ISO FileMaker Magazine

When first starting with FileMaker, I remember learning all the default Date/Time/Timestamp functions. The documentation for FileMaker is great and the example calculations often lead you in the right direction.

One of the things I didn't know about was how dates, times and timestamps were treated internally. More importantly, how this impacted what I wanted to do with date/time calculations and integrating with external systems. Later down the road, I learned about all the other things I needed to know when considering time around the globe. Understanding UTC, how it impacts my solution, and running scripts on the server in a different time zone vs running them within the local client and how this might impact things based on times or dates.

This week's video and technique file will provide you with all kinds of understanding. The fundamentals and powerful custom functions which should provide you with a ton of date/time confidence for handlings most any date/time based task within FileMaker.

What's the easiest way to format a FileMaker date, time or timestamp value? Using a custom function? Maybe...

In this video, I'll show you a unique trick for getting a formatted date, time or timestamp value without using a Custom Function or any of FileMaker's Date or Time functions. Of course, I'll also provide you with one of the better custom functions for formatting date/time/timestamp values.

The custom function in this technique file handles pretty much all possible variations of date/time formatting and this includes ordinals such as 1st, 2nd and so on. If you're dealing with any type of output which requires a date, time or timestamp then make sure to give this one a watch.

It's a curious question and the answer may be good or bad depending on your perspective. "Why doesn't FileMaker have a time picker?". It has a calendar widget for working with date fields, why not time values?

The solution to the problem, as is often the case, can be managed by simply creating your own picker. In fact, if you don't like FileMaker's desktop based date picker you can create any variation you desire based on being able to create any style of layout you can imagine. While the same applies to a time picker, it may not be obvious how to implement if you've not worked with FileMaker for some extended amount of time.

In this video, I showcase a straight-forward time picker which works with both timestamp fields and time fields. It also includes some valuable utility scripts and concepts which can certainly be used in other areas of your FileMaker solutions. If you've ever come across the need for a time specific picker then adding this to your solution should save you a ton of time!