FileMaker Let Function and Text Manipulation

FileMaker Let Function and Text Manipulation

I recently encountered the following challenge:  There were just shy of two thousand web based photo files linked in a FileMaker database, and these files were of multiple types (jpegs, jpg’s, png, and tiffs) of all different sizes – high resolution, medium resolution, different heights and widths. Most of these files were already linked to two different web pages, so the links could not be changed in any way.

But the photos needed to be optimized and resized for the voting website in order to speed up the website – the NAACP Image Awards voting website, which required fast page loading of lots of photos.  The photos would then be put back into their original location, and the high resolutions version uploaded to a different location and linked in FileMaker for the users to access when needed for other purposes.

Now, none of this is particularly challenging, except possibly the last part:  building the links in FileMaker to the new files.  Nobody wants to manually change that many links.  And thanks to the FileMaker Let Function, it’s easier to do this than ever, as I show in this video:

 

There’s More to Know

This is just a taste of what the Let Function can do. Here’s a list of other features and some links to explore:

  • You can declare regular and global variables
  • You can overwrite those variables or existing variables inside the Let Function
  • You can use it to build complex calculations and functions
  • You can use it to simplify scripting and other calculations
  • You can speed up calculations and scripts

You can download the example file, FileMaker Let Function and Text Manipulation, by clicking here.

And for more information on the Let Function, check out these resources:


The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.

Bertrand Russell
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 – 1970)

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