is the after thought, there's a lot of potential for accidental holes in the security model. However, if you take the upfront steps of setting things up from the begi…

No Access? Watch the preview video here. FM13Themes_Pre.mp4 By Matt Petrowsky Prior to FileMaker 13, my interest in any of FileMaker's default themes was pretty much zero. Being that I personally enjoy the process of designing a nice user interface, I was content with creating, and hacking, whatever user interface I needed. I did this on pretty much every layout, one-by-one, using the Classic theme selected as the default. Enter the world of FileMaker 13 and my perception of FileMaker themes has now made a full 180. You see, the advantage of custom themes, custom themed objects and the ability to have an unlimited number of these, themed objects that is, makes…

"}' class="video-js vjs-default-skin" width="640" height="360" controls="controls" preload="auto"> By Matt Petrowsky FileMaker 13 was released on December 3rd 2013 and this release is a very worthy upgrade! Many of the features are specific to mobile centric solutions but many other valuable new features were added as well. Whether you need access to your FileMaker data via the new WebDirect functionality or you've been waiting years (like I have) for some features to be completed, like calculation based tab names and dialog buttons, there's sure to be something within FileMaker 13 which you'll appreciate. This video provides an high level overview of…

Attachment Size ListFunctionLeverage.zip 54.15 KB By Matt Petrowsky Once you understand the logical branching of an If() statement, it's easy to start combining a bunch of chunks of text for the purpose of data display. The problem, however, is things get really convoluted when you start to combine a variety of fields for consolidated output. You end up with a larger collection of many If statements and things become harder to read. On the upside, one of the more enjoyable aspects of coding is discovering the elegance of concise and efficient code by using various functions in order to arrive at your desired output - without having the overhead and complex …

No Access? Watch the preview video here. ErrorHandling2013_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size ErrorHandlingLogging.zip 84.77 KB By Matt Petrowsky If your FileMaker solution doesn't currently have any type of error handling built in, there may come a day when you need to know what's going on. Especially when things don't work as expected. You see, here's the crux of the situation. While you can certainly control the behavior of your solution and how things work on the inside, you can't control the external operating system and other aspects beyond the guts of your own solution. What this means is your Export Field or your Import Records script step may break on o…

No Access? Watch the preview video here. RememberedTabs_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size RememberedTabs.zip 57.98 KB A technically simple, yet highly functional FileMaker solution seems like the ideal type of solution. You won't have a maintenance nightmare and the end user payoff feels really good. The trick is meeting user expectations with simple solutions to problems not solved by FileMaker natively. Such is the case with remembering layout state within a solution. This can happen with tab panel objects quite easily - as this video will show. By using a combination of script triggers and global variables, a "just-in-time" method of addressing this problem can b…

No Access? Watch the preview video here. PopupMenuTricks_Pre.mp4 Attachment Size PopupMenuTricks.zip 66.23 KB Pop-up menus are the de facto widget for making selections from multi-option fields on mobile devices. Sure, checkboxes are possible, but they take up as much space as you have items. Not very efficient given the limited space on smartphones and tablets. So, on mobile, the two most viable solutions for making multiple selections for a single field are either portals or a pop-up menu. You can use an additional window as well, but that's a technique for another day. FileMaker has long supported making multiple selections in a pop-up menu via the Shi…

Attachment Size Debugging.zip 59.84 KB So, how exactly, do you debug your FileMaker solution while coding? I'd love to hear about it - seriously! It's always great to pick up a few new tips and tricks along the way. Speaking of tips, I shot this most recent video about the process of debugging. Personally, I've used the Data Viewer for watch variables and environmental information, but I always ended up with some sort of FileMaker crash and had to revise how I approach things. FileMaker stores your watch variables within its preferences file and they get deleted if FileMaker crashes. Just in case you didn’t know. When developing for mobile came onto the scene i…

by Matt Petrowsky 31 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Because it's so easy to start a database within FileMaker, it's way to easy to gloss over the power features underneath the surface. I would imagine some developers may never even touch the OnObjectKeystroke and OnLayoutKeystroke events and still make use of a great FileMaker database. The trick to taking advantage of some of these power features is making them easy to implement. Who remembers what all the numeric values are for the myriad of Get () functions? You may often have to look things up and this takes time. On the ot…

