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Our Library of Videos
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.
Recently, FileMaker released its iOS App SDK for FileMaker Pro. This new technology for FileMaker developers allows for both consultants and solution developers to create client or customer specific solutions which can run on iOS without having to install FileMaker Go.
Given the speed with which a FileMaker solution can be built and deployed, the knowledge of using the Separation Model of deployment becomes a valuable tool for creating agile solutions. Easily updated and easily deployed.
When it's possible to update a FileMaker solution via the click of a button, you can iterate very quickly and both fix issues and enhance functionality. Clients and customers get to realize the benefits of having a custom solution while being able to take advantage of the powerful features which FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Server offer.
If you've never used the Separation Model, then there's still a big benefit to knowing that you can create a stand-alone FileMaker solution for use on a mobile device. Being able to update this solution is a critical component in the development of software using FileMaker Pro.
In this video, I showcase not only the technology, but the know-how necessary to update any given FileMaker file which exists on a device - be it a desktop, laptop, iPad or iPhone.
There's nothing more heart wrenching than when you first realize that something horribly wrong has just happened. It's such a distinct feeling that we all know what I'm talking about.
Just imagine being at the airport and you've got your laptop bag just beside you. After going through security, you feel like you're ready to have a relaxing flight. As you turn to grab your bag, you suddenly realize it's gone! Jumping up, you scan around and see absolutely no evidence of anything having happened. Nothing.
I can't even type those words without having the feeling come over me. The same thing applies to a server administrator when they realize their server has been breached. Yet, it's our job to do our best to learn what we can about protecting our data.
Well, this video has a lot of the critical information you need to know about protecting your FileMaker files. No matter where you are in the learning curve about building a FileMaker system, the information in this video is must know type of knowledge.
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.
When you’re designing in a small cramped space, and you’ve got a lot to put on the layout, you can always go for that native Popover button widget to store the extra info.
But when all that information needs to feel somehow connected to each other, just using a bunch of Popover buttons on the layout may not work well. In these cases, it’s best to go with an Accordion menu.
This familiar design pattern is very easy to accomplish within FileMaker and, when done right, can be a simple matter of copy and paste in order to add it to any other solution.
In this video, I showcase a robust and easy-to-use slider setup which emulates the popular Accordion menu. If you’re just not feeling the look and feel of that standard tab panel, then add this solution to your tool bag for when you need it next.
As a developer, it’s often hard to get out of a mindset where your response of “It’s simple silly, you just search for a portion of the word, not the whole word.” to the question of a particular search not providing a user’s expected results.
This type of response may come from a user when they mention they know the user “Petrowsky” is in the database but it doesn’t come across verbally that they’re really searching for “Petrowski” - which obviously doesn’t match the version ending in a “y” instead of an “i”.
This level of understanding, that you can simply enter “petrow” in order to search for both variations, isn’t inherently obvious to all users. So the next best solution is to provide some type of filtering process. Something where the user can narrow down their list of choices to find out where the disconnect is happening.
In this video, we look at a sublimely simple script which makes this type of task an utter piece-of-cake. If you’ve got users who need to make routine selections on filtered subsets of data then the knowledge contained within this video will pay dividends beyond just knowing how to filter based on an alphabet letter!
If it hasn’t happened to you yet, then it will at some point. Your FileMaker solution will simply grow and grow and you’ll be adding complex layers of security and access as you develop.
As you add that security, your users may report back that they can’t do what they’re supposed to do. Maybe they’re locked out of a given layout with a giant gray screen with the small words of “No Access”.
Ughhh! What does your user do now? Why should you even be dealing with this issue?
What you really need is to make sure and use defensive scripting strategies where it becomes a small annoyance and you’re both notified and able to investigate why the user is reporting this issue.
In this video, you’ll find a wealth of information about navigating to layouts and how to defensively code against landing on that dreaded “No Access” layout.
As a software/database developer, one of your primary goals is making your solutions easy to use. This means users should be able to perform common queries by simply clicking buttons which run the queries automatically.
This is probably something you already do. But, the big question is this, “Do you make it easy on yourself for creating those simple queries?” Many developers will create a unique script for each of the various queries, and in some cases this is just fine. It’s when you start feeling the overwhelm of a growing list of scripts when you start to ask the really important questions.
Is it really possible to compose most of your scripted Finds using one single script? You’d better believe it is! In fact, if you abstract the searching part of your solution, it becomes very easy to create all kinds of queries, on demand, right there within the user interface.
When you abstract your search queries, you reduce the number of scripts within your solution and make it both quick and easy to automate the searching functionality of your solution.
As with all mastery of any trade, it’s a matter of familiarity with the tools, along with practiced skill, in which a craftsman can hone his or her proficiency. In development, it’s often a matter of knowing which tools are available, and how to use them, which may make the difference.
In this video, I showcase the tools I use, their most important features and how I personally use them. If becoming a more efficient and capable FileMaker developer is one of your goals then make sure to watch this video.
What would a database solution be without the ability to send email? Well, it would be a database solution without the ability to send email - but who wants that right?
Email is obviously an integral part of our modern day communication. And, despite what the Twitters, Facebooks and Instagrams of the world would have you believe, email is here to stay.
The easiest way to add email support to a FileMaker database is to simply use the Send Mail script step. But, that’s boring, and sometimes it doesn’t work. Especially when you’re using an email client not supported by FileMaker. The Send Mail step alone also has limited use when, most of the time, the intended objective is to integrate data from the database.
Therefore, we need to integrate the data from our fields. The easiest way to do this is to use FileMaker’s <<mergeFields>> right within the content of a text block somewhere on the layout, or off to the side of the layout, and then using the function GetLayoutObjectAttribute ( “My_Merge_Email” ; "content" ).
The problem we hit is that this is not user friendly. You don’t often give users the ability to edit layouts. So why not emulate the way FileMaker works with merge fields and simply do the same thing using data which is stored within fields?
This video showcases one of the most streamlined and easy-to-implement solutions for handling merge values into content stored within a field. Using the content provided here you’ll have an email merging and sending solution within mere minutes every time you need it!