ISO FileMaker Magazine

Even in today's interconnected world, you'll still find systems which are so legacy that the only thing you get out of them is some type of output which was popular back in the late 80's and early 90's. One of those formats, which isn't actually an import format, is PCL (Printer Command Language). Yep, there's still a lot of education institutions which will output a PCL file as an export, which is simply just fixed length text with instructions about how a printer should handle the output. It's probably from the heavy use of the good old dot matrix printer days. PCL, however, is used for more than just dot matrix printers.

The great thing about ANY structured content is that you can easily parse and extract exactly what you need from it - so long as you decipher the formatting. PCL, CSV, HTML and JSON - they're all just structured data. This video and its associated file is all about parsing a fixed field length PCL file.

It's a collection of scripts and information about how to go about dynamically parsing a well structured PCL based text file. So, if you're doing development for a business or educational institution, which still only provides PCL output, and you want a clean way to parse the data into your FileMaker solution, then you'll find everything you need to do so successfully and flexibly within the provided file and video.

There's a great feeling about writing functional code when it's something you can rely on. You know it's just going to work. Which, for some import routines, doesn't always feel this way. Sometimes the import may fail or you can't figure out how to make it work.

Columns may get renamed, they may be shifted around and vary or you may be importing from multiple different providers. If you're consolidating data from multiple sources or you have a situation where you need to manipulate the data before the import, then we've got a great solution for you.

Not only is this video about server side importing, but it shows you how to anticipate a variety of situations that improve the importing performance and reliability.

The technique file and video will provide you with ready-to-copy-paste code that will setup your import routines to be as easy as drag-and-drop.

Knowing how to take advantage of Server Side scripting within FileMaker is quite critical when you want the best performance possible. Of course, it makes total sense that you'll get the best speeds when working with the data where it's most accessible.

The trick with creating scripts which will also work on the server side is being very specific with the context of things. There's also the very important choices of which method you're going to use. In 2018 I covered a method using a dedicated table occurence which is perfectly viable today. However, I didn't show the other methods possible and we also got some newer features which allow us to do things even more differently.

This video shows you how to write a script which will duplicate related record sets and do so using the method of exporting and importing. I also cover a method which uses JSON in order to replicate a set of related records. This code can be used in many more places than just duplicating related record sets. I hope the content helps you advance your level of FileMaker development knowledge.

Importing data may be a very common task for some of your FileMaker workflows. Of course, not all data is going to come from the wonderful world of an online API. Some software just doesn't make its data available through the Internet.

So, what you often need to do is get hold of the import file and then create the script. But, what happens if your data for import is in some obscure location and may be hard for the user to find? Well, in that situation we want to work with as many known values as possible in order to automate the process. Getting things to the point where the user really only needs to click a single button is a great solution.

In this video, I showcase all the pieces to the puzzle of automating most any importing workflow. You really only need to know where the data is coming from and if you need to move things around to make the process just a little bit easier.

This is a great video if you've never taken a look underneath the hood at your own computer's operating system. It will reveal a lot of insight into the many things you can do with FileMaker Pro once you know how to access the myriad of available tools.

There's a lot of pretty boring stuff you need to know about when programming in FileMaker - or any other coding environment for that matter. Knowing the fundamentals of how to move information around is a critical skill. If the file format isn't correct or the receiving end of an online service just won't process your data, then it can certainly be a confusing dilemma which may take hours of learning in order to understand exactly what's going wrong.

Of course, if you can simply watch a video like this, and gain an instant understanding of what it takes to move text in and out of a FileMaker field, then why not take advantage? In this video and technique file you'll find two super helpful scripts which can be used to pretty much move any text into and out of a field. It doesn't matter whether the text is JSON, XML, PHP, HTML or just plain simple text. Once you know how file encodings and line endings work you can move information around like a professional!

Earlier in the year I released a video about using Google Forms in order to capture and then import data into FileMaker Pro. The code I was personally using was a bit more advanced than what I wanted to show at that time, so I simplified the process.

Having implemented, and used, many more Google Forms since that time, and knowing that I was exercising a great degree of control over the import process, I decided to reveal it all.

So, in this video I showcase the method I use to verify that an import is exactly what you expect it to be. I use an MD5 hash, which FileMaker implemented in version 13 under the somewhat hidden feature of GetContainerAttribute(). Using an MD5 hash it’s possible to uniquely identify anything you could ever want to identify. It’s a fast hashing algorithm and it can be used for all kinds of features within your FileMaker database. You can determine if a collection of fields has been changed. Whether an image has been modified or, in this case, whether an import file meets your exact criteria.

If you deal with imports and you like knowing that a file will match the expectations of your scripts then this video will provide a wealth of information regarding that process!

When developing within FileMaker, there are often times when I'm surprised at how much "figuring out" is required to solve a problem. In this video article I provide a great deal of information about a problem I was having with managing a recurring import of some inventory data.

The data being imported was constantly changing and came from an external source where only a few fields are controlled by the user. With the original FileMaker system, it was structured in such a way where the "clean slate" approach was taken.

The "clean slate" approach, which you can likely guess, is one in which you simply wipe all previous data and simply import a whole new set. While this works well with small record sets, the more you import, and the larger the data set, the more of an impact, in terms of waiting time, you'll feel. You also lose the benefits of being able to assign your own internal key values and maintaining those within the schema.

So, what's the answer to the question of a recurring import where a significant percentage of data may not change? It's record modification tracking. You need to track which records were modified in order to know which should be post processed or updated by the logic of your solution.

This video and the sample file demonstrates exactly how I approached the problem and includes valuable information which I am sure will make you a better FileMaker developer. If you've never understood why you might want to use a "hash" for comparing data, or if you've thought you should really look into performing scripts on the server side then, by all means, jump into this video. It has a ton of great stuff to learn from!