by Matt Petrowsky 31 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File One of the more comfortable concepts within FileMaker is the pervasive calculation dialog box. Once you're familiar, you find it everywhere. It can be used with fields and your database schema, and it's used within the processing and logic of your scripts. When it comes to schema, and what your fields can do, the calculation dialog box is right there with its handy Auto-Enter options. This powerful feature allows you to do all kinds of magic with fields. A field can determine what it should become or change into when other field…

by Matt Petrowsky 29 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Spell checking seems like one of those subtle little afterthoughts. You either know you need it or it almost doesn't exist. But, of course, it's always there. This isn't how it used to be. It used to be that you had to check everything manually if you wanted to catch those typos. With the OS picking up a bunch of the work in the last decade, pretty much any application can simply show which words are misspelled. This is the familiar red-dotted, or some other color, underline we now see when a word is misspelled. While this particular feature, in Fi…

by Matt Petrowsky 25 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File What's the easiest way to display images within your FileMaker solution? Did you answer with a container field? Sure! Now, did you answer with the "same" container field which stores the image? Maybe not. In fact, probably not. The right answer, however, in most all situations is typically "it depends", but we're going to walk through the knowledge necessary to optimize your database for the best performance when it comes to image display. You often find tradeoffs when it comes to storing and displaying data. You either stor…

by Matt Petrowsky 36 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File I think I may be right in assuming one of the most under utilized features of FileMaker is the web viewer. Not because it's hard. Rather, because it's a hassle. When you're using a web viewer for the display of data, you must to be comfortable with knowing a bit of HTML, as well as CSS, in order to achieve the desired look. Unlike native FileMaker, it's not like selecting a piece of text in Layout mode and simply making it bold and changing the font and color. The big advantage, however, is the degree of control and interactivi…

by Matt Petrowsky 13 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Sometimes it's the simple things that make you smile. When I first started using the trusty little diamond character, I was so pleased with myself - despite its lack of complexity. The old way of accomplishing things in the user interface typically involved using a container field with some image in order to make your interface look halfway decent. Nowadays, you can find a lot of use in the vector based characters of fonts. On the web it's all the rage. They even have automated custom font builders which include various icons. Hopefully, some day, F…

by Matt Petrowsky 45 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File The Virtual List technique, as it's come to be known, has been possible since the introduction of global variables with FileMaker 8. It wasn't widely known or used until Bruce Robertson started promoting its use in ways which were previously not envisioned. It can be used for more flexible printed output or showing information from multiple tables within one single portal or list view. Essentially, you populate the contents of a $global variable in some fashion and then parse that data into some viewable form - "on the fly" as th…

by Matt Petrowsky 26 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Ahh.., don't you just love it when a solution pops into your head and it's super simple and works great as well. Such was the situation when a new subscriber wrote in asking me about an older technique from 2010. While the basic premise of comparing one container field against another makes sense, it's quite a bit harder to put this into practice within the same portal. Either the field you're dragging from will obscure the field you need to drop into or FileMaker just doesn't have the feature set in order to make it technically…

by Matt Petrowsky 42 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File One of the nicest feelings in the world is getting something for free. Especially when it really helps you out and it's valuable. At the small cost of giving up a little bit of data, to one of the world's biggest data collectors, you can see how users use your FileMaker solution and what they do. In fact, what you collect, and how, is totally up to you. You can control pretty much anything in terms of what you transfer to Google Analytics. Many developers who have implemented Google's Analytics only go a short distance to what they could poten…

by Matt Petrowsky 29 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File FileMaker provides us with the wonderfully simple Duplicate menu option right there within its Records menu. The problem, however, with a relational database, is the fact that many times you're in need of duplicates of both a master record and any of its child records. This video presents one of the many possible solutions to this exact issue. You can, for example, export a set of related records and then reimport them while reassigning key fields. You can also fully script the whole process using all of the original data and si…

by Matt Petrowsky 40 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File There was a day, when either computers were simply too slow or people just weren't used to the idea of seeing themselves on the computer screen. Probably the later. The screen was for showing data, not for personal flattery. However, the web and social media exploded and having some sort of user image, or avatar, is quite the norm these days. Using a mobile device like an iPhone or iPad and taking advantage of FileMaker Go allows for all kinds of opportunity when it comes to capturing user images. The embedded cameras are great …

by Matt Petrowsky 44 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File FileMaker Standards Web Site Having personally developed with both languages and frameworks which implement strong sets of standards, I quickly found that having some form of standards imposed, allowed me to focus more on the solution once the conventions were learned. I wasn't doing the same type of thing in two different ways due to the current "known" way. Notice, I didn't say the "right" way. There's often more than one way to accomplish something. It's like driving a car however. No matter which one I hop into, they all have…

