ISO FileMaker Magazine

Providing users with some type of indication about where they are within the current layout is always a nice thing. People don't typically like that feeling of being lost and there are multiple ways to indicate where the user is. A simple header or label is always one of the easiest ways, but, what if you're using disconnected objects. In that case, the navigation itself can often act as the indicator.

The combination of either multiple buttons or a Button Bar, with a tab panel or slider is a very common thing within a more complex FileMaker layout. In this video, I walk through the process of adding some navigational indicators to an existing solution which is provided for free by Soliant Consulting. There's a lot to learn with regards to object management, some object naming and related trickery and making that disconnected situation between buttons and panels a connected one which will facilitate navigation that clearly indicates where you are within the layout.

One of the biggest downsides of any complex FileMaker solution is the growing number of layouts and layout elements you'll have to manage. If your number of navigation (or general menu) items is both static and large, then you're going to have issues with keeping the solution well updated. Aside from this, you could have additional complexity when it comes to controlling which menu items show under certain circumstances.

While there are number of ways to make menu management easier, the best solution for most any code is to maintain it within a singular location. Allowing that code, and singular layouts, to serve your whole solution, and be flexible enough to vary when necessary, is ideal. This is exactly what this video and technique file are all about. Not only is this solution one of the most easy-to-manage solutions for a menu system, but, it's also one of the most incredibly easy menu systems I've ever created. Once you see the simplicity of management it's hard to think of going back to anything more complex.

Here's a hint about how it works. If you've used and love the flexibility of managing script steps within a script, then you'll fall in love with using Incredibly Easy Menus!

As with most every database solution, one of your primary goals is to facilitate easy navigation. You want users to be able to get to where they wish to go without hassle. You also want relevant navigation based on the fact that a database isn't just a one-trick pony. A lot of software tends to focus on one singular thing. However, in many database systems you may be catering to wider range of users.

This is where it becomes helpful to have a navigational method which is not only flexible, but easy to maintain. Using a portal to accomplish this is an obvious solution. But what about making the portal vary the navigational options based on the logged in user?

This can be done when you marry FileMaker's native security controls with the values shown within a portal. In this video, we walk through a "build it with me" approach to implementing this exact feature. Setting up a navigational sidebar menu system which responds to the user who's logged in. This system can either be a bit more general or as granular as desired.

If it's not absolutely necessary, preventing a user from accessing parts of your software is a bit better than letting them know what's possible or what's hidden from them. It also allows a given group of users to focus better without presenting options which may not apply to the functions they perform.

In this video and technique file, we take a look at two tricks combined into one. We're making single segments of a button bar hide and show, without resizing, and we're doing this based on a user's collective security access.

If you've had a FileMaker solution grow to the point where all users still have access to all things, then you'll find some great information in this video about limiting access to certain features of your user interface. This video and technique file will give you the insight into providing a limited set of options based on the access levels you define.

What do the following have in common? Products with component parts, generations of people, complex study topics with prerequisites and a chain of historically related events. Yep, you guessed it, it's a hierarchy of things. Something which comes before another thing and are somehow tied together.

Within any database system, this is easily accomplished with two simple fields. Yet, facilitating the navigation of the content can be accomplished in a number of ways. One of the more common methods for moving up or down any hierarchy is to use what are known in the UI world as breadcrumbs.

When your number of levels is beyond two, you can implement breadcrumbs into your user interface and provide a lot of UI coherence. In this video, we walk through the data structure as well as what's required to use FileMaker's tab panels in order to accomplish this task in the most efficient manner. If you're taking users down (and up) any hierarchy, then you need to know how to use this technique! This video and the technique file will provide you with all the know-how and code to get it done.

What's truly great about FileMaker Pro is that you can have 5 different developers come up with 5 different ways of doing the exact same thing. There are, however, some pieces to a puzzle which will inevitably require the same structure or settings.

Breadcrumbs, for example, work infinitely better within a Tab Panel object than any other object type in FileMaker. This is because tab panels provide the feature of shrinking to fit their content.

But, when it comes to the implementation of the logic and feature set, you can use any of the supported technologies which FileMaker provides. You can use ExecuteSQL() or you can just use a simple $$GLOBAL.VARIABLE. The limits of what you can do are extended even further when you consider newer technologies such as FileMaker's support for using JSON.

By integrating a Breadcrumb solution by using JSON to manage what and how those breadcrumbs should work, you arrive at a wonderfully powerful breadcrumb solution. And, that is exactly what this video is about.

Don't get me wrong, FileMaker has a lot of cool things it can do all on its own. In fact, they keep adding more and more useful tools which makes it easy to create great working software.

There are, however, those certain things that FileMaker just can't do on it's own. For example, you can't interact with images within container fields quite like you can certain web pages. Yet, right in front of us, we have the wonderfully powerful Web Viewer which exposes access to the power of JavaScript and all those wonderfully free libraries.

Enter the common scenario where an easy-to-understand image file directly represents a nicely complex data structure. We'd like to use the image to navigate the data and we can certainly add it directly to a layout and overlay buttons over it. But, hold your horses there señor gung-ho developer. What if your image is so complex that it would be absolutely tiny if you placed it on the layout at 100%.

Well, that's when we ring up our wonderful friend Mr. SVG. He'll take care of us. He's scalable you know! So, how about a zoomable and clickable SVG which directly represents how we'd like users to navigate the data? No problem!

FileMaker 16's new Card Windows have opened the flood gates for all kinds of new methods for presenting information. Not least of which are your common dialogs and wizards. But, what about using them for navigation? Why not?

In fact, you'll find so many benefits from using a Card Window, for the purpose of navigation, you may think it makes little sense to use anything else. Especially, when you want the navigation to both hide and reveal as needed.

In this video, we walk through a wonderful technique of using a Card Window for the purpose of sidebar navigation. Not only does it blend in well with the user interface but it retains which menus were collapsed and which were expanded. It works in both Form view and List view. Overall, it's one of the best methods you can choose for solution navigation if you're using FileMaker 16 or later.

As software users become more and more familiar with various UX methods, it becomes more and more desirable to emulate those methods within your FileMaker solutions. Common patterns such as tab panels and scrolling lists are a piece of cake and native to FileMaker.

Some of the more recent implementations are simple and super easy, like Popovers for example. However, other implementations can be a bit complex and require those ever necessary bits of deep knowledge about how FileMaker works behind the scenes.

In this video, I showcase a pretty straight-forward implementation of your standard iOS paging between views. It’s when you’re going to drill-down a few levels then allow the user to “back out” from where they came. Using the knowledge in this video and the associated technique file will provide you with a lot of insight into how close you can get to the real thing!