ISO FileMaker Magazine

Beyond any organizational tactics used to keep your own FileMaker solutions understandable, there are usually still certain things you can do which slim things down, and make the solution more condensed - essentially more accessible.

One of these things is optimized graphic storage and display. You know, storing and showing interface graphics, icons and such.

I've personally seen a larger number of FileMaker solutions, and it comes from experience that adding an additional global container, for yet one more graphic or icon, seems like such a trivial thing. However, each decision may have longer lasting impacts, which don't become apparent until later down the road.

When you choose to use a certain system of graphic display up front, you end up with a more manageable solution.

This video covers a technique I use frequently when creating a new solution. It takes advantage of older FileMaker technology, and is very forgiving - at least I think so. If you have comments, suggestions or feedback then please leave comments below!

While working on the latest and greatest Theme Library file, it dawned on me that I had a good number of techniques I was using. Many, of which, I may not have shared as of yet.

So, I gathered my thoughts and decided to highlight a couple of the most useful suggestions for anyone developing in FileMaker. Here, in the attached video, you'll find some useful developer tips for working within FileMaker. I hope they help you out.

If you have your own helpful developer tips then please leave them in the comments area below.

Many database developers ( and a lot of us in general ) have this quirk about ourselves - we want our stuff to be "clean". Not in the sense of being dirty, but rather avoiding duplicates. If there's only one Matt Petrowsky as a customer, there should only be one record

So, how do you solve this problem? Well, it all depends on your objectives related to duplicate data. To start with, the key is knowing about all the possible options and how they affect your decisions.

Using the poor example of a unique first and last name ( there is another Matt Petrowsky on this planet ), I talk about the various native and scripted solutions to solving the problem of duplicates. While there's no "one-fix" solution, you can get pretty close to eliminating the vast majority of accidental duplications.

Watch this video to gain a better understanding of what your options are within FileMaker and, by all means, make your own suggestions in the comments below. Like the suggestion of using global fields and pseudo-records prior to data submission ( I didn't even cover this one ) [grin] - but I did cover a lot of other stuff!

When calculation, local and global variables came onto the FileMaker scene, it was one of those "game changers". Especially, for how you go about creating a FileMaker solution. You no longer needed to create all kinds of global fields for the purpose of storing information dealing with how the solution operates.

Whether you've been a longtime FileMaker developer or you're just now joining the community, the information in this video will save you a lot of internal solution management headache. You should be storing operational information within global variables. The trick is coming up with a good method.

Using an example of storing the state of all front most clicked tabs, I walk through how I manage my use of global variables in most of my solutions.

Most every database system needs some type of note taking solution. If you can't take notes somewhere in the system, it limits the amount of information you can collect about issues, customers, transactions, communications and pretty much everything dealing with human interaction.

I remember the days when each table in my database would end up with a new field named 'Notes'. Well, I simply don't do that anymore. There's really no need, and I'll tell you why.

Using a relational structure, you can easily store all notes - for anything - within one table. All you need to do is classify the notes and identify what they belong to. There are a number of ways to accomplish this, and providing the interface to make it happen is now easier than ever. Watch this video for a comprehensive understanding of how to fully leverage note taking within any FileMaker solution!

Spend enough time within FileMaker, and you want to accomplish things as fast as possible. This even includes the trivial task of simply opening the files you're developing.

Typically, a solution is delivered with some level of security on it. That is, using the Account and Privileges to lock down what people can and can't do. While using the Relogin script step is useful for testing out different accounts with different levels of access, it's always great to save even more time when you're developing the files.

In this video, I take a walk through the process I use to open solutions within a state where they're ready for me to develop. This makes it easy to simply provide the file or host it within FileMaker Server without the worry, because I know I'm the only one with the keys for convenient master access.

FileMaker 10 offers a ton of new functionality using Script Triggers. It's enough to make the mind wander and start envisioning all the cool drag-n-drop features you can now add to your solutions.

You start down the path of adding in this cool new functionality, then you realize... FileMaker doesn't have a full event model implementation. Any object you drop onto doesn't know anything about the object which was first clicked.

Thinking to yourself, you say "There's got to be a way. FileMaker can always find a way to make it happen." Then you hear it. "True, it can be done". You spin around to see where the voice came from and no one is there. You pause, as you wonder where the mysterious voice came from. "Oh, that's right, it's Matt Petrowsky reminding me that most things can be done in FileMaker."

All fiction aside, here the facts is in all it's glory, the fundamentals needed for the closest thing to true drag-n-drop in FileMaker!

While at Devcon 2009, I spent a bit of time with Honza Koudelka - founder of 24U Software. He gave me a run down of what their new plug-in offered to businesses with a heavy use of modern phone systems.

If interconnecting FileMaker with a PBX system is high on your list of must have features, then 24U has what you're looking for.

There always seems to be some type of improvement in how you can help a user get from point A to point B. With new features in FileMaker, come new techniques.

In this video, I showcase a fun technique which makes the default FileMaker Find mode more user friendly. A user can choose which fields to search and the familiar feel of the current layout being used is maintained.

If you're always looking for a better way to make things easier for your users, then check this one out!

Live sub-summaries is a very nice addition to FileMaker 10. Without having to enter into Preview mode, you can now see live summary data within any form which includes sub-summary parts when sorted on the specified summary field.

Using this feature, it's possible to create a wide array of powerful methods to help users find the data they are looking for. One example of this, is an ever decreasing set of results based on what's selected within the list view.

This FileMaker tutorial video will show you how to use live sub-summaries and a unique scripting method in order to offer a powerful user filtering solution to your database!