by Matt Petrowsky 44 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File We've all heard it before. The mobile storm is coming - if not already here. This means you're likely going to build a healthy number of mobile solutions. But heck, even if you're not, there's a ton of advantages to using a local file for part of your FileMaker solution. With a local file, you can cache static data, images, media, you name it. Your local file can easily connect to any remote file and either temporarily transfer data, perform a sync or stay permanently connected. The problem with this wonderful idea of a speedy …

by Matt Petrowsky 32 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File When it comes to using Custom Menus within FileMaker Pro, I often get the impression that many developers consider this a "nice to have" feature - not the "go to" feature it could potentially be for any solution. You'll often here developers talk about teaching users "How to use FileMaker". What this means is that not too many developers are taking advantage of Custom Menus. Here's the trick. Put them in from the start. Their lack of general use may be attributed to the process of creating them - it isn't quite user friendly. You have to be willin…

by Matt Petrowsky 37 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Cascading Value Lists Article User-based Value Lists Back in October of 2012, I provided a video titled User-based Value Lists. Earlier in May of that same year, I presented Cascading Value Lists, which uses the new ExecuteSQL to generate the value list options. This video provides yet more information and another way of providing the same feature - plus many great tips along the way. The method presented within this video does not use ExecuteSQL and may be easier to implement and manage if you're not quite ready for SQL. As wit…

by Matt Petrowsky 37 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Field labels are the quintessential indicator of where data should be input. Without the good 'ole field lable users are entering data blind. A great goal to shoot for with field labels is something consistent, a bit understated, something that doesn't get in the way yet informs the data entry person about what to enter. The problem with labels on a layout is they take up space. Often times, a lot of space. They can also detract from the presentation of the data itself. In recent years, a popular trend has been showing field lab…

by Matt Petrowsky 20 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File A "d-a-t-a-b-a-s-e" (say it slowly with me) is for storing data right? Sure it is. But it also provides an "i-n-t-e-r-f-a-c-e" and allows users to work with that data. So why not provide a little bit of customization and allow users to change the color of things. The problem FileMaker has is providing the tools for developers to do this very thing. For some odd reason, FileMaker does not natively provide support for accessing the OS level color picker. That familiar tool which is evident in most every other application known to mankind. So, we hav…

by Matt Petrowsky 40 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Previous Duplicates Article The last time I covered the topic of dealing with duplicates was 2009. This was pre FileMaker 12. The methods covered in that video still apply to today's solutions in terms of usability. However, the newer content within this video is optimized for the updated ways of doing things in FileMaker 12. You're always able to use FileMaker's own internal logic to flag existing duplicates within a solution. This is what was being done in the previous method. Looking through a relationship and using "match cr…

by Matt Petrowsky 33 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File In today's multi-device world, people no longer simply use a single "main" computer and log in, then log out for a day's worth of work. These days we're on-the-go. We're mobile. We're on our desktops, then on our laptops, and back to the iPad or iPhone, constantly moving from device to device. What this means is our login systems now need to track and manage a bit more each time we log into a given database. It's not just about the user, it's about the device they're using as well. FileMaker 12 has provided us with the tools to …

by Matt Petrowsky 23 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File One of today's fundamental ways of being notified about something is via email. Of course, we also have new services like Twitter and the wonderful SMS features via our smartphones. Yet, even those services like Twitter send out email about the status of new tweets. It all comes back to email. So, obviously, you'll want to take advantage of using email within your FileMaker solution. The question ends up related to how far you need to go in creating an email notification system within your solution. The answer, surprisingly, can be SUPER simple. Ev…

by Matt Petrowsky 25 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Window Centering 2010 Sometimes, the most simple things can become so complex. When all you really want is to center a window, you don't want to think about all the dividing of width and height and stuff - at least not beyond the first time. In 2010 I released a video article titled "Window Centering The Easy Way". This video is an extension of that article and includes updated custom functions and more information about how to take advantage of these useful functions - especially in today's ever expanding world of devices. This…

by Matt Petrowsky 27 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File FileMaker provides a wonderfully easy interface for adding values to a value list. You simply type in values to be presented within your Pop-up, Drop-down, Radio or Checkbox field. Set the field to use the value list and you're good to go. The problem, however, is being stuck with those values and then scripting an entire solution around them. If you know for 100% sure - of course, who's ever 100% sure - they will never change, and you're only EVER going to work in that one database within that one single language, then you'll ne…

