ISO FileMaker Magazine

If you don't pay close attention to the fields you add to your record load in Claris/FileMaker, you might end up facing a transfer penalty, especially when dealing with container data. In many cases, your end users may not require the data from heavy multi-megabyte container fields. Nevertheless, every time the record data is loaded, that large container data gets included as part of the transfer.

Unlike SQL or a document database, where you can request only the necessary data, FileMaker provides the entire record, including all field data. Therefore, it is essential to create a structure which optimizes the utilization of containers. While I have previously covered this topic, this video offers a walk-through experience as I demonstrate how to implement support for a singular Files table, which can be used in multiple locations across a solution. I also discuss various options, such as one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many relationships, when it comes to loading associated file data.

If you have ever wondered how to further enhance the speed and performance of your FileMaker solution, this video provides valuable insights into how you should likely structure your use of container fields. Understanding the concepts covered in this video will likely improve the performance of your solutions.

Just because you can create container fields doesn't mean you should create them whenever you think you need to store files for a specific table. There are possible solutions which, when implemented creatively, allow you to use one single container field for all of your solution's file storage. True, you may need container fields for other uses, but, when it comes to linking and storing the documents managed within your solution you can get away with one single container field within a single Files table.

In this video, I go over a super simple strategy for managing all of your solution's files within a very efficient storage model. We cover how to identify duplicates and simply prevent them from entering the system. Yet, any given file can be linked to any other record within the whole system.

Beyond this, you gain a very big advantage of being able to use the same scripts and layout elements across the whole solution. By adding a single relationship to any table which needs to manage files, we simply copy a selection of layout elements and then a simple paste get's of most of the way there. Want to know how to accomplish this efficient feat? Just watch the video and follow along with the sample file!

With a handful of simple scripts and just a few fields, you can easily accomplish some powerful image organization both inside and outside of FileMaker. In this video, we take a look at how FileMaker can be used to organize a collection of images. This is prior to sending them out or making them available for a web server to host them.

If your FileMaker solution needs to work with images used for verification or any form of media communication, then learning how you can make FileMaker bend to your media will can have a number of big benefits.

Need to know how to manage the whole process and create an optimized approach to capturing and managing a digital collection of assets across a large number of users? We'll address that issue too!

While FileMaker may promote the low-code/no code aspects of FileMaker Pro, there's a lot to be said about knowing how to design a great system as opposed to thinking you'll end up with one by default. Especially, one which will perform under load and scale to the degree which FileMaker can.

This type of knowledge is learned and simply won't come out of the box when you just start adding fields to your database. If you need to store images, or any type of heavy media, then it may not be a good idea to carelessly start throwing container fields into your tables. In fact, there's a whole bunch of details to know about FileMaker and how it transfers data on a record level basis. As well as knowing what can be done to optimize your storage of container based data.

While you'll want things to be easy for your users for adding media, and you'll also want to build a system which will be easy to maintain and update. That's what this video is all about. An optimized approach to container storage and making it easy on yourself when you're going to be working with these types of solutions in the future.