ISO FileMaker Magazine

Knowing how to loop through records in FileMaker helps with some of your data processing tasks. Knowing how to loop through a portal will help with the occasional odd technique. Knowing how to use a data loop is critical if you want your FileMaker solution to be as efficient as possible.

In this video, I showcase a simple data loop which performs syntax highlighting on some code in a text field. Even if you don't need syntax highlighting for code, then knowing how to use a data loop is what you need to know.

If you've not used many data loops in your solutions then this video will get you started right away!

Revealing the current state of your interface is of great benefit to users of your solutions. Features such as highlighting selected portal rows provide an instant indication of what is selected or where the user is.

When it comes to supporting unique rows within multiple portals on the same layout, you need to find a way to track each portal independently and know which record is selected within each portal.

Fortunately, through the power of named layout objects, some conditional formatting and a special utility script, you can accomplish this goal.

Watch this video for a great understanding of how to Highlight Portal Rows within your FileMaker solutions!

Updating your FileMaker interface can seem like an overwhelming task if you have hundreds of layouts. However, if you simply start with one layout, it provides the motivation to move on to the others.

The key here, is that the process may help you discover areas where you can optimize or repurpose your interface. Following a few simple rules may help you end up with a much more usable interface.

In this video, I walk through a 2 hour interface expedition where I used a publicly available demo file that comes with the ScriptMaster plug-in, and show you how I converted it to an updated look.

Argggggg!" you exclaim, as you realize you accidentally deleted a record because you were working on live data,

Ok, so, maybe it's never happened to you personally, but it may happen to any user account which can delete records in your database. So what's the best answer. Well, the best answer is to have a full audit trail/log in each solution you create. However, this isn't always the easiest to implement.

Instead, take 10 minutes (or less) and have a great solution for any account which should be allowed to [supposedly] delete records. The goal is not necessarily to eliminate the data from the database, it may be to simply make it so it doesn't apply. Because keeping a historical record is something that always comes in handy!

FileMaker solutions can get pretty messy - fast! In fact, if you don't take the time to document your solution, you quickly end up with a Frankenstein. Besides documentation, there's one thing you can do to make your solution easier to understand (from a developer's perspective) - limit the number of table occurrences within the relationship graph.

You may already have many more table occurrences than you actually need to accomplish what you're getting done now. The tactic is to use Data Objects. A data object is simply the process of dedicating a TOG (table occurrence group) to rendering the data object.

For much of the rest of your solution, in which a lot of application logic lies within scripts, you can simply reference this data object instead of creating additional table occurrences for the sake of functionality. This will keep your solution cleaner, more efficient and sometimes faster!

This video provides a walk through of my approach towards the design of the Zero to Awesome Invoicer file - at least the People tab portion.

There's a lot of things happening while developing, and taking the time to flush out the interface is one of the tasks you can't avoid. The process helps you determine the feature set and also forces you to ask yourself what you can remove from the interface, with the goal of making it much cleaner and clearer.

You'll find a few tips and some suggestions about what you might want to think about; as you design your own solution interface. Using tab panels is quickly becoming a popular way to reduce the number of layouts you have to maintain in your FileMaker database!

You've heard the rumors and now it's news. It's all about FileMaker 10. Released Monday Jan 5th, it contains one feature in particular, which developers have been asking about for years (quite possibly almost a decade).

Script Triggers!

Can I hear a HOOORAY? It really is finally here, and the implementation is quite good (despite my feelings about functionality being buried down into dialog boxes - it's just the FileMaker way)

When it comes down to a full write up about FileMaker 10, I often find myself taking a bunch of time to explore features and details which are often covered quite well by other sources. Personally, I tend to focus on implementations of unique and specific features - so I'll keep heading in that direction. Expect to see some great FileMaker 10 techniques over the coming year!

If you want the quick list of FileMaker 10 new features, you'll find them on our editable faq.

So, this article is a source you can re-check, which I will update as new information is released.

More Interesting

• Macworld FileMaker 10 First Look is a bit of an overview and more for the general market.
• SixFriedRice - Geoff Coffey ALWAYS does a killer job of covering the finer points! A MUST read.

Less Interesting

• Macworld’s Expo Posting is a simple posting about the fact that FileMaker 10 was released.
• FileMaker calls new Pro 10 the most ‘beautiful’ database around is a standard PR piece from Computerworld.
• Various other PR releases about FileMaker 10 via Google News.

Ongoing discussions

• FileMaker 10 Forum at FMForums.com.
• FileMaker 10 Forum at FileMakerToday.com

Once you get good enough, with any environment, you start to forget that many of the daily things you do might be things which weren't obvious at the start.

In this video, you'll find a marathon of Quick Tips, which help you accomplish a variety of FileMaker tasks more efficiently.

If you've got some favorite tips about doing things easier in FileMaker, which aren't already covered, then make sure and post them on the magazine FAQ site.

One thing FileMaker's calculation engine doesn't provide is raw data looping. You can't simply loop through data. In other languages, you have access to this type of feature using a classical while, for or foreach loop.

The one place where you can loop through raw data is using a Custom Function. There are definitly times when you need this functionality. Some solutions are simply not possible without a recursive custom function.

In this video I showcase a sorting function which helped me solve a particular problem. Include are some helpful custom functions and an example of creating your own recursive custom function. If you've always been stumped by the word recursion and how it works within FileMaker, then watching this video will hopefully enlighten you!

FileMaker's Drop-down List and Pop-up Menu are great tools for user selections. You can also use Portals to allow users to select from a list of items (but you already knew that). The trick, however, should you have this need, is to eliminate those items which have already been selected.

The last time I covered this technique was in 2004 and there have been a number of changes in how this can be accomplished. This video will provide you with the know-how to provide lists of values that automatically reduce when one of the list values are chosen.

UPDATE: You'll need a script triggering plug-in for the pull-down menu to function and the plug-in that we suggest you use is the free DoScript from myFMbutler.com!