Inverted Portals in FileMakerThe Holy Grail for FileMaker Developers? Once in a while a great trick comes along that needs just a little more attention. Doug West of Excelisys developed one last year showing off inverted portals in FileMaker. So what is an inverted portal? It’s a portal that allows users to enter data […]
FileMaker Portal Filtering and Sorting FileMakerHacks recently posted on FileMaker portal filtering and sorting using SQL queries, something a lot FileMaker developer avoid due to the complexity of using SQL queries inside the FileMaker framework: In this article we are going to explain how to implement portal filtering in FileMaker portal using SQL techniques, because it is easy, […]
James Scarpetta put together a handy dynamic portal search technique that works fast and finds matching records across any number of fields–a very nice feature for your clients! This technique requires custom functions, but is very fast, easy to implement, and close to modular in design: So here is another one of those things I […]
Making Dynamically Expanding Portals. I love to learn, and one of the benefits of writing a blog is learning so much from all of the wonderful, sharing developers in the FileMaker World. But for all of the posts I read, and all of the videos I see, some simple tricks still get by me. And such […]
One shortcoming of FileMaker compared to SQL databases the lack of built in Atomicity–the ability to insure that all records in a transaction are updated successfully, or no changes are applied if the update fails. This shortcoming has been addressed by FileMaker developers in the past by cycling through records in a portal without committing data […]
Andrew: Another great way to handle transactions is to use Todd Geist's Selector/Connector model. It's very simple and he explains how…
Here’s an interesting twist on the usual from FileMakerHacks. As most developers soon figure out, the best way to display/print reports in FileMaker is to start with the proper context. For example, to print an invoice, the proper context is the table where the Line Item info is stored, not the table containing the Customer […]
I’m interested in what they have to say about adding portal rows (next bike ride, I’ll listen). Many developers hate the auto add row capability FileMaker offers. Most of the time, I don’t use it, either. But there are occasions where it makes sense, usually depending upon the client and their setup. Using it speeds […]
BE PREPARED to spend some time on this article from Kevin Franks. But it will be worth it. The problem is simple: The popover object in FileMaker 13 presents developers with a wealth of new design opportunities (a number of which were discussed in this article: FileMaker 13 Popovers). But if you’ve tried to use a […]
A VERY NICE TECHNIQUE by Michael Rocharde to allow creation of portal records automatically in a portal, but hiding the extra row that shows using FileMaker 13’s conditional hiding options: Creating Related Records Before FileMaker™ 13 was released, I advocated never using Allow creation of records in this table via this relationship. I did so because […]
JAMES CURRIE of Weetbicks shows off a neat little trick to add rows to a FileMaker portal using the FileMaker 13 field to conditionally hide fields. Hiding the contents of the last row We can now specify a simple calculation to hide the contents of the last row. We select all the objects that we […]
THIS WEEK: The Situation, Portal Styles, Cash Cow Filemaker Success Tips : 295_FM_Success_Tips.
GETTING PORTALS to do/show what you want can be frustrating. Dave at A FileMaker Miscellany found three possible solutions for this particular problem: The requirement In a portal, you need to be able to highlight a given record, and ensure that the portal row is visible. (For example, a portal contains 20 records, but […]
A FOLLOW UP TO DWAYNE’S FIRST POST on moving data from repeating fields: I’m thinking that I might have to introduce some of you to the concept of repeating fields. Right now, there are probably more developers that never spent quality time with repeating fields, than us long time veterans that remember when the repeating […]
Video of Steve Jobs's first public demo of the Mac resurfaces after 30 years - FileMaker Pro Gurus: [...] NINETY MINUTES LONG. Watch the beginning of the Mac era… [...]
THIS TAKES ME A BACK A WAYS: Back in the day, (and I’m talking way back), FileMaker didn’t have portals. Portals were introduced along with FileMaker 3 in 1995. Right now, there are probably more developers that never spent quality time with repeating fields, than us long time veterans that remember when the repeating field […]
Shawn A. Krueger: I use this all time… but usually have more than 1 row showing by default. For instance, if your normal…
Don Clark: Thanks for the feedback, Shawn. I especially like your idea on the side anchors. I'll be using that...
Lee Smith: Nice tip. Say hello to Chopper for me.