by Matt Petrowsky 55 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File The native display method for related data in FileMaker has always been the good ol' built-in portal. This flexible tool has been used for its intended purpose as well as for unintended - such as for hiding and showing a button. With FileMaker 12's new ExecuteSQL() function you can now dip into the data bucket of any given table, or tables, and pull out exactly what you need. ExecuteSQL is useful for dynamic charting and filtering portals based on desired key values. It's a very flexible tool for sure. There are, however, some not so obvious "secr…

by Matt Petrowsky 39 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Movie File Many FileMaker solutions ultimately end up adding some form of an audit trail. An audit trail is a great solution when you need to rigorously track what has been done to pretty much any field within the database. Of course, you can always selectively choose what to track and that's where you start to distinguish between content revisions and audit trails. In the case of a content revision, you know there is a specific piece or chunk of information in which you want to see the history of evolution for that information. In my case, this comes in the form…

by Matt Petrowsky 42 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File It's those seemingly simple little techniques which seem like they should "just be in there". Something as simple as dragging and dropping an image to make FileMaker do things is what I'm talking about. Actually, there are so many moving parts to make this happen, that you wouldn't want FileMaker to do it for you. You really do want the control. You just need to know how to make it happen. While some may wish to drag into a dropwell, some may wish to drag into the last portal row which FileMaker provides. Regardless of how you w…

by Matt Petrowsky 54 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Movie File Setting up a FileMaker server instance is one of those tasks you may only do "once in a while". It's simply not one of those things you do on a daily basis. However, knowing what the process is, and some of the details behind how the whole "Server Client" thing works, is certainly beneficial. In this almost hour long video, I talk about my recent experience with setting up a new FileMaker 12 Advanced server and cover some of the benefits and "need to know" information about the process. If you're a developer, and you develop on your local machine, then using the developer…

by Matt Petrowsky 26 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Movie File Ah 'Retina'! It just sounds so high resolution - doesn't it? But wait, what does it really mean? How do you translate the whole notion of Retina display to the designs you create for FileMaker Go? I'll tell you how in this video. It showcases most all the information you need to know in order to make sure your designs in FileMaker Pro/Advanced will 'scale up' to look just as sharp on the high resolution retina display of the new iPad and iPhone. Come to find out, there's a lot you can now do natively in FileMaker 12 which will mimic the way vectors sca…

by Matt Petrowsky 14 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File When FileMaker 12 was released, with new gradient support, I was very excited. Also, with the advent of being able to use conditional formatting to make things invisible, things became even more exciting. When you now combine one field, one script and some conditional formatting, you can accomplish some SUPER simple, (and I mean SIMPLE) progress bars anywhere you need them within your interface. This video provides you with the insight and knowledge to take advantage of these new FileMaker 12 features in order to create some ver…

by Matt Petrowsky 13 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File As any FileMaker solution grows, you'll inevitably end up adding more and more settings. In some situations, these settings are simple toggle checkboxes which control how things function in the user interface. Either from a user or admin perspective, it really doesn't matter. What does matter is having to manage all of the aspects of each of these settings. Granted, the easiest thing to do is simply add a new field and making it a checkbox - but, what to do when you know you're adding an extra field simply to control how something works within the u…

by Matt Petrowsky 36 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Doing your best to create a robust FileMaker solution is likely part of your goals and objectives. However, until you know how to approach some aspects of your solution design, you can easily spend a lot of time creating something which can be both hard to maintain and upgrade. This is where canonical coding comes into action. The objective with canonical coding is to put a number of things specific to your whole solution in singular locations. This is also covered by the premise of DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) coding. In this vi…

by Matt Petrowsky 44 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Movie File Wow! The FileMaker 12 release has either been a "love it" or "hate it" experience for a number of developers. Regardless of where you stand, the new file format and the layout changes are here to stay. It's the future of FileMaker and how things will be rendered. Speaking of how things are rendered, there was a very enlightening session at the 2012 Annual Devcon in Miami, FL. FileMaker Inc, in particular Andrew Paulsen, presented a topic named Under the Hood: FileMaker Pro 12 Layouts & Themes. In this session it was covered that FileMaker Layouts ac…

