ISO FileMaker Magazine

Sometimes, it's just good to reflect on how you use certain FileMaker features. You know, the simple ones. Like Show Custom Dialog and Get ( LastMessageChoice ). If you use FileMaker for mobile a lot, then Show Custom Dialog is a great way to go. With Desktop, you might have less than optimal results because users can reposition and resize the dialog.

Aside from those few issues, however, it's probably one of those script steps you find yourself sprinkling all around your FileMaker solution. Then, that one day comes, it dawns on you that you'd like to take advantage of that newer FileMaker Card Window option. You'd like to customize your dialogs even further or optionally use a card window for some, and FileMaker's default Show Custom Dialog for others. Then, you find that potentially using a plugin might be a good way to go in some situations as well.

Well, we can plan for all those situations with a little bit of dialog abstraction! This video is for all levels of developers, it's starts out with the basics, but moves on to cover the essentials of dialog abstractions which uses JSON based parameters. I hope this helps address any of your dialoging needs.

Personally, I've always been dismayed by how portals are positioned within the world of FileMaker instruction. When I see other developers teach about portals, they start with the primary use of portals and then stop. They talk about how portals are there to show related data and that's about it. No way! That's certainly not the end of things. Portals are one of the primary ways to present data however you wish.

If portals were limited to simply showing related data based on a normalized schema structure, then we'd never have the flexibility we have within FileMaker. If you approach portals from the mindset of using them as a display tool, then you come up with all kinds of things you can do. There are three primary uses for portals - at least, this is how I personally think about them.

In this video, I show you what those three key uses are and how to actually implement them. If you're a beginner, then understanding the native portal is certainly the starting point. From there, you progress to the power-developer who uses the Multi-Key global and VirtualList approaches to using portals. This video covers all the core uses and gives you the foundation you need for using portals within FileMaker.

In this video we bring you the fundamentals of FileMaker Reporting. Some of FileMaker's features regarding arriving at that perfect report can seem somewhat hidden. The Sliding & Visibility settings are just one example.

It can also be a bit difficult in knowing how you can arrive at the perfect Summary report when you don't know which layout parts you do and don't need.

If you've struggled with creating that ideal output, whether truly printed or just for a digital PDF, then you'll likely find the answer within this video. If you don't find it, then leave a comment below and I'll do my best to get you an answer.

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.

When first using FileMaker's Filter Portal Records feature it's easy to get excited about how you can limit the set of records to exactly what the user needs to see. You start adding a single filter and the result feels like magic. A simple search filter using a global field will let you extra exactly the records you want. It's great!

However, when start adding more and more filters things start to get complicated really fast. You have to become super comfortable with creating complex calculations with a lot of Boolean logic. If you don't know how to use your AND and OR operators, then it can really seem daunting.

In this video we take a detailed look at how to break down a complex multi-filter approach and make it seem really easy to achieve some super advanced portal filtering. If you've ever been confused about making your portals show exactly what the user needs, especially when using multiple filtering vectors, then enjoy the understanding you'll receive from watching this video.

For anything that could possibly go wrong within FileMaker we have a list of Error Codes. They're easily referenced from within FileMaker's help documentation. While they won't give you the exact solution to any particular error that's happening, they do provide the starting point for where to look and troubleshoot.

In this video, we take a look at how to simply use and reference the provided FileMaker error codes. We also look at how you can intentionally cause an error in order to take control of certain feature of FileMaker.

If having a better understanding of working with errors within your software sounds like a good idea (and it is) then you'll have the info you need to get started.

Sometimes it's nice to revisit the basics and make sure you've covered all your bases when it comes to what you can do with certain features.

In this video, I take a good look at using the Hide Object When calculation and cover the various options I'm familiar with. This includes uses for the most basic True/False to an increasingly complex calculation which starts adding more and more operators. I also go over the use of containment objects and how they can simplify the use of the Hide Object When calculation.

Have you mastered the use of the Hide Object When calc? Are you integrating uses which account for the user's environment? If not, then give yourself a few minutes and brush up on using this powerful feature of FileMaker development.

In the world of software development, there are few tools you simply can't live without. A debugger is the first which comes to mind; because no one gets their code exactly perfect the first time. Plus, it's always a matter of figuring things out until they work as expected or desired.

There are also those "other" tools which you can't really live without. ESPECIALLY, if you're working with a solution file which was created by someone other than yourself! When you need to discover what the heck was done, how, (and possibly why) then you absolutely need a tool like FMPerception.

In this video I showcase the FMPerception tool from Proof+Geist and cover what I think are the essential things to know about using the tool. True, there is way more to the tool than can be covered within a single video, but I do my best to give you some solid insight into using it.

This is Part 2 of a series about using the DataTables JavaScript library in order to simply pull data you wish to display and doing so within a Web Viewer.

While standard FileMaker Portals present one of the easiest methods for showing related data, it's now a viable option to simply use a Web Viewer to present data to the user. With the bi-directional support of JavaScript within FileMaker 19 and higher we can take advantage of what JavaScript does best - being fast!

In this video we focus specifically on the initialization and interaction between a Web Viewer using DataTables and how you can add buttons and features which make using DataTables a joy within FileMaker.

Portals and list views represent one of the biggest reasons for using a database for managing data. You can view the data in a myriad of ways and FileMaker provides the tools to modify the views quite easily.

FileMaker's list view happens to be the most powerful when compared to portals. We don't really have the same feature set presented within a portal. Using a portal it's an all or nothing approach to sorting by default and you can't really search the portal contents. You can certainly hack in some method of controlling the sort and the old standby of simply adding new copies of the same portal, just sorted in different directions, has always been a go-to workaround.

Well, has the time come to simply abandon your portals? What?!?!! Abandon portals? Is that even possible in FileMaker?

Actually, it is, with what FileMaker now offers with bi-directional support within Web Viewers, it may be more viable than you've ever considered. In this two part video series I show you exactly how easy it is to simply retrieve some data, then present that data within a web viewer. Essentially, replicating a portal - except for the constant data connection.

In many ways, this has become a prime opportunity to choose either a portal or web viewer. The days of always using a portal may have come to an end. But, I'll let the video speak for itself and you can choose if you want to leave your portals behind in favor of what can now be done within a web viewer.