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Our Library of Videos
At the recent annual developer's conference for FileMaker Pro, I was fully intent on showing everyone pretty much everything I knew about working in Layout mode.
But... That was crazy. There's just no way I could ever get through it all. There's so much you can do, and so many ways you can use the available tool set. So I focused on the tools we have available.
One of the areas I had wanted to spend more time with were tab panels. They really are a designer's power tool when it comes to showing only what you want to show and WHEN you want to show it.
In this video, I showcase a menu system I've used which makes for a very attractive presentation method on FileMaker Go. Of course, it can certainly be used on the desktop as well, but the essential premise of the video is to show you what's possible with tab panels - beyond using them as just standard tab panels.
For the new user to FileMaker, it seems so easy to simply create a field, make a value list containing "Yes" and "No" and set the field format to Checkboxes.
It sounds so simple right?
Well, this seemingly simple desire tends to trick more new developers than I'd like. After receiving an email about this very goal, I decided to create a video about how I approach single checkboxes.
In the past, I've created videos about temporary checkboxes using just global variables, but I figured I should elaborate on the data storage of the checkbox and how you can creatively display a checkbox when you opt not to use graphics.
I should mention, however, because of the font differences between Windows and Macintosh, this solution isn't as ideal as graphics. Especially, when designing for cross-platform, primarily because of the rendering differences between the two. But, when used for FileMaker Go on iPad or iPhone, or limited to one specific platform, this solution is quite ideal!
The new world of FileMaker development has been opened up due to the ExecuteSQL function. The days of many different extra table occurences should be behind us.
Yes, there will still be the occasional user interface related table occurrence which is still necessary. However, your advantages with using ExecuteSQL should dictate that it be leveraged to its full extent when possible - especially in an increasingly mobile computing world.
The real trick for some developers is advancing what they know and letting go of older knowledge. As an example, I'm periodically faced with FileMaker developers who remember their development days when working with FileMaker versions 3 through 6. I've seen FileMaker 10/11/12 solutions, new solutions in fact, which were developed with many more files than is necessary.
This same thing applies to ExecuteSQL. In order to take advantage of the newer technology (which, in this case, is quite old, but still valid, technology) you have to learn new things.
Hopefully, that's exactly what this video will do for you. If you've not yet taken the step to learning how SQL within FileMaker can benefit your own solution, then absorb as much as you can from this video!
I've also included some links on the article page to various SQL resources.
The wonderful thing about FileMaker is this. If you don't know of a native way to make it happen, you just force the native tools to bend to your wishes to accomplish your goals.
Such is the case with using portals. While using a portal for something related to the UI, navigation for example, is nothing new, the notion of storing that navigation in something other than a table may be a bit foreign to some.
The crux of this technique is to use global variables in such a creative way as to avoid some of the short comings with using a dedicated table for facilitating solution wide navigation. If you've not used the Virtual list technique to render the contents of a global variable within a portal, then this technique provides the perfect excuse to learn. Pretty much every FileMaker solution needs to facilitate navigation.
Need icons in your sidebar? No problem.
Need toggle arrows? No problem.
Need integrated search features? Totally possible.
Watch this video for a good understanding of how to bend FileMaker portals to your every wish.
One of the most fulfilling feelings in development is knowing you have full control over your digital destiny. Depending on who you are, this can be determined in a number of ways. So, let's focus on you, the database developer.
For a database developer, the ability to do whatever you want with data in terms of moving, extracting, merging or modifying is critical.
Without the proper knowledge of what tools can help out in certain situations, you can end up spending FAR MORE TIME doing something crazy, like copy/paste, for hours and hours.
Well, let's stop being crazy and start being sane. This all starts with knowing what's out there!
In this video, I take a look at the uber powerful jSoup Java library. Now, before you start saying, "Oh Matt, I don't want to learn Java, I want to use FileMaker." Let me respond to your unstated response by telling you that you don't need to know Java - although I would love it if you'd learn a little.
Because, honestly, a little can get you QUITE A LOT! Which is the case in this particular technique and solution.
Take a peek at the video and if you're not entirely convinced that your subscription is well worth it then let me know in the comments!
Because it's so easy to start a database within FileMaker, it's way to easy to gloss over the power features underneath the surface.
I would imagine some developers may never even touch the OnObjectKeystroke and OnLayoutKeystroke events and still make use of a great FileMaker database.
The trick to taking advantage of some of these power features is making them easy to implement.
Who remembers what all the numeric values are for the myriad of Get () functions? You may often have to look things up and this takes time.
On the other hand, having just a few helpful custom functions can make it MUCH more enjoyable to add in new, and useful, features.
This video will help you get started with, or enhance, your use of the above mentioned trigger events.
One of the more comfortable concepts within FileMaker is the pervasive calculation dialog box. Once you're familiar, you find it everywhere. It can be used with fields and your database schema, and it's used within the processing and logic of your scripts.
When it comes to schema, and what your fields can do, the calculation dialog box is right there with its handy Auto-Enter options.
This powerful feature allows you to do all kinds of magic with fields. A field can determine what it should become or change into when other fields are changed. It can tie into your whole solution and make evaluations based on a myriad of various conditions.
There are certainly some fundamentals to know about Auto-Enter options and how they work. Every FileMaker developer should know these. Also, knowing just a few of the helpful functions can take you a long way in accomplishing your desired goals with FileMaker.
This video provides information about using auto-enter to manage record duplications when using a UUID.
Spell checking seems like one of those subtle little afterthoughts. You either know you need it or it almost doesn't exist. But, of course, it's always there. This isn't how it used to be. It used to be that you had to check everything manually if you wanted to catch those typos.
With the OS picking up a bunch of the work in the last decade, pretty much any application can simply show which words are misspelled. This is the familiar red-dotted, or some other color, underline we now see when a word is misspelled.
While this particular feature, in FileMaker, can be turned on or off at both the field level and the file level, it doesn't cover all the new words and terms which inevitably show up as we move forward through time.
If you have any type of need which may benefit from the custom dictionary then watching this video will help provide some insight into making things work much more smoothly. At least when it comes to spell checking the content in your database fields.
With our work lives becoming a bit more distributed, this particular technique may be quite helpful to those with industry heavy specific jargon!
What's the easiest way to display images within your FileMaker solution?
Did you answer with a container field? Sure!
Now, did you answer with the "same" container field which stores the image?
Maybe not.
In fact, probably not. The right answer, however, in most all situations is typically "it depends", but we're going to walk through the knowledge necessary to optimize your database for the best performance when it comes to image display.
You often find tradeoffs when it comes to storing and displaying data. You either store once and render in multiple sizes or you store multiple sizes and render once.
The key is knowing what's going on behind the scenes. Knowing what's being transferred and when and how FileMaker provides support for this in order to make your database as efficient as possible!
I think I may be right in assuming one of the most under utilized features of FileMaker is the web viewer. Not because it's hard. Rather, because it's a hassle.
When you're using a web viewer for the display of data, you must to be comfortable with knowing a bit of HTML, as well as CSS, in order to achieve the desired look.
Unlike native FileMaker, it's not like selecting a piece of text in Layout mode and simply making it bold and changing the font and color.
The big advantage, however, is the degree of control and interactivity you can exercise within a web viewer.
Not surprisingly, a good percentage of native iOS apps are compiled from the web viewer familiar features of HTML and CSS. If taking advantage of the web viewer is something you've been avoiding, then bypass the hassle of hand crafting your own CSS and go for an existing framework.
Using Twitter's Bootstrap, I show you how easy it is to integrate a very attractive kind of output using web viewers. You can easily integrate into your own FileMaker files in record time!