by Matt Petrowsky 23 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Within FileMaker, the methods for presenting related information extend to calculated fields, web viewers and portals. The most obvious of these is portals. Portals allow you integrate icons, graphics, buttons, fields (of course) and work in all kinds of user interface tricks. One of those tricks, from earlier versions, was creating a fixed sized portal and then paging through related data a group at a time. Show ten rows and you can page through easily because you know how many rows there are. What happens, however, when you have a variable …

by Matt Petrowsky 34 minutes Article options Launch Center App Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Your FileMaker Go app is ready. You're excited that FileMaker Go 12 is free. You point your customers or users to go download FileMaker Go from the iTunes App store. Now you simply need to make the process of getting into that one specific database just a little bit easier. How about a Home Screen launch icon? Darn, FileMaker Go can't do that... but wait. While it would be great if applications could generate their own launching icons, I personally couldn't find any app which would create icons for you. I do use…

by Matt Petrowsky 55 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File There's so much data moving around daily on our networks (including the Internet at large) that it would hurt your brain to even think of how many bits and bytes move over the air and wires. The methods by which all this data is pushed and pulled around is all a matter of protocols, ports, packets and more. For us mere database developers, we need to know the various methods for pushing and pulling some of this data into our solutions. This is where XML/XSL (and XPath) come into play. While importing and exporting into known str…

by Matt Petrowsky 48 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File SQL Builder SQL Explorer FileMakerHacks SQL Series Skeleton Key SQL Examples It's finally here, and it's a power tool you simply can't ignore. Yes, you can still build a FileMaker solution the same way you always have. With lots and lots of table occurrences to make FileMaker do exactly what you want it to do. The problem, however, has always been information overload. As once the solution gets to a certain point, it becomes increasingly harder to decipher. This is due to the fact that FileMaker has always been a tightly bound en…

by Matt Petrowsky 27 minutes For some developers, the Let function can be a confusing tool. However, without it, FileMaker calculations would be the eternal mess they used to once be. The Let function is pretty much a critical tool (in my opinion) that all FileMaker developers should know and use. If only for the reason that it provides the ability to self-document code by using human readable variables. This video provides a great walk through of how to get started with the Let function and more importantly, explains why you should be using it if you're not! Details: Released - 4/25/2012 / Size - / Length - 27 min View the full article

by Matt Petrowsky 37 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Movie File Personally, FileMaker's custom menus had always been an afterthought. Especially, when it came to creating my solutions. I've always considered their implementation pretty poor and there are a lot of dialogs to click through to set them up. However, once I figured out a system which really worked for me, and kept my code organization pretty clean, I started adding them as part of the initial setup for new solutions. In this video, I go through how I use custom menus and why you'll want to consider using them more heavily. If you've not used them before…

i am getting this error what to do

Hi - I've taken a stab at implementing an attributes table in my solution based on the technique shown in your Data Separation series. I've run into the problem of how to find a record based on multiple criteria in the Attributes table. You can see my more detailed post here: http://fmforums.com/forum/topic/83554-finding-records-via-a-related-attributes-table/ Thanks! Tom

by Matt Petrowsky 60 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Movie File People do good things - and - people do bad things. If people only did good things, we'd never need security, because nobody would fear what would happen when the bad comes out. Of course, mistakes happen as well and killing a bunch of mission critical data is something you certainly want to avoid. So, whether you're worried about the bad things people do, or the fact that people simply make mistakes, you'll need to add some security to your database. This video covers the ins-and-outs of FileMaker's security model and how you'd go about using it. Comi…

Leave comments on the video at YouTube Full list of new features on FileMaker.com More features, pricing and pictures at FileMaker.com Can't get enough new FMP12 information? Take a listen to this podcast about FileMaker 12 View the full article

by Matt Petrowsky 25 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Before you ever write a single line of code, within FileMaker or anything else, your primary goal should be maintenance and clarity. If you can't understand your own code later, then no one else will either. If your code is a pile of spaghetti, it will be extremely hard to maintain - and - just not that fun. The principle of DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) coding is such that, you can make sweeping changes in singular locations. This makes your code more maintainable and actually more fun to work with. It also becomes more "portable"…

by Matt Petrowsky 46 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File One of FileMaker's great advantages is that you don't have to be so specific when creating your fields. Specific in terms of how many bits and bytes you're going to store in every field. All you really need to do is pick the field type and then set any conditions you desire. However, when it comes to conditions, you need to know what can be set and how to do so. There's always those hidden little tidbits such as using the Length() function on a container field in order to get the byte size of an image. Then you also have issues related to image or …

