ISO FileMaker Magazine

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, then you'll be presented with all the information you need to get started.

If you have used custom menus, then you may find useful tips about how to optimize their use and making things more dynamic.

Either way, this tutorial video will present you will all the fundamentals about using FileMaker's custom menus.

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. Coming in at around an hour, this is pretty comprehensive, but doesn't cover every tiny detail.

If you've never worked with FileMaker's security and everyone is simply accessing your solution with the same username and password, then this video should give you everything you need to get started. It also provides enough information to implement a pretty complex security setup.

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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" in that you can more easily copy and paste it into other solutions.

This video presents the concept of DRY coding as it relates to FileMaker development and how to approach your logic and design before you simply head on off to the next big script or feature.

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 file storage and making sure things either are (or aren't) pushed into the database and are stored as a reference instead.

Enforcing your data rules by using validation and script triggers are also specifics you need to know about within FileMaker Pro.

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 List views. There's no one perfect way in how you present the information.

In this video, I do my best to provide every piece of know-how about FileMaker Layouts and their various parts. Using this knowledge, you should be able to create the type of screen or output you're looking to achieve.

There's nothing more basic than capturing information - it's cells in a spreadsheet or fields in a database. If we never cared about tracking anything, or the historical value of knowing what's happened in the past, then capturing data would seem pointless. But, as it turns out, we do want to know what has happened simply because we're creatures of history - and habit.

So, let's start with your basic menu command of "New Record" and move from there. While expecting a user to simply navigate to a layout tied to a given base table is certainly reasonable, it's not always preferred.

This means you need to know about all the possible ways to create new records within FileMaker Pro. By covering as many of the possible methods known, I hope you'll get a strong sense of what can be done so you'll know which method you should use when the time comes.

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 part comes from experience of knowing how to break out data so it fits the desired result - a true art derived from practice. There truly is no one single way of structuring the data because it depends on how it's going to be used.

This video takes a look at the basic setup of how data is most commonly stored and pushed around. You'll be provided with insight into the various possible options and provided with some tips about working within FileMaker's Relationship Graph.

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 you. It has a check box which is turned on by default, which basically implies "Don't worry, I'll just turn it on if I need it."

So, it's always good to know what is going on behind the scenes and what might bite you in the behind. Such as an accidental indexing set off across millions of record rows while a database is live.

In this particular video, I show you everything I know about how FileMaker indexing works and why you need to know about it. While disk space may be cheap, and making every possible field indexed is certainly possible, there's always a trade off. For example, if your file size is double of what it needs to be, then backing it up will obviously take a longer time.

So, taking control of the indexing is something any proficient FileMaker developer will do.

Update: While I strive to know as much as I can about the topics discussed, there are some times when my knowledge doesn't cover what I think it does. Here is a link to some elaboration on FileMaker indexing FileMaker Indexing Thread. Thanks HOnza, Winfried and Mark!

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 windows.

The real key to mastering your time when working with FileMaker is moving around the application and making things happen quickly. Think of it like a professional ballet dancer who can weave and shift across the stage with a degree of elegance that makes it look effortless - and probably feels so as well.

While knowing certain shortcuts will certainly save you time, there are a few other steps you can take to achieve that level of proficiency which makes you feel like a true master.