ISO FileMaker Magazine

Who likes spending time doing things in FileMaker Pro when you can do things faster? How about no one. That’s why this video will help you save some time when you discover the various ways you can interact with layout objects and your data.

So, here’s 5 different tips which will save you some time while working in FileMaker Pro.

Some buttons in your user interface are likely more than obvious in terms of what they do. But what about those times when they're not and it's just nice to let the user know what just happened? Using a combination of Slider panels and mutli-segment Button Bars you can provide any type of feedback you might like to show.

This video presents a method for showing the user some feedback about the results of clicking a button or any other user interface action taken.

Note to subscribers: If you're looking for the file, then you'll find it within the Part 11 download. The link is provided below.

Integrating third party APIs can be a bit daunting when you’ve never worked with them before. Fortunately, the most difficult part of the process is simply taking the time to research the API and implement the features you’d like to have.

When you’re working within FileMaker, you’re often capturing content which may need to be pushed into another online location - such as Dropbox. If your FileMaker solution needs this, then adding FileMaker Dropbox integration is the way to go.

With FileMaker 16, you can now use the native cURL functionality in order to directly upload a file into a designated Dropbox account. Once you’ve made the connection with Dropbox, you can pretty much do anything you’d like to your dropbox account.

This video will teach you all about using the new FileMaker 16 Card Window and show you how to take advantage of the fact that you can have a totally different position for the card window outside of the parent which where it belongs.

With a bit of creative FileMaker scripting you can create some really nice features for your FileMaker database.

On May 9th 2017 FileMaker Inc. released FileMaker version 16. This version included a big number of major features designed to support FileMaker's ability to communicate with the rest of the Internet. As a globally connected software application, FileMaker has clearly stated that it's a highly viable platform for rapid application deployment.

FileMaker Database analysis has been around since the days when FileMaker made its meta data available through its Database Design Report - or DDR for short.

The report, for as long as I can recall, has been available in the human readable HTML format and also in the machine language format of XML.

Various developers have always made use of this verbose collection of tidbits about a database, but none have made it as fast as FMPerception. This newly released database analysis tool is the fastest information tool possible for answering questions about FileMaker Pro systems.

If you have any type of question about what’s used where and how within your database, then the fastest answers will come from FMPerception. Its especially helpful when working on a larger system or working within a team and you want to track what others have done to the solution.

This video provides a walkthrough of how to use FMPerception and how you can integrate it into your everyday development workflow.

FileMaker 15 was released on May 10th 2016 and includes a few key new technologies.

While much of the focus was on the mobile end of things, there are some speed improvements along with some convenience features which will make working in FileMaker 15 just a bit more enjoyable!

FileMaker Inc. released version 15 on May 10th. Did you miss the news? If so, then here’s a video which goes through the shortlist of new features.

One of the biggest changes was internal in terms of how FileMaker is saving cached data and layouts. FileMaker is now maintaining more resources after closing files so that opening a solution will seem MUCH faster. This is probably where a significant amount of development effort and dollars were spent.

You know, just laying in some ground work to make things perceptively faster for end users and developers. Now, if they will only give us developers control over local caching on a Layout-by-layout basis!

The number of new features, from a developer, perspective is pretty small. Unless you really need some of the new mobile related features, I’d say the biggest benefit to a FileMaker developer is the nicer colorful icons in Layout mode and the culmination of the various tweaks. Hopefully, the next annual release will contain a ton of wiz-bang features made just for developers. Regardless of meager feature additions, the developer perception when working on a remotely hosted database will be pretty significant!

Doesn't everyone want to build an app these days? How about you? Is building a native looking iOS app on your agenda? Wouldn't it be easier if your user's didn't have to learn the FileMaker Go UI and could simply tap your own custom solution icon when using an iOS device?

If the answer is yes, then your wait is over. In the first quarter of 2016, FileMaker, Inc. quietly released their iOS App SDK for FileMaker. This Xcode based toolkit enables anyone, with the willingness to learn, the ability to create a native looking iOS App using FileMaker Pro.

At its heart, you're simply wrapping the FileMaker Go product around your files and then able to run your app as its own process with its own sandbox. This becomes a big benefit when it comes to distributing your FileMaker solution.

All of your standard FileMaker functionality is still available to you. It really is a very empowering technical solution. You can rapidly build a very functional solution and be ready to deploy on any iOS device.

In this video, I walk through the steps necessary to get up and running quickly with Xcode and the iOS App SDK for FileMaker. You can start testing your files via Xcode's built in Simulator app within record time.

When a programming environment doesn’t offer you every widget you might expect to have, then some enterprising individual will typically create the solution you seek - somewhere.

If that person shares the solution with everyone else, and you can find it, then it obviously makes your life easier. You just have to find the technique and take the time to implement and understand it. Anyone can simply copy and paste the pieces to a puzzle, but understanding how it works it what makes it possible to adapt, modify and abstract from what you learn about the solution.

In this video, I showcase a technique file from a fellow FileMaker developer named Charles Delfs. He implemented a number of creative twists on a popular technique of being able to offer users with the ability to sort portal rows by simply dragging them in between each other.

If offering this feature to your users creates any degree of value, then make sure and let Charles know about your overwhelming joy at him having taken the time to refine and update this popular technique.