by Matt Petrowsky 44 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File FileMaker's Layout mode is the one place where you present the information contained within your database. The presentation can be broken down into categories depending on your solution. The two most simple categories are "screen" and "output". When designing your solution, the degree of creativity used is entirely up to you. It's knowing the tools and how information can be presented which will help you decide. It's certainly possible to create an entire FileMaker solution with all Form views, all List views, or both Form and …

by Matt Petrowsky 44 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Movie File When you hear the word 'schema', and think about your database, you may think this deals with how your database is structured. While true, the data connections you make within the Relationship Graph are only one part of your whole solution. You'll certainly have scripts which define the logical "use and flow" of how people interact with the data. Yet, the key to knowing how to structure your data schema is knowing what your options are and when to set them. Part of knowing how to structure a database comes from knowing the options available, the other …

by Matt Petrowsky 41 minutes Article options FMKB Minimal Indexes Watch Full Version Download Movie File Anyone CAN find a needle in a haystack, if they supply a seemingly endless amount of time and patience. The problem, however, is we often feel we have little of either. So we strive to make things as fast as we can - including our database response time. This is where field indexing enters the picture. Fields in your database are indexed according to various rules. Different field types are indexed slightly differently, but it's all zeros and ones underneath. For the most part, indexing in FileMaker is easy. FileMaker attempts to take care of this for…

by Matt Petrowsky 30 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Movie File Because of how the FileMaker development environment was structured, there's a lot of in and out of dialog boxes - especially when working on a smaller screen. You often head into an area like scripts or Define Database and then out of an area as you craft your masterpiece. In previous versions of FileMaker this used to be a forced situation - and still is in various areas. At least in current versions you can have Manage Scripts (always our beloved ScriptMaker to us old schoolers) and Manage Layouts open while still interacting with various other windo…

by Matt Petrowsky 27 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Movie File It doesn't really matter where your skill level is at with FileMaker Pro, there's always more to learn. Even after close to 20 years myself, and feeling like an expert, I learned something new in this video - and it feels good to learn. What I learned happens to deal with the accessibility of help and how easily you can find help within the specific areas of FileMaker Pro. This video starts off a new series about taking full advantage of the FileMaker development environment. There's one thing in common which some software users do when working with ne…

by Matt Petrowsky 27 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Oh, to keep things clean and tidy. That's the feeling many of us seek much of the time. Things can be found and seen when they are clean and neat - it also "feels" better. These same feelings apply to times when bringing up new windows within the context of your own solution. Simply throwing windows all over the place in your FileMaker solution may invoke that same feeling when you're handed a business card and it feels like single ply toilet paper - wimpy. It's all about perception. Fortunately, you get to control how windows a…

by Matt Petrowsky 37 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Movie File It's simply amazing, yet not unexpected, at how much the tablet world is finally taking off. I fondly remember purchasing my second Apple Newton and thinking, "Wow, this is so cool, it's like the movies and it's happening now." While it's taken us a little under a decade to get there, it's certainly happening now - and the cool thing is, FileMaker can have a pretty strong role in the whole equation. As much as FileMaker firmly planted itself in the world of desktop databases, it stands the chance to do the same in the world of mobile devices. It's just "way too easy" to m…

by Matt Petrowsky 32 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Hey, just "Google" that... Yeah, that's right, Google is the Kleenex of single field searching. It's not just on Google's own home page. It's the little search box in Safari, Chrome, IE, Firefox and whatever other piece of software provides some search feature. True, there will always be other ways to search for things and FileMaker has always provided it's familiar query-by-form method of searching for data. The cool thing about FileMaker's relatively new feature of QuickFind is that - well - it's there! Yet, I hear from many…

by Matt Petrowsky 35 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File When I first introduced the concept of using a tagging model, via the classification of data, I only discussed one of a few possible options. The first option I covered, related to any given element in your database (in this case a person), was the ability to associate multiple classifications, otherwise known as tags, to a person. What ends up ultimately happening is the desire to have a singular classification for an element. For example, a person can be a student and a parent, but how many times is a student both a 1st and 2nd grader? While the …

by Matt Petrowsky 31 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Movie File Attractive Sorting Indicators Article If videos one and two of this three part series were the "pretty & shiny" parts, then this last part of the series is Vvrooom vroom of the engine - the stuff that backs up the pretty stuff. There are three elegant techniques added into the revised file. The first of the three is a straight-forward implementation of user preferences. While it's simple to put into any FileMaker solution, it's not often the first thought to provide each login account with unique preferences to how they use your FileMaker solution. …

