ISO FileMaker Magazine

While recently working on a FileMaker Mobile solution I came across a number of tricks I was using which I thought might help other developers. The great thing about FileMaker Go is you have access to so many of the core iOS technologies and you can often create very attractive UIs in a short time.

When it comes to controlling access and replicating certain iOS features, you only need a bit of creative thinking. If you see something done in another iOS app you can typically find a combination of features within FileMaker which will let you replicate it.

This video showcases some of the recent features I've been using within the development of a FileMaker Go mobile application. There's an especially helpful script which will take the guess work out of testing your designs for multiple devices sizes. So, if you've ever found yourself thinking "This sure would be nice if I could access my database on my iPhone/iPad." Then make sure and watch this video and download the technique file.

When mobile devices first became prevalent over a decade ago, it was a pretty easy process to design for both mobile and desktop. You just made one layout for each respective device. There weren't as many variations as there is now.

In fact, these days, things are much more complex. If you decide to design for smartphone, tablet and desktop you could easily end up having to create three layouts for each possible view. This isn't something I'm personally fond of. I'd much rather limit myself to a maximum of two layouts for each possible view. One for the smaller form factor and the other as a hybrid approach for both tablet and desktop.

Fortunately, this is totally possible within FileMaker. It's a simple matter of finding the most ideal width and height which will account for the widest range of devices your solution will run on. Figuring this out, however, does take a little bit of work.

By walking you through my own process, and the tool I use for creating a hybrid design, we'll get you familiar with hybrid layout design. A design which would work on a Microsoft Surface Go, iPads and both Mac and Windows desktops. You'll establish a strong understanding of how to approach your hybrid layout design by watching this video. I also provide a few tips about working in Layout Mode with regards to making sure you create a consistent look across all of your layouts.

Over the last few years, FileMaker, Inc. has been investing a lot into their mobile offering. FileMaker Go has been updated and revised to provide more and more performance along with accessing more features of the mobile platform. With FileMaker 17 we now have access to many more sensors and in the prior release they added more support for a variety of visual transitions between layouts.

While all of these improvements are really great to have, there are still those certain features which make any UI designer jealous. One of those features is the ability to swipe list view rows in either direction in order to reveal a larger selection of options. While we can't directly emulate the native functionality like within a Swift/Objective C app, we can simulate the functionality with a great degree of success. If you're using FileMaker to deploy on a mobile device, then this is the video you need to watch for a great new technique useful in any mobile deployment with FileMaker Go.

If you’re capturing photos with an iPhone or iPad and FileMaker Go, then everything should work just fine as long as you do everything within FileMaker Pro. You see, FileMaker takes care of presenting the user the picture in the proper way. But, this isn’t how the photo is stored.

As soon as you need to do any type of manipulation to the photo, then you’re headed for a shock when the picture turns out upside down or sideways.

This video discusses what you need to know in order to manipulate photos captured with a mobile device using FileMaker Go. If you’re in need of server side cropping of photos then pay attention to the details covered within this video!

Doesn't everyone want to build an app these days? How about you? Is building a native looking iOS app on your agenda? Wouldn't it be easier if your user's didn't have to learn the FileMaker Go UI and could simply tap your own custom solution icon when using an iOS device?

If the answer is yes, then your wait is over. In the first quarter of 2016, FileMaker, Inc. quietly released their iOS App SDK for FileMaker. This Xcode based toolkit enables anyone, with the willingness to learn, the ability to create a native looking iOS App using FileMaker Pro.

At its heart, you're simply wrapping the FileMaker Go product around your files and then able to run your app as its own process with its own sandbox. This becomes a big benefit when it comes to distributing your FileMaker solution.

All of your standard FileMaker functionality is still available to you. It really is a very empowering technical solution. You can rapidly build a very functional solution and be ready to deploy on any iOS device.

In this video, I walk through the steps necessary to get up and running quickly with Xcode and the iOS App SDK for FileMaker. You can start testing your files via Xcode's built in Simulator app within record time.

The great thing about FileMaker Pro is it has it’s companion app FileMaker Go. Without FileMaker Go having arrived when the mobile revolution started taking off, FileMaker might have had a hard time staying viable.

Because of FileMaker Go, we can build solutions for armies of mobile users heading out in the field. Even better, we can make easy little applications for ourselves which do cool things.

While the limitations within FileMaker are actually quite small, there will always be some burning desire to have FileMaker Go do something it simply can’t.

In my personal situation, I needed to both crop and enhance a picture prior to saving it into the database. I didn’t want to take a ton of pictures, then go back after the fact, and do my manipulations. If you can fit the steps into your workflow, then the easiest solution is to do it right then and there.

By knowing about, and understanding how to take advantage of inter-application communication, I was able to create the most ideal situation on a mobile device of being able to snap, crop, enhance and store within the smallest number of finger taps possible.

After watching this video, I’m pretty sure your eyes will be opened to how much power is held within the hands of every copy of FileMaker Go!

Progressive disclosure. It’s the buzzword that’s been around since the mid 2000’s and a concept which has existed since software started hiding preferences. It’s recently been hitting the popular FileMaker airwaves because of the recent widgets we’ve received in FileMaker 13 & 14.

When it comes to progressive disclosure, iOS, due to the small screen size of the iPhone, needed to only show what was absolutely necessary in order to keep things clean and simple.

With the new user interaction of swiping on touch screens, new UI methods were possible in ways where the conventional mouse and screen didn’t apply.

One of the most common UI conventions on iOS is swipe to delete. This method of interaction extended to providing any variety of options by disclosing what’s possible with a given row in a list view.

While you would think this would be a simple task to accomplish, there’s a bit of a work around needed in order to make it work as expected.

This video provides the details and insight into making this feature possible within FileMaker Go on iOS.

Simply creating a single FileMaker file to store your data is a perfectly fine way to start your solution. However, the first few times any number of users start complaining about the workflow taking too long, is when you may need to evaluate your architecture.

For sure, FileMaker Pro is a very capable platform. Like any thing else in the world of tech, there are less efficient implementations and highly optimized solutions. A knowledgable developer will known how to squeeze every bit of performance out of the environment they've chosen to develop within. The same holds true for FileMaker as for any other programming language.

In this video, I walk though some of the most common and also some of the more exotic deployment models you can use with FileMaker. Essentially, it all boils down to this. Knowing that FileMaker does not care where the data is. If you can point to it, and FileMaker can see it, then it's up to you as to how you structure things. We're not just using computers now, we're using smartphones, tablets and who knows what else will be coming. Touch sensitive wallpaper within our homes of the future? Watch this video for a sense of how it's possible to vary the deployment of your FileMaker solutions.