ISO FileMaker Magazine

Deploying your FileMaker solution may be easy. You just throw it onto a FileMaker Server or click the magic share button and away you go with peer-to-peer sharing.

Wait just a minute, isn't there always a better way to do things? Well, in this extended-length video I take a look at a whole host of solutions. You'll find techniques, theory and design ideas for deploying a large scale FileMaker implementation. Starting with discussing a Multi-System Deployment solution, I cover topics like separation of data from interface and authentication with a single point of entry, to naming conventions for Table Occurrences and how to use FileMaker's Extended Privileges. Unlike my standard single technique approach, this new video walks through a solution and covers a number of powerful concepts and solutions. Watch it now to know more about FileMaker Pro!

You can't be in more than one place at a time - unless you're using a database that's improperly configured. When considering a meeting at a fixed time, you can only have employees assigned to that meeting once. At least that's how it should be.

Whether we're talking about meetings, or any other situation where you want to limit how many times a value can be selected, it's knowing how to create an Inverse Value List that allows you to automatically reduce the options to choose from. This video will show you how to control which values are possible when working in FileMaker Pro 7.

Update (8/15/08) FileMaker has updated the way relationships work in later versions of FileMaker. Not equals relationships, which this technique uses, will not reveal results within a portal when one side of the relationship is either NULL or empty(blank). This means you at least need some value on both sides. Since this technique uses record serial values, all you have to do is provide a 0 [zero] to make the not equals operator on the relationship to work.

How do you turn 1234567890 into (123) 456-7890? Well, in FileMaker 6 and earlier, you used a Modification Trigger. But now you don't have to. FileMaker 7 now offers auto-enter calculations that will re-trigger any time any of its referenced fields are updated. This is useful for features such as auto-timestamping notes.

Watch this week's video to learn how to use a number of FileMaker 7 functions to not only timestamp notes, but to determine what the selected text is within a text field!

This video will teach you how to use and create Determinate Value Lists. What are they? It's the situation where choosing a product means you have different qualities specific to the product selected. Think about a T-Shirt. You have a style, size and color. All three qualities determine the price. The size and color are qualifiers that determine which shirt, and ultimately what price, should be used. However, showing only those options that apply to a given style is what you need to provide. Related value lists is how to do it.

You'll also learn how to use FileMaker 7's text coloring functions and how to get around number formatting limitations. If you've wondered how to make related value lists work in FileMaker 7 then this video is something you want to watch!