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by Matt Petrowsky 24 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Movie File Creating any type of solution within FileMaker means you're working with structuring data and planning a user interface. They just go hand-n-hand. However, when dealing with the later, you're often focused on the user interaction portion and not just the pretty look and feel. It turns out that FileMaker doesn't provide an obvious separation between the UI, the UX and Data Structure. It's all in the same file (or in multiple files). So, what's a developer to do when they come across a situation like a kiosk solution? Something where you may have playful kiddies just mashi…

by Matt Petrowsky 23 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Covering every single aspect of any given subsystem in a database solution can take quite a bit of time. There's typically some juicy tidbit of information you may have left out - and I wanted to make sure you get every little bit you can. This was the case with the Notifications system. I wanted to make sure I covered every little detail, because it's such a useful aspect for any database. Without being notified of events, which may be happening with data, all you really have is a data warehouse. In this video, you'll learn ab…

by Matt Petrowsky 38 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Rather than creating one or two scripts to solve one specific problem, it's typically better to solve the whole problem by creating a system which can be leveraged in more than one place and by more than one database system. Such is the case with the Notifications system, which is now integrated into the KarateApp sample database. The Notifications system is one in which a general approach is taken to sending out notifications to any target device via a particular method. What this means is that a SmartPhone would be a target de…

by Matt Petrowsky 42 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File The separation model requires creative thinking when it comes to keeping the data file clean of any extraneous fields. Fortunately, one of the best aspects of the Relationship Graph is that it doesn't care where the file resides or where the data comes from as long as it can access the fields for relationships. Given the previous statement, we can certainly create extra UI tables in order to facilitate our fondest data dreams and wishes. Adding new tables to the UI file is par for the course when you consider the number of existi…

by Matt Petrowsky 47 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Developer Assistant fmXRaySpecs FMDiff Website Inspector Pro BaseElements How could anyone ever expect to build a house without a hammer? How about throwing an air compressor and nail gun into the mix? Yeah, that's right, you can get a lot more done in a shorter amount of time when you have more powerful tools. Every occupation has their tools. Typically, created by people within that profession who needed a faster, better way of doing things. A FileMaker database can quickly become a management nightmare. Adding new fields and relationships for new…

by Matt Petrowsky 35 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Like many things in life, you can certainly know "what" something does and "how" to use it - but, you may not know "how it does what it does" and often more importantly, "why it works that way". As an example, if you knew everything about everything, then you'd likely know how to fix your car or a broken toilet. So, why do you need a mechanic or a plumber? Because they do know "why it works that way". They know what's going on behind the scenes, not just how to take a seat and make something work (yeah, ok a bit of gross humor - …

by Matt Petrowsky 43 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Creating a robust scheduling calendar within FileMaker can either be a big pain or an experience of joy. If you're into "the process" of figuring things out, such as "the how" then by all means, have at it. However, if you're simply needing the functionality, and know you've got bigger, better problems to solve, then why not take full advantage of solutions which already exist. If you really need all your data within FileMaker, then solutions such as SeedCode's Pro Calendar will get you started faster than you can add 42 repetitions - actually not …

by Matt Petrowsky 47 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Movie File Wikipedia: Cryptographic hash function Security is one of those funny words. One dictionary definition is "the state of feeling safe, stable, and free from fear or anxiety". While it may be hard to be completely "free from fear or anxiety" (when it comes to your data), you can certainly lock things down so it's SUPER hard for any "bad guy" to get anything of value. Questions like "Is FileMaker secure" are pretty general, and given that FileMaker is just a tool, you're the responsible party for making sure things keep you free from that "fear or anxiety…

by Matt Petrowsky 33 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File The last time I released a video specifically about merge fields was in 2007. Wow! That's a long time and it's such a powerful and frequently used feature. What would a database solution be without the ability to send email? So, here we are with this Karate App solution and we're using the separation model to design and deploy. The next addition to the database is the ability to send email - so, we need merge fields. Using a a few custom functions, an admin layout, the user interface and some merging creativity, we can easily a…

