Helpful Developer Properties
There are certain things in FileMaker you do day in, day out. One of them seems to be the familiar "dialog dance" - where jumping down the dialog chain is a normal part of every day development.
FileMaker calculation code is almost always buried a few dialogs down. I seem to always be hunting for information about what I'm working with, whether it's the field name, the table occurrence name, the relationship I should use, value list, what have you.
So it goes without saying, we'd all like the development environment to be more fluid within FileMaker. FileMaker 11's addition of the Inspector palette was a nice big jump towards more helpful tools.
While the Relationship Graph could still use a ton of polish in the realm of organizational tools, there's enough already in the application for us to create some of our own helpful resources. Using tool tips, and some creative inspiration, we can inject some nice environmental information which helps us know what's going on with the database. Watch this video for a great tip which will help you prevent sloppy coding and having to open a few more of those embedded dialogs!
Comments
Console is useful on Server based development
Hi Matt,
Just to let you know that an import.log file is created in the users Documents folder if the file is hosted on a remote server so your great console tip does work as you say.
Another time saving video from you, thanks
Tim
Excellent
That's awesome, I suspected it might be somewhere. I just didn't load the file up on server. Of course, I could have just used Advanced and made DB edits through a peer-to-peer sharing connection to test.
Just mount the volume and you're good to go!
Not sure I was clear..
The import.log file is created in the Documents folder of the Mac you working on, not the server.
No need to mount any volumes
Alternative Hoverable
Hi Matt,
Rather than using a static text block as your hoverable, you can use a global variable. This allows you to put the merged variable anywhere on the layout without having to worry about the text not blending in properly (as would happen if you put static text over a gradient, for example). Obviously one would set/clear the variable in startup and on re-login (I use a the letter "i" in 18pt). The caveat is that the call to the DeveloperProperties boolean still needs to be made in the conditional formatting (even though one wouldn't change the formatting) as without that call the cf won't work as expected.
It's also interesting to note that the objects are displayed in stacking order.
Nice tips - thanks!
Free technique file?
Or is it for subscribers only?
Thanks,
Denis
The file is free
It's just not downloading for anonymous accounts. The site update planned for next year should fix this issue. I've not had the time to fix this feature of the site.
-- Matt Petrowsky - ISO FileMaker Magazine Editor
Hmmmmm
I'm definitely logged in, but can't download the file. I get the "Downloading Not Allowed
Sorry, you're not allowed to download this file until you subscribe" error page.
HTH,
Denis
Have you tried...
Firefox, Chrome and Safari? It's hard for me to troubleshoot all possible environments. I am able to download the file with a standard account using all three browsers so I need more information in order to troubleshoot the issue.
Some times it's a cache issue with a file that was partially downloaded. To empty the cache on Safari it's Command-Option-E.
-- Matt Petrowsky - ISO FileMaker Magazine Editor