ISO FileMaker Magazine

FileMaker Pro provides a more than capable UI surface in order to design great looking user interfaces. In fact, it's the speed with which you can create that user interface which makes FileMaker Pro so appealing. The great thing about recent releases has been the flexibility of the newer layout objects.

When you combine the utility of sliders, tab panels, popovers and layout mode's various layout parts, you can further extend what you can do within FileMaker by quite a bit.

This video presents the top five tips and tricks you can accomplish with offscreen options possible with both native layout widgets and layout parts. If you're looking to increase what you know about how you can make creative combinations within FileMaker's presentation layer, then look no further!

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!

One of the nicest additions FileMaker made awhile back was within an area you wouldn't quite expect. It was within the Summary functions that FileMaker added a simple new option named ListOf. This happened with FileMaker version 13 and this one type of summary field can be use for so many different things within the user interface that it's quite invaluable for driving all kinds of user feedback.

With a ListOf summary field, you can control the content of a custom portal, grab data necessary for looping over, or simply show the user an overview of the records they have loaded in the current found set.

Understanding how to use, and take advantage of, the ListOf summary field is what this video is about. We'll walk through two different uses and take a look at a nice user feature which allows the user to determine which data they would like to interact with. If you've never used a ListOf summary field, then you certainly need to be aware of what's covered within this video!

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.

Card windows will continue to impact our FileMaker solutions for years to come. Released in FileMaker 16, who would have thought that simply creating a new way to draw windows would be so empowering. We've long been able to create modal windows which force user interaction - but taking off the title bar and dimming the background window was all it took to make things much more powerful.

So, what is the most common thing you can do with a card window? Well, create a reusable dialog box of course. In previous videos I've covered card windows for progress bars, menu navigation systems and ultimate card window positioning. In this video, I show you how to take advantage of the new FileMaker 17 feature of being able to target a script based on the name of the script. By doing this, we can create a reusable dialog box system which provides us with full visual control and styling of the content.

If you're interested in taking full advantage of the latest features and you'd like to standardize your own custom dialog boxes then this video will have the information you need.

One of the challenges I love the most within FileMaker is creating something which requires less time and effort than the "older way" of doing the same thing.

Such is the case with a tabbed list view. I recently came upon a sample file showcasing how to do something in multiple list views. It was using an older method of "simulated" tabs by simply placing clickable buttons in a horizontal row and making one of the buttons look different on each respective layout.

So I thought to myself, "Why isn't he just using a normal tab panel?". You can certainly do it. You just need a few key pieces of info in order to create a very powerful navigational tool for a tabbed based list view. And, that's what this video is all about Tabbed List Views.

Every software user loves convenience. Heck, every human being loves convenience. So, why not provide it within every aspect of your user interface?

The problem, however, which you may run across is figuring certain features out. FileMaker can be a very simple program or something quite complex if you're trying to do something custom like providing users with the ability to custom order their related records.

The most basic sequential ordering of data comes in the form of simply providing a number field called something like "order", "sequence" or the more mathematically inclined "delta". Once you have the field, you can allow the user to manually change the values. But, that becomes a real pain when you try to add a record between the numbers 1 and 2. You now have a user entering 1.5 or 1.3 and 1.7 in order to get values to sort properly. Then, having to manually reserialize all the original values is just an unnecessary pain.

Well, the best solution to this problem is to simply use the automation provided by FileMaker's powerful scripting engine. With a few scripts, a value list, and a bit of FileMaker know-how, we can provide a very quick-and-easy method of allowing users to custom order portal rows.

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.

When something new comes into fashion, sometimes, you just can't ignore it. Such was the case with Card Windows. They just opened up so many possibilities within the world of FileMaker development.

While Button Bars, Popovers and Sliders have changed the way many things are done within your FileMaker user interface, the way Card Windows can be used should be your first consideration for many of your standard UI tasks.

Understanding what happens when a card window comes forward allows you to take advantage of some of the various features it provides.

In this video I walk through some helpful positioning functions and how the Card Window really behaves in relation to it's parent window and what you can do to take advantage of these cool new features.

FileMaker 16 changed the entire landscape of how many things are accomplished within FileMaker. Because of the ability to show a completely different context as a new Card Window, you can now do all kinds of wonderful things.

Need an interactive sidebar? Use a Card Window. Need greater degree of control over your custom dialog boxes? Use Card Windows. Need to present a pick list, a palette or pretty much any information you could ever want to display in a dedicated child window? Used Card Windows!

Awesome, so we now have Card Windows. But, the immediate utility may not seem as powerful as it could be when the Card Window defaults to the same size as the layout upon which it's based. Plus, if you want to position the window relative to its parent you need to be ready to do a bit of simple math. So, why do the simple math when you can make it even more simple? That's what this video is all about - Ultimate Card Window Control!