by Matt Petrowsky 24 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Movie File Nobody likes a rug being yanked out from underneath them - to reference the popular phrase. The same thing applies to your interface and solution. When a user moves from one layout to another, they're typically not expecting to come back to something different than when they left. The biggest issues with FileMaker retaining layout state are tabs and portals. In the past, I've covered how you can move from one record to another and maintain the selected portal row. In this video, I present a simple technique for using the ever popular "back button" feature found in pretty …

by Matt Petrowsky 37 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File In this video in the series, we're again laying some groundwork for future videos which deal with "separation issues". The content covered isn't super specified to the Separation Model, but does provide a wealth of knowledge about integrating a vital feature which is inevitably added to most any database - calendar widgets. Even if your database never deals with scheduling events, you're going to need to filter out information based on dates, times and date/time ranges - if only for reporting purposes. In order to make this happ…

by Matt Petrowsky 34 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File How is it you know a student from a vendor and a vendor from a teacher? Well, it's all context right? You visit the school to see the teacher and you visit the industrial complex to see the vendor. As the saying goes, "If life was only that simple." Of course you can find a student at a school OR an industrial complex - the former is every day life and the later is a field trip - Yeah! Since we can't count on context, we must use something else to identify what's what and who's who. Let's call that thing Data Classification. Cl…

by Matt Petrowsky 23 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File It's SO, and I mean SOOOOOO, easy to cheat on the Data Separation model. You just add a little calculated field here and another over there - it's no big deal right? Actually, (my personal opinion) it's not that big of a deal. I mean "Really" you do have access to the UI file AND the Data file - "You're the developer!". However, the situation may come up where these "extra" fields just clutter up things when some DBA wants to access the data via ODBC. So why not just keep it clean. The trick with this little problem is, what you …

by Matt Petrowsky 27 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Here's yet another video in this series which doesn't have much to do with the Separation Model. However, it's a really fun video because it deals with something so perfectly usable that it'd be a crime not to use it within your solution somewhere - barcodes. You see, humans are prone to error and you can almost always reduce error when you use something the machine can both generate and read. Barcodes have been one such answer to this "human error" dilemma for many decades. Even the most simple of barcode implementations can save many painful hour…

by Matt Petrowsky 26 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File Reporting is one of the most field hungry things you can ever do within FileMaker. So, what do I mean by field hungry? Well, take your standard timestamp value for example. It's composed of many different pieces of information - many you may want to report on. It has a day name, day value, month name, month value, month number, year number, hours, minutes, seconds and maybe even a time zone. WOW! That's a lot of extra fields. I count at least ten different additional fields. I'd really hate to add even a portion of these extra fi…

by Matt Petrowsky 18 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File For anyone who has worked with FileMaker for more than few years, the limitations found in the sorting script step are simply "the way it is". You can't dynamically specify either a sort field or the direction based on a calculated value or variable - like you can with the output path of an export for example. These limitations have always been something to work around and overcome. Over the years, I've used many different methods for sorting. They typically always centered around the script which was used for handling the sort. …

by Matt Petrowsky 37 minutes Article options Watch Full Version Download Movie File In all likelihood, the only database you'll provide [Full Access] for all users is the database you ONLY use for yourself. Otherwise, we're going to be adding security - plain and simple. In the Data Separation Model, there's a number of options which all depend on how you're going to deploy. If you're going the low cost route, then using External account authentication, by far the easiest method, is not going to be an option. External authentication requires FileMaker Server and a deployment of either Active Directory (Windows) or Open Directory (Macintosh). So, understan…

by Matt Petrowsky 22 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File When I was younger we frequently went camping. This trip felt like we were camping, but I forget if this particular trip was a planned camping trip or just an outing where my Father was helping a friend with chopping up some felled trees due to clearing some land. I remember being so excited about being able to take the small hatchet we had always kept by the fireplace. I was finally old enough to wield that cool looking ax. The one I had always wanted to snatch up and start swinging around like some crazed arena fighter. Sharp, …

by Matt Petrowsky 38 minutes Article options Watch Preview Video Watch Full Version Download Technique File Download Movie File FileMaker has a few unique features because of it being its own database. Unlike SQL, where you make selections across multiple tables (which FileMaker does support the use of some SQL - via a plugin), there's this concept of multi-keys for the purpose of relating many to many via one single record - or via one single field actually, it's known as a multi-key field. Knowing about this unique feature, and using it when it makes sense, is something you can take advantage of. So, the trick is knowing the difference between when to u…