There was something in the air during the FileMaker Developer Conference this August in Orlando, Florida. It wasn’t just the thick tropical humidity and joyful shrieks of kids drifting from one of the local theme parks. It was a sense of imminent change. Another clue that something big was afoot was the absence of FileMaker, Inc. logos […]
At DevCon last year, FileMaker, Inc. (FMI) announced their initiative to identify and promote a realistic category for the FileMaker Platform. They created the category Workplace Innovation Platform because current market categorizations such as low-code, no-code, PaaSS, etc. don’t accurately describe the FileMaker Platform. The FileMaker Platform is more than just a backend development tool. It’s actually a full-stack […]
Generally, we all get excited about the major features in each new release of FileMaker. But, let’s not overlook some of the minor, more obscure enhancements in FileMaker 18. As they say, the devil is in the details and so even little changes can make a huge difference. I, for one, am pleased that we’re […]
FileMaker, Inc. has given us a new XML tool to help us developers now and hopefully even more in the future! This new functionality may be confusing at first as we’ve had the Database Design Report (DDR) for a long time and we can save/publish that as XML too. The following table shows some of […]
Our clients appreciate how easy it is to integrate email distributions within their FileMaker workflows. But, they almost always want to send HTML formatted email messages. This makes perfect sense because who among us has sent plain text email messages in the last fifteen years? Almost everyone includes some sort of signature or other fancy […]
I love it when FileMaker, Inc. releases new versions of their database tools! And, now that FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced is available, I’m still feelin’ that love. There are so many new tools in 18 that allow us developers at The Support Group to enhance our customers’ applications — I love exploring what can we […]
You’ve been driving your car and it’s acting funny. You keep hearing a strange noise under the hood. You take the car to your mechanic and tell him all about it. However, when you try to show him, the noise is gone. We’ve all been there. Luckily, most modern cars now have the ability to […]
As technology changes, mechanisms to protect our data resources must also evolve. The FileMaker 18 Platform includes a variety of security enhancements that I’m sure the FileMaker community has been waiting for! At The Support Group, we’re pretty particular about security. Drum roll. Some of the new security features you’ll appreciate in FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced […]
If you had a specific situation where you needed to perform loops within a calculation, you were resigned to recursions. But now FileMaker 18 allows for While calculation functions so you can avoid those cumbersome recursive functions. No custom function necessary, no having a function call itself, no worrying about being sucked into a wormhole […]
FileMaker’s import process has not changed in a long time and so it’s ripe for an update. FileMaker, Inc. has shown it a lot of love in FileMaker 18! FileMaker’s importing capabilities are pretty extensive but they’re not always intuitive. The new import dialog interface features a mix of graphics and text so it should […]
Repeating fields have a long and somewhat controversial history in FileMaker. If you want to start a heated discussion with another FileMaker developer, start one about repeating fields! Some developers love them, some hate them and then there are some like me, who appreciate them as another tool in the belt to be used to […]
Every year, usually during the summer, FileMaker hosts a massive global conference for their developers. Like most customer/user conferences, the goal is to experience the product in different ways and explore new product features, in a supportive and fun environment. But leave it to technology to create a common developer dilemma – to go or […]
The FileMaker Platform gives you plenty of options for exporting data out of your app. You can export files as text or even a separate FileMaker file but in our experience, the most common export format is Excel. It’s pretty easy to export data out of FileMaker into Excel; the tricky part is customizing the headers of […]
John: Don, looks good. Only the final file is not a *.xlsx file, but a *.csv. In the movie it is…
Don Clark: Hi John, You can open the .csv file with Excel and then save it as a .xlsx file. Don
There are different factors that contribute to a successful custom application. Of course, function is important, but even if the app does exactly what users need it to do, users may not necessarily like it if it’s difficult to use due to poor legibility, navigability, responsiveness, etc. FileMaker, the Workplace Innovation Platform, helps to speed up […]
Jonathan Fletcher: I'm not sure it is a good idea to get specific on the specs of a style. What if you…
Martin Spanjaard: I'm a bit disappointed. We send our emails from FileMaker formatted as html since 2005 or so, using the Dacons…
Don Clark: FileMaker gave us the tools, it's up to a third party to build a wysiwyg editor. I haven't heard anything,…
Martin Spanjaard: Yes, there are a lot of html editors. Some for free, some for pay. For several years already.