Using Add-ons via a Charting Example
When Add-ons were announced, it sounded like they were going to be the holy grail of transportable code within FileMaker. Thus far, I don't know exactly what the adoption rate is and if the effort is paying off for Claris. I think the concept still has legs; as you can see that the new experience Claris is putting into FileMaker currently leverages what was built.
While I have my own personal strong opinions about how Add-ons were implemented and are currently used, there's no doubt you can save a lot of time by using certain add-ons within your solution. For myself, the question tends to center around build-it-yourself or leverage someone else's efforts.
Fortunately, if you're comfortable with your own assessment skills regarding FileMaker development, you can determine if a given Add-on is worth using or not. In this week's video I take a look at installing and using an add-on download from the Claris marketplace. The experience is somewhat telling of what a new or even intermediate user might go through. It all comes down to implementation and the condition of the UI/UX. If you've not used a lot of add-ons or experienced how they might (or might not) be useful in your own development then give this video a once over.
Comments
Changing pie chart colours
A mess. Click on "multiple", select a colour and it changes 1 slice. Pick another colour and it changes the next slice.
The UI needs revision
Yep. I finally found that in the docs. The UI certainly needs a revision in that respect. Needs to be a bit more intuitive. But, the implementation, as a whole, is pretty solid. Just needs to avoid those $variable collisions and some other clean up.
Another good fix is to simply set just one dimension on the chart object. Right now it uses absolute values for width and height. Using either a width or height of 100% makes it much better for use within web viewers which are anchored to all edges. Overall, it's a good timesaver if you're putting in multiple charts into your solution.
-- Matt Petrowsky - ISO FileMaker Magazine Editor
Passing ID
Have you done any investigation on passing the parameter with the OnClick?
Thanks
Installation Issue
When I double click the ChartjsAddOnbyLesterius.fmaddon file, I get an error message, "The translator for this file format could not be found or could not be initialized," Any ideas?
Thanks
Al
Are you on Windows?
It sounds like there's a problem with the operating system mapping the file extension for the add-on to the correct executable application (FileMaker). You should still be able to import the add-on using the interface within FileMaker.
--
Daniel Farnan
Ignorance is curable, not preventable
Installation Issue
I agree with "Permalink" - the problem mentioned above is true for a Windows Install (Addon).