ISO FileMaker Magazine

What FileMaker developer wants their solution to be so difficult to use that it causes users not to want to use it? My guess, not a one.

So, the first general order of business, beyond your schema, may be adding many of those familiar features which users have already come to expect from any nice software package.

When it comes to features, some type of easy-to-use search feature is most likely at the top of the list. The trick is making it work and feel like all the other search features users have become used to.

This video showcases the implementation of a powerful OnObjectKeystroke script which enhances the familiar search field functionality.

Every profession has tips, tricks and tools for getting things done. The same holds true for FileMaker Pro. Over my many years of development, I’ve created a variety of tools and methods for making things easier on myself.

One of those methods is to use FileMaker itself to manage navigation within my FileMaker solutions.

This video is about a tool which I use that handles the display and opening of layouts within a FileMaker solution. In fact, it can quite easily handle the navigation of many solutions because it itself is a solution for solutions.

If you deal with one single solution or many different solutions, then I can’t think of a better way to manage this situation other than within FileMaker itself!

FileMaker's Script Triggers can be seen as either a big help or a big hindrance. It really depends on what your experience is with them and how you've created your solutions.

If you've never really worked with Script Triggers, then you're missing a big key to the automation puzzle. If you've used them, but found they get in the way more than help, then you need this video. If you've found that sweet spot of using them and not being discouraged by their idiosyncrasies, then take advantage of the help file shown in this video.

The video and associated file cover how Script Triggers integrate into FileMaker and how to take advantage of them. Prior to FileMaker version 10, the only option for user executed scripts was through your standard button definition. With the addition of Script Triggers, interaction was extended to the general environment within FileMaker.

Moving to a layout, loading a record, hitting a key on the keyboard and many other possibilities entered the picture. Make sure you know how Script Triggers work and you'll be well on your way to making the most of any FileMaker solution you create.

Helping users navigate your FileMaker solution is one of the primary objectives of any developer. When it comes to menu systems, you'll find everything from simple buttons on a layout to the complex use of portals and other FileMaker objects such as the newer Popover object. In this video and technique file, you'll find a clean implementation of Global variables which support an unlimited number of dynamic menus. These menus can be changed based on their count and functionality at anytime within any location inside the solution.

Using other FileMaker 13 specific features, such as the ability to hide objects, you can have a very flexible navigation system. It can obey your security and privilege access rules and change dynamically based on wherever the user is within your solution.

If your solution is limited on space and you desire the use of a horizontal menu system, then this Dynamic Menu System provides for a high degree of power.

Unlike other programming languages, where the database is often separate from the language used to code solution logic, FileMaker includes everything, all wrapped up into one potentially giant mess of spaghetti.

In order to avoid the often inevitable pitfalls of being overly complex, you must code your FileMaker solution with efficiency and simplification in mind. FileMaker has many places where logic can exist in. It can be on an object, in a parameter, within a script, within conditional formatting, in an auto-enter setting, and obviously within the graph and data structure.

Your primary goal of keeping things simple means you need to be aware of how a FileMaker solution can grow and your field count is one of those areas. If you can reduce the number of fields, then your solution will be easier to understand. Choosing from three items is always faster and easier than choosing from fifty. With good segmentation, clean organization and a focus on limiting the number of "things to manage", you can create a very powerful FileMaker solution which doesn't suffer from object overwhelm. That's what this video is all about.

FileMaker does data, and it does it well - and easily. What FileMaker doesn't do "as" well is data visualization. This isn't because it couldn't. It's because they just haven't been able to focus on it as much. Sure, you can format portals, use repeating fields and use conditional formatting for all kinds of display magic, but you won't realize the same results as you could with a tool or language built specifically for data visualization.

In my humble opinion, they shouldn't work too hard on this either. This is because we have access to technology which provides far more than FileMaker ever can. FileMaker took ages before it had an integrated charting feature. Before that, you had to use a plugin and eventually you could use a remote API through a web viewer.

FileMaker has made a lot of progress with regards to the usability of its charting tool too. It's a great tool for basic data display.

However, when you need to go beyond the constraints of FileMaker's charting tool, the place you'll end up is within the web viewer. Granted, you'll need to shrug off any fear of learning HTML/CSS/JavaScript, but the benefits are well worth the journey.

In this video, I showcase how easy it is to integrate the very powerful JavaScript library D3. It's a power-user's tool which takes full advantage of everything that HTML/CSS/SVG has to offer. Within a world where data visualization is becoming a common form of data communication, this one video provides the first step of many towards taking advantage of some very powerful tools!

Perform Script on Server is the one step which will change how you develop FileMaker solutions FOREVER. Yes, I said that with all caps! This is exciting!

There's so much power in how it can be used, that it truly is a game changer. This is fundamentally why the web is so popular. It works like this.

Your client, a web browser, makes a request to some beefy server and it wrangles the data and then reports back with the compiled results. This is essentially what this new script step does, but with all the power of what FileMaker can do.

Until you start using it, it "seems" like it's just "another feature". Changing the way you think about FileMaker development, using PSoS for short, is inevitable. If your solutions are stuck in versions prior to 13, then you might want to beg, borrow or steal (ok, not steal) to start using this feature.

With PSoS, you can import hundreds of thousands of records in mere seconds. You can send hundreds of thousands of emails without ever seeing a spinning waiting indicator. You can update hundreds of thousands of records with lightning speed or generate a hundred page report as a PDF within minutes instead of hours.

This video provides all the critical know-how in order to start working with PSoS and it will get you going fast!

Simply creating a single FileMaker file to store your data is a perfectly fine way to start your solution. However, the first few times any number of users start complaining about the workflow taking too long, is when you may need to evaluate your architecture.

For sure, FileMaker Pro is a very capable platform. Like any thing else in the world of tech, there are less efficient implementations and highly optimized solutions. A knowledgable developer will known how to squeeze every bit of performance out of the environment they've chosen to develop within. The same holds true for FileMaker as for any other programming language.

In this video, I walk though some of the most common and also some of the more exotic deployment models you can use with FileMaker. Essentially, it all boils down to this. Knowing that FileMaker does not care where the data is. If you can point to it, and FileMaker can see it, then it's up to you as to how you structure things. We're not just using computers now, we're using smartphones, tablets and who knows what else will be coming. Touch sensitive wallpaper within our homes of the future? Watch this video for a sense of how it's possible to vary the deployment of your FileMaker solutions.

FileMaker 13 introduced a number of new features. While the feature list seemed a bit short, at least to the feature greedy developer, the new mobile specific features of Gesture taps, Popovers and Sliders will provide a wide variety of new functionality for months to come.

In the case of mobile design, the number of UI patterns which can be emulated now within FileMaker has grown significantly. Beyond straight-forward popovers, you can combine both older and newer functionality to accomplish some really cool stuff.

In this video, I showcase a UI pattern which provides a hidden menu. This is done with a new Slider control and is a very common pattern within the mobile space.

Beyond the simple slider/menu implementation, I also showcase the use of the Gesture controls and how you can determine if a tap is within a predefined area. This level of UI control allows you to decide when a script should fire or not. Very empowering stuff!

You can Watch the HD version on YouTube

FileMaker 13 was released on December 3rd 2013 and this release is a very worthy upgrade! Many of the features are specific to mobile centric solutions but many other valuable new features were added as well.

Whether you need access to your FileMaker data via the new WebDirect functionality or you've been waiting years (like I have) for some features to be completed, like calculation based tab names and dialog buttons, there's sure to be something within FileMaker 13 which you'll appreciate.

This video provides an high level overview of all the major new features and updates to FileMaker 13.

You can Watch the HD version on YouTube