ISO FileMaker Magazine

As a long time developer of FileMaker solutions, I clearly remember the first time I personally attempted to create a calendar solution. It was not as easy as I'd initially thought. There were a TON of "little things" which you find out about down the road.

Don't get me wrong, the learning experience is well worth it and made me a better developer for sure! But, when it comes to building one natively within FileMaker today, it just doesn't make much sense. That is, unless you really only need the most basic of calendars. If you don't care about multiple calendars, flexible displays and interaction, the ability to drag-n-drop and many more features then, sure, you can make a grid of 42 objects and show "some" of your solution data.

However, if you're in the need of something which will handle user editing controls, multiple time zones, multiple view styles and is HIGHLY extensible, then you can't beat free if you're willing to take the time and learn about FullCalendar.

Of course, that's why you're subscribed to the magazine site right? We'll save you many hours of effort and struggle by getting you up and running with a very powerful Javascript based calendar!

FileMaker Pro provides us with a wonderfully blank canvas in order to present data however we wish. It's called Layout Mode. When you combine that feature with the recently added Card Windows the power to solve presentation problems goes up quite significantly.

Such is the case when it comes to providing users with a date picker, or a calendar widget if you will. In previous videos, I've provided instruction on how to make a very simple calendar widget. When you combine that widget with a Card Window you simply gain full control about how a user makes selections for date values.

So, what's the best method of implementation? Well, like all things, there are many ways to approach the problem. In this video I discuss the use of global variables and the differences in context when working with Card Windows. I present some of the better ways to approach the solution and how to clean up after yourself when considering the use of global variables.

If you're in need of expanding your FileMaker knowledge and you happen to also need a simple, yet powerful date picker, then I'm sure you'll enjoy watching this video about a Universal Date Picker.

When it comes to accomplishing things within FileMaker Pro, some of the most sublime techniques are also the most empowering.

This particular technique, while focused on exporting calendar events, showcases some of my most favorite power-user methods for manipulating data. In my personal scenario, I was provided with a standard spreadsheet formatted to show a calendar of events broken down month-by-month.

The spreadsheet was formatted to be easily used and viewed by humans. It was not, however, formatted to easily flow into an online calendar like the wonderfully shareable and embeddable Google calendars.

So, once again, FileMaker to the rescue.

Being able to manipulate and then push and pull data is one of FileMaker’s great strengths. The utility of it’s various features make light work of converting a spreadsheet full of dates and times and pushing that data into a format easily used by Google Calendar.

Whether you’re working with calendar events or not, this video will provide you with a wealth of information about how easy it is to format data into standardized formats.