ISO FileMaker Magazine

Claris/FileMaker, as a development environment, is full of all kinds of hidden corners and secret places. Most of this is due to its age and keeping a strong commitment to backwards compatibility. To its credit, there are very few features which have been removed to date. Still have a database which uses repeating fields to store data? They're still there!

To say that developing within the environment is straight forward is a bit misleading. Sometimes, you can combine knowledge about older features with newer ones and end up with something entirely new and cool. That's what happens in this video and technique file. By using JSON with one of those somewhat hidden features, we can solve an age old problem of having field specific information available to the whole solution - and we only need to manage it within one location, which happens to be specific to the field itself. It's one situation where having tightly coupled data is exactly what you're looking for!

In this video we'll take a look at how a well structured format like JSON can benefit us in a wide variety of ways. By addressing the need for supporting multi-lingual field labels, we are just touching the tip of the iceberg with this creative solution.

For all my time with FileMaker, there's this peculiar aspect of one's learning journey where small bits and pieces of information come to you in odd ways. You either happen to stumble upon them, or you're told about them through the grapevine. Not from the company itself.

While most large companies are often busy with the business of improving their software, their outbound communications about certain things aren't always prompt or highly detailed. Personally, I love what Claris has been doing with FileMaker communication in the last few years. It's a night and day situation compared to just 5 years ago. There are, however, situations where you have to hear about a particular feature from a close parter like Soliant. Even Claris themselves didn't publicize the fact that FileMaker Server 19.5 supported Perform Script on Server - running on Server - via a flag named SupportNestedPSOS. Go ahead, search for it in Google. You won't find it anywhere on any of the Claris sites (at least as of the posting this article).

Which brings me to technical issues and possible bugs. Unless you frequent the Claris Community forums, it's unlikely you've heard about the 9 year issue of FileMaker being a total hog when it comes to memory allocation for certain functions. All credit goes to Alex Zueiv for this long running discovery. At this stage, it may be known and intentional by Claris, but it certainly is an eye opener. So much so that I decided to make this video to increase awareness. Like you, I like my software to run as efficiently as possible and workarounds, hacks, what have you, I'm going to take advantage of the findings because with software, that's just what you do. You optimized until it's as good as it can be!

The world of JavaScript libraries is so rich and full that once you start using some of them you start to ask yourself "Should I even try this natively with FileMaker?" When it comes to something like QR codes we don't even have a native option to create them. Currently, there's no GenerateBarcode() function.

There's also the situation where you're using one of these fabulous JavaScript Libraries and you want to loop through a found set of records. The problem is... — You try to use your new cool JavaScript library on a range of records. Creating a QR code for a collection of records. Just a few hundred or a few thousand is all you need.

There's a few problems with this situation however. One of them is that you MUST know how the FileMaker.PerformScript() function behaves within a Web Viewer. If it's not ready to go, then you'll get an error (which you can't even see unless you use a JavaScript debugger). The second issue is that FileMaker will simply stack any script calls until you get to the last record of a record loop and then execute them all on the last record. This is why you need to know the two critical things which must be set for successful loop based JavaScript use with a web viewer. Fortunately, we'll walk you through these critical issues and show you everything you need to keep in mind for using JavaScript, a Web Viewer and a Record Loop.

As with most every database solution, one of your primary goals is to facilitate easy navigation. You want users to be able to get to where they wish to go without hassle. You also want relevant navigation based on the fact that a database isn't just a one-trick pony. A lot of software tends to focus on one singular thing. However, in many database systems you may be catering to wider range of users.

This is where it becomes helpful to have a navigational method which is not only flexible, but easy to maintain. Using a portal to accomplish this is an obvious solution. But what about making the portal vary the navigational options based on the logged in user?

This can be done when you marry FileMaker's native security controls with the values shown within a portal. In this video, we walk through a "build it with me" approach to implementing this exact feature. Setting up a navigational sidebar menu system which responds to the user who's logged in. This system can either be a bit more general or as granular as desired.