How to make feedback that are considered to Filemaker ?

[genevieve charbon]

Hi,

I'd like to know if someone on this forum ever got a proper answer from filemaker inc, regarding an issue or a feature request he poseted to them.

If so, how and where did it post it ?

Is there better ways (even paying ones) to get consideration from that company than the feature request page.

I'd like to talk to real fmp people?

How to do ?

[Ocean West]

Hi,

I'd like to know if someone on this forum ever got a proper answer from filemaker inc, regarding an issue or a feature request he poseted to them.

Yes, making friends thru the FBA and chatting with folks at Devcon.

If so, how and where did it post it ?

Is there better ways (even paying ones) to get consideration from that company than the feature request page.

The official link is above, also in your HELP menu in FMP you can choose "Send us your Feedback"

I'd like to talk to real fmp people?

How to do ?

Are you on TechNet? Have you attended Devcon? This is where you get to converse with FMI people.

[genevieve charbon]

Thanks Ocean

as a non US Citizen and whose job is not to develop filemaker database but my own business, I can't afford Devcon.

As for TechNet, great that's what I was upon subscribing to. I wasn't sure that FMP engineers were actually replying in it.

Subsidiary question How come all the glaring feature omission we all complained about thousands time didn't get adresses in 20 years if FMP engineer actually do care about us ?

[The Shadow]

Actually, the engineers don't have that much control over what features get done (I know, I used to be one).

It might be better just to talk to your FMI sale's rep, if you have one.

Discussing it on TechNet is a good idea also, some of the Partner level people have an awful lot of influence.

[genevieve charbon]

Hi, If you used to be one FMP engineer, could you share with us, why obvious feature aren't implemented.

And who's responsible for the infamous relationshhip tree ? -)

[The Shadow]

Hi, If you used to be one FMP engineer, could you share with us, why obvious feature aren't implemented.

There's a variety of reasons, you would need to be more specific about a particular feature to get a more detailed response.

Marketing has a lot of power over what features get included, since they are responsible for having a consistent focus for a particular product release, and what that focus will be.

And who's responsible for the infamous relationship tree ? -)

You mean the relationships graph that started in FM 7? I had a hand in that, along with both of the FMI architects. We needed a new model that could avoided the need for data-tunneling but that was still basically backward compatible with FM6 relationships so everything would not need to be re-built during an upgrade to FM7.

I assume you're unhappy that there is no longer a list of relationships? The problem with the list is that it would be easy to show the tables that were one relationship away, but you can now also access tables two-relationships away or further.

[genevieve charbon]

I assume you're unhappy that there is no longer a list of relationships? The problem with the list is that it would be easy to show the tables that were one relationship away, but you can now also access tables two-relationships away or further.

Yes I miss the list a lot ! At first seeing the graph I was very happy, but that was before I created my solution with many many relationships.

We need also the list, in fact just the list of table occurrence displaying their base table. That's it. and then a button to jump to the table occurrence on the graph.

So no tunneling problems.

Take a look at my graph below. Yes I'm ashamed of it, and yes it's a nightmare to use, I've lost hours and hours just to find the table occurence I needed. Yes that's probably my fault, I didn't knew about squid techniques etc. But I'm not using Filemaker to code, I use FMP to get results fast, because my job is not database design.

I could spend a week to tidy this up, but with a list like I described I'd be perfectly fine with that mess and I wouldn't loose so much time.

you would need to be more specific about a particular feature to get a more detailed response.

For instance, in FMP 9, they've put a search box in the script maker window, how on earth could they forgive it in the field list !

Anyway, thanks a lot shadow for your hindsight, that's one of the most interesting post. I hope you'll keep sharing with us.

[genevieve charbon]

Hey, Shadow

I'm dying to here from you !

:-)

[The Shadow]

For instance, in FMP 9, they've put a search box in the script maker window, how on earth could they forgive it in the field list !

I didn't work on FMP 9, I left during 8.5 development, so I don't know about that one. Generally, ScriptMaker got more attention than for instance the field definitions as there were more people working on it. ScriptMaker and calculations end up being used by other components, and so they are getting more development time.

[genevieve charbon]

do tou still have buddies at filemaker, can you pass them some ideas ?

[genevieve charbon]

maybe you can answer that one.

vaiables are great but why aren't they more implemeted. For instance you can get their content and put in the clipboard, you have to use a global field.

There's many place where variable could replace globals but FMP doesn't let if.

I know, maybe it's a time constrain issue, but did you herad off plans to get more pervasive use for them ?

Is there any possibility we could write script as text ? Is there plans to do so.

What about the behind the scene sql sdk, the one provided by FM and used by myFMbutler DoSQL plug-in 1.0

(its problem rignt now is that it can't deel with filed name with space in them)

I'd love to have and update function.

To update some value we have to relie on replace, and if there's many fileds to replace per record, then FMP will scan each row as many tile there's fields to replace.

Why deletes are so slow

enough for today :-)

[The Shadow]

Yes, I still have friends at FileMaker, and I regularly suggest things to them - enough to be irritating, I'm sure.

[The usual snarky reply is for me to come back and do it myself...]

There's many place where variable could replace globals but FMP doesn't let it.

I have no ideas about their future plans, but during the time-frame when I was there (and variables were added), there was interest in having them in many spots, but the ones with the most payoff came first.

I don't think I'd be going out on too big of a limb to *guess* that the next File-format change (new file suffix, not ".fp7") will see them all over the place.

Are there any other spots (besides the clipboard) where you think variable support is critical?

Is there any possibility we could write script as text ? Is there plans to do so.

I don't know, and if I did know about future plans, I couldn't say.

Personally, I doubt ScriptMaker would ever open up, but the possibility of adding other types of scripts could perhaps happen. If people are interested in such things they should submit feature requests to FileMaker.

What about the behind the scene sql sdk, the one provided by FM and used by myFMbutler DoSQL plug-in 1.0 (its problem right now is that it can't deel with filed name with space in them)

I believe it can handle field and table names with spaces in them, just like any SQL-92 parser can, by escaping them with quotes:

    select "My Field Name", "My Table"."My Other Field" from "My Table"

are you seeing a bug when using this syntax? If so, point out the specific case.

Btw, I wrote that interface, and its SQL parser. I was using it as a test-bed for the SQL executor for the xDBC driver, and its parser wasn't ready for prime-time at the point I needed to write the executor for it.

Why deletes are so slow

Cascade deletes are generally the reason for extreeme slowness when deleting, that's generally slow on most systems.

[genevieve charbon]

I believe it can handle field and table names with spaces in them, just like any SQL-92 parser can, by escaping them with quotes:

select "My Field Name", "My Table"."My Other Field" from "My Table"

are you seeing a bug when using this syntax? If so, point out the specific case.

Btw, I wrote that interface, and its SQL parser. I was using it as a test-bed for the SQL executor for the xDBC driver, and its parser wasn't ready for prime-time at the point I needed to write the executor for it.

Many thanks Shadow, it works.

You've just helped the community big time

I tried to escape with %20, it did work for data source but not fields name, so I assumed, and was confirmed buy myFMbutler who wrote the excellent DoSQL Plug-In, that space didn't work.

Here's their message at the time june 07 (so 8.5)

Thank you for your interest in DoSQL.

Because of FileMaker limitations, currently you cannot have spaces in field names.

Although %20 will work in data source names, it will not for field names.

[genevieve charbon]

Btw, I wrote that interface, and its SQL parser.

Since I've the great honor to speak to THE man. Maybe you could check myfmButler DoSQL limitation due to FM's implementation according to their doc

4° Caveats: what you should know

DoSQL relies on an ExecuteSQL method in the FileMaker plug-in SDK. Therefore, it is important

to know that the plug-in has certain limitations, inherent to the use of that method.

a. IMPORTANT: Using the ‘UPDATE’ statement

The SQL engine is behaving like another user using your file with the same credentials you

have. It's as if it is accessing your data from another window. This means you have to be careful

when modifying records (using the ‘UPDATE’ statement). You could be in the process of modi-

fying yourself manually, or within a script.

Because FileMaker does not return a record locking error when that happens, use the 'UP-

DATE' statement with caution.

b. IMPORTANT: Using the ‘CREATE’, ‘ALTER’ or ‘DROP’ statements

If you want to use the 'CREATE', 'DROP' or 'ALTER' statements, the parameter executeOnIdle is

required.

Keep in mind, however that this particular feature is still experimental, so proceed with cau-

tion !

c. Do not use spaces in table or field names

Because of a limitation in FileMaker’s ExecuteSQL, the use of field names with spaces is not

supported. Although ‘%20’ will work for data source names with spaces, it will not work for

field names with spaces.

d. Avoid making stored calculations that do DoSQL queries

Avoid making stored calculations that do DoSQL queries, because it will not work reliably. Use

auto-enter calculations instead.

Well, fortunately c. was wrong (I tested it with you quote advice), maybe a. is also wrong, i wish, I wish.

or maybe you can fix it or tell you friend to overcome those caveats ?

Thanks

P.S : I've nothing to do with myFMbutler, I just think they've great tools.Clip manager is amazing