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Our Library of Videos
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.
It doesn't really matter where your skill level is at with FileMaker Pro, there's always more to learn. Even after close to 20 years myself, and feeling like an expert, I learned something new in this video - and it feels good to learn.
What I learned happens to deal with the accessibility of help and how easily you can find help within the specific areas of FileMaker Pro.
This video starts off a new series about taking full advantage of the FileMaker development environment. There's one thing in common which some software users do when working with new software. It's to start with taking a look at all the menu options available.
While this is a great place to start, if you don't have any background, you don't know what the implications are of those various menu options. How can you use what's available? What are some of the unique options which may apply? How does that menu item factor into what you want to accomplish? What are the other parts of the software you need to know and where's a good place to start?
These are the types of questions I seek to answer within this series. I'd like to leverage my many years of working with this great database application and help you discover things you may not have known existed. Or, at the very least, validate what you may already know.
Oh, to keep things clean and tidy. That's the feeling many of us seek much of the time. Things can be found and seen when they are clean and neat - it also "feels" better.
These same feelings apply to times when bringing up new windows within the context of your own solution. Simply throwing windows all over the place in your FileMaker solution may invoke that same feeling when you're handed a business card and it feels like single ply toilet paper - wimpy.
It's all about perception. Fortunately, you get to control how windows appear within your FileMaker solution. With a bit of creative scripting, you can actually make this happen in a semiautomatic fashion. Throw in a little bit of Layout Properties and a few handy custom functions, and you've got a window management system which is both easy to implement and use.
Do you use something else which works better? We'd love to hear about it. Leave a comment.
It's simply amazing, yet not unexpected, at how much the tablet world is finally taking off. I fondly remember purchasing my second Apple Newton and thinking, "Wow, this is so cool, it's like the movies and it's happening now."
While it's taken us a little under a decade to get there, it's certainly happening now - and the cool thing is, FileMaker can have a pretty strong role in the whole equation.
As much as FileMaker firmly planted itself in the world of desktop databases, it stands the chance to do the same in the world of mobile devices. It's just "way too easy" to make something useful and deploy it instantly with FileMaker Go.
Despite some of the redraw issues currently faced by FileMaker Go, it looks like there will be a ton of opportunities to create many of those solutions which businesses will be clamoring for.
To that end, it makes sense that you be familiar with what you can and can't do - and how you can take advantage of what FileMaker Go offers. So it is, with this video, that I present a nice collection of hints, tips and techniques about how to design for this rapidly expanding platform!