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Our Library of Videos
Bad joke: How do you know when your database has a problem?
Answer: Simple, you make a query about it - and have it notify you.
Ok, all jokes aside, you're taking the time to create a wonderful work of technological art by creating a database which will solve all kinds of real world problems.
The problem, however, is you may not know when things go right, or wrong, within your database. Probably, because you haven't taken the time to code in some type of notification system. Fortunately, this is quite easy.
There are all kinds of possible notifications you can use, starting with your most common, which is email. However, email isn't always the most immediate or effective. What about SMS? Or, how about a native (and immediate) smartphone notification system?
Using notifications, you can not only enhance the usefulness of administrative communications for your database, but use the same features for your users as well.
This video and sample file will provide you with the steps and knowledge necessary to make an effective database notification system. If you've never integrated your database with a third party system, and using some of FileMaker 13's new features is on your bucket list, then make sure and give this video a quick review!
FileMaker does data, and it does it well - and easily. What FileMaker doesn't do "as" well is data visualization. This isn't because it couldn't. It's because they just haven't been able to focus on it as much. Sure, you can format portals, use repeating fields and use conditional formatting for all kinds of display magic, but you won't realize the same results as you could with a tool or language built specifically for data visualization.
In my humble opinion, they shouldn't work too hard on this either. This is because we have access to technology which provides far more than FileMaker ever can. FileMaker took ages before it had an integrated charting feature. Before that, you had to use a plugin and eventually you could use a remote API through a web viewer.
FileMaker has made a lot of progress with regards to the usability of its charting tool too. It's a great tool for basic data display.
However, when you need to go beyond the constraints of FileMaker's charting tool, the place you'll end up is within the web viewer. Granted, you'll need to shrug off any fear of learning HTML/CSS/JavaScript, but the benefits are well worth the journey.
In this video, I showcase how easy it is to integrate the very powerful JavaScript library D3. It's a power-user's tool which takes full advantage of everything that HTML/CSS/SVG has to offer. Within a world where data visualization is becoming a common form of data communication, this one video provides the first step of many towards taking advantage of some very powerful tools!
Oh, the wonderful navigational aid of breadcrumbs. It always seems like the web has it all. Yes, you can do pretty much anything within a web viewer.
But wait!
You don't want to use a web viewer?
Shouldn't you be able to make this happen natively? Well, sure. Why not? You can make it happen with FileMaker 13 and higher!
This video and its technique file present a native way to implement navigational breadcrumbs. It accomplishes this task with a minimal amount of effort and can be localized as well. It won't break if you rename your layouts and supports as many levels as you desire.
Need a bit of FileMaker breadcrumb love? Then watch this video for all the details!
Do you really have a full hour for learning almost everything there is to know about generating barcodes from within FileMaker?*
No? Then just skip this video, because it certainly does cover all the bases about using and generating barcodes.
Whether FileMaker native, plug-in based, Javascript, Java, apps, command line or just simple barcode fonts, it's addressed in this video.
If you ask the barcode question at an online forum, you may get a few responses, but those you receive will likely be based on the author's personal experience.
In this video, I'll provide you with enough information to make a truly insightful decision about using barcodes within your own FileMaker solutions!
* Note, can I really cover EVERYTHING? No, but I can certainly provide a ton of useful information!
Perform Script on Server is the one step which will change how you develop FileMaker solutions FOREVER. Yes, I said that with all caps! This is exciting!
There's so much power in how it can be used, that it truly is a game changer. This is fundamentally why the web is so popular. It works like this.
Your client, a web browser, makes a request to some beefy server and it wrangles the data and then reports back with the compiled results. This is essentially what this new script step does, but with all the power of what FileMaker can do.
Until you start using it, it "seems" like it's just "another feature". Changing the way you think about FileMaker development, using PSoS for short, is inevitable. If your solutions are stuck in versions prior to 13, then you might want to beg, borrow or steal (ok, not steal) to start using this feature.
With PSoS, you can import hundreds of thousands of records in mere seconds. You can send hundreds of thousands of emails without ever seeing a spinning waiting indicator. You can update hundreds of thousands of records with lightning speed or generate a hundred page report