Our recent videos
Try explaining this search request to your average user of a FileMaker Pro database. Find every person who's last name starts with "mac", contains "cle" in either the first name or last name, lives in one of these nine zip codes, 93015, 93430, 95966, 95230, 91030, 93410, 91383, 95212, 91405, and has a particular type of pet.
Ok, so the request seems odd, but it's an all too common problem when it comes to a complex search. Do you know how to automate a multiple request based find? Do your users? Probably not. That's why you need to learn and use this technique to make FileMaker's Query by Form method of searching much more powerful!
This video takes a step back from the normal technique instruction and looks at a better understanding of the Relationships Graph. If you've been confused by when you need a new Table Occurrence and how to show the data you want to show, then make sure to watch this video - heck, it's free, why not watch?
It's all about the path between the TO's (Table Occurrences) along the way. If you can read what the graph shows, then you can determine what you'll get as an end result. Getting data to display properly is the primary goal of your interface. Make sure and learn how TO's relate to your layouts and the perspective of viewing data from those layouts!
What's the context of a calculation and how does that context relate to a Table Occurrence? Well, why don't we just learn how to set one address, from many, as the preferred address for a given contact. Along the way we'll learn about context and how it relates to Table Occurrences.
This video presents a great technique for making a selected portal the topmost portal showing. It does this using a checkbox option and also offers some insight into the multiple sorting options for portals. Know more about FileMaker today - watch the video!
Deploying your FileMaker solution may be easy. You just throw it onto a FileMaker Server or click the magic share button and away you go with peer-to-peer sharing.
Wait just a minute, isn't there always a better way to do things? Well, in this extended-length video I take a look at a whole host of solutions. You'll find techniques, theory and design ideas for deploying a large scale FileMaker implementation. Starting with discussing a Multi-System Deployment solution, I cover topics like separation of data from interface and authentication with a single point of entry, to naming conventions for Table Occurrences and how to use FileMaker's Extended Privileges. Unlike my standard single technique approach, this new video walks through a solution and covers a number of powerful concepts and solutions. Watch it now to know more about FileMaker Pro!
You've looked high and low and asked all your best sources for how to sort a portal on ANY field and in either direction (ascending or descending). Fortunately, you've found this video article. This video and example file show you the best method for sorting a portal on any field and in any direction. Over the course of my development career I have seen all kinds of attempts. Nothing comes as close as this FileMaker 7 solution.
With a clean, three field, one custom function, one script implementation, you can take advantage of the Ultimate Portal Sorting method! Watch now to find out how.
You can't be in more than one place at a time - unless you're using a database that's improperly configured. When considering a meeting at a fixed time, you can only have employees assigned to that meeting once. At least that's how it should be.
Whether we're talking about meetings, or any other situation where you want to limit how many times a value can be selected, it's knowing how to create an Inverse Value List that allows you to automatically reduce the options to choose from. This video will show you how to control which values are possible when working in FileMaker Pro 7.
Update (8/15/08) FileMaker has updated the way relationships work in later versions of FileMaker. Not equals relationships, which this technique uses, will not reveal results within a portal when one side of the relationship is either NULL or empty(blank). This means you at least need some value on both sides. Since this technique uses record serial values, all you have to do is provide a 0 [zero] to make the not equals operator on the relationship to work.
When you don't know how something works, it always seems like a mystery until someone shows you how. Well, if you've ever wanted comprehensive information about how to create a calendar in FileMaker Pro then this video will give you everything you need.
FileMaker Pro 7 takes your common calendar functionality from over 40 fields down to just a simple 3 fields. If you have the need to build a scheduling solution then you can't pass up this great educational video!
How do you turn 1234567890 into (123) 456-7890? Well, in FileMaker 6 and earlier, you used a Modification Trigger. But now you don't have to. FileMaker 7 now offers auto-enter calculations that will re-trigger any time any of its referenced fields are updated. This is useful for features such as auto-timestamping notes.
Watch this week's video to learn how to use a number of FileMaker 7 functions to not only timestamp notes, but to determine what the selected text is within a text field!
FileMaker 7 introduced a solution to a familiar problem found in versions 6 and prior. That problem was a lack of bidirectional relationships and the "one table away" dilemma. If you don't know what "one table away" means, when considering your database, then watch this video for a good understanding.
The solution this video provides is showing portals on a designated layout that is more than one table away. For example, using a customers layout to show both invoices and line items for a selected invoice. Learning what this video teaches, will show you how to place pretty much any portal on any layout - no more complex calculations used to "pipe" data through files.
This video will teach you how to use and create Determinate Value Lists. What are they? It's the situation where choosing a product means you have different qualities specific to the product selected. Think about a T-Shirt. You have a style, size and color. All three qualities determine the price. The size and color are qualifiers that determine which shirt, and ultimately what price, should be used. However, showing only those options that apply to a given style is what you need to provide. Related value lists is how to do it.
You'll also learn how to use FileMaker 7's text coloring functions and how to get around number formatting limitations. If you've wondered how to make related value lists work in FileMaker 7 then this video is something you want to watch!
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