One of the most powerful FileMaker features is also a major weakness: the easy accessibility to edit records is both a curse and a blessing. Most databases deliver the results of a query as a table, and the data is not usually directly modifiable. The user (and the developer, by extension) must make changes […]
If you aren’t familiar with the session model in FileMaker, this blog post and video by Todd Geist is a great introduction (one more bonus: he integrates the Selector model into the session model in this video). The session model is all about tightly controlling the data and views displayed to the end user. […]
Did you know that Apple and other podcast vendors have made deals with car manufacturers to integrate podcasting capabilities into 2015 models cars and truck? Podcasting is one of the fastest growing areas of the web. Check out this podcast from Dr. Andy Cohen and Lee Strong: Thu, 4 December 2014 326_FM_Success_Tips Integrating link […]
Last year, I added credit card processing to a existing FileMaker Point of Sale (POS) system. The system, CCQFM, was the only one offering credit card processing without the help of a plugin, and, as such, would work properly on an iPad. Here’s the explanation from their website on how it works: CCQ-FM consists […]
Today’s excerpt takes us back to the the Command Line Interface (CLI) and to shell commands. Simon at Beezwax gives us three shell commands that allow us to grab and format data from the FileMaker Server access log. The reports show user and database information: Various times I’ve needed to do some quick summaries […]
FileMaker 12 and 13 both make extensive use of CSS–it’s what makes the layouts great looking and easy to modify. But there is a cost to be paid–slower load times, in particular–if you start changing individual items the wrong way. Or if your solution was designed pre-FileMaker 12 and comes with baggage already. This is […]
Tim Dietrich has released his long awaited beginner guide to FileMaker Pro 13: FileMaker Pro 13 Absolute Beginner’s Guide The FileMaker Pro 13 Absolute Beginner’s Guide was written specifically for newcomers to the FileMaker platform. With this book, I’ve taken a somewhat different approach to FileMaker training. I help the reader become a good user […]
This post is a great extension of Kevin Frank’s first post on anti-deduping–keeping duplicates and omitting unique entries from within an existing found set. Now, keeping duplicates is an unusual request, but the techniques Frank develops in these two posts are useful to hone your coding skills and improve your approach to solving a problem: In part one, we explored various “anti-deduping” […]
I had to read this post twice to understand it, and liked it once I got it through my head. Here’s the scenario: Many times a client will want to select multiple line items in a portal and then run a script with the chosen set of related records. Or maybe just to make it easier to see […]
Joan Subirós: But, there's no example to download ?
Don Clark: Doesn't look like Jan put up a file for download.
Stuart Gripman, of FullCityComputing, delves into TextStyleAdd, a function that let’s you apply text formatting via calculations. I’ve not yet found a use this function as most of the time text is formatted on the layout, but never say never: The one time you need it, it will be indispensable. I do see one good use: […]
UKFileMaker’s fifth in the series of six webinars on the subject of learning FileMaker. This video is devoted to design building a better user interface on iOS devices. Published on Dec 5, 2014 Join us for the fifth in a series of six webinars designed to complement your learning via FTS:Basics, the official self-paced […]
More news on what happened at the latest Pause On Error this past October from Mike Beargie: About Pause on Error Where DevCon is the largest gathering of FileMaker Developers consisting of finely tuned sessions in large meeting rooms on a rigorous schedule, Pause on Error is small and geared toward think-tank style sessions. At […]
Very cool website that lets you test mobile solutions on their real devices, side by side, on their web interface: Test your website on our real devices. Let us keep up with the trends for you. We continually add to our device lab as new phones and tablets hit the market. Streamline your QA process. […]
Matt Petrowsky shows a couple of intriguing tricks, including using a list field as a form for entering data. He uses a unique feature found in FileMaker that is not often used: Repeating Fields. FileMaker 6 and earlier, FileMaker supported only one table per database file, and repeating fields were an easy way to simulate things like invoices […]
R Schaub: The Abs command would work also I believe Set Variable [$$PaymentAmount; Value:Abs ( newRecord::gPaymentAmount )] If $4,300.99 the above returns…