ISO FileMaker Magazine

Most of FileMaker’s layout objects allow you to easily specify settings directly on those objects. For example, using Button Bars for the purpose of navigation means you can specify which of the multiple segments should be presented as active. Of course, your can also easily target which layout a button click should take the user to without creating a dedicated script.

The problem, however, is that FileMaker systems end up growing ever larger and the evolution process means you’re constantly making changes as you develop the system. Add a segment here, change a Perform Script there, etc.

When it comes to Button Bars, they provide a very simple way of managing multiple buttons. They allow you to use features like the Hide calc and can dynamically display their labels thanks to access to FileMaker’s calc engine.

If you end up with a growing FileMaker solution, and you’re constantly copy/pasting and having to double-click into the Button Setup HUD, then you quickly come across a pain which can easily be avoided.

This video is about decoupling references from Button Bars when using them for the purpose of navigation. If you like the features which Button Bars provide, then knowing their in’s and out’s is certainly critical know-how.

More and more these days, we find ourselves jumping back and forth between desktop computers and using our increasingly convenient mobile devices. At least, that’s how it’s been with many of my personal FileMaker projects./Users/matt/Desktop/filemaker-desktop-mobile-design.png

While designing for each target device, in an ideal world, is a luxury we’d like to afford, there just isn’t an unlimited supply of time and money.

The solution is to create a hybrid design which will work as well on mobile as it does on desktop. In order to accomplish this, you have to leave some of your “desktop ways” behind and adopt some of the minimalism you find within mobile design.

While FileMaker is adding more and more for the mobile platform, we still have a somewhat limited set of field widgets for interacting with data. At least as it relates to portals and related data. On mobile, a portal typically needs to be scrollable via a finger or thumb flick, yet on desktop we tend to want to enter/edit data quickly because of the tab key and physical keyboard access.

Striking a balance is the goal, and it can certainly be accomplished with the tools we have today. This video is about a common pattern for input of data. It covers a number of tips and tricks about keeping data presentation minimal yet exposing the necessary functionality.

When you attempt to translate human interaction from the real world into a database, that translation isn’t always the most ideal.

Within a database, you’re storing data within rows and columns and the real world isn’t always laid out so neatly. This is where using an image or graphic fills the gap and shortens that bridge of understanding for the user.

A good example would be a dental office and scheduling appointments within 2 hour blocks of time throughout the day. The office has a physical layout and a fixed number of stations. True, your standard calendaring application can take care of this, however, the person interacting with that data has to interpret it and translate it into understanding which relates to the physical world in which they are interacting with the chairs and equipment. What if certain procedures require certain facilities - as they most often do?

The ideal solution then, in many cases, is to allow a person to interact with that data in the most visually accurate way - with an image or graphic. The problem is, people move things around. But, what if this process can be accomplished super easily - why not go for the image?

In this video, I showcase how you can easily take the output of a standard SVG graphic and provide a level of interaction which allows for solving a lot of real-world data translation issues. If you like making “easy-to-use” solutions, then make sure and add this knowledge to your FileMaker tool belt!

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Users make mistakes. There’s no doubt about that. When given the opportunity, they’ll enter characters and text strings you never expected.

The easy solution to this problem is to simply control the result of what they’ve input. When capturing the input, there may be a variety of rules regarding how you want the data stored.

Do you want to store “4 pm” or 16:00:00? Is the user entering suffixes such as Jr. or Sr. into the last name field or the first name field? Should the input be super simple for an iPad and just happen within one field?

Making the input process easy, yet conforming to your storage rules is often desirable. So is performance! Do you know the performance impacts of that auto-enter calculation versus simply using a script trigger?

This video is all about cleaning up your data input. As a user adds data to the database, you can take the necessary steps to make sure it’s exactly what you want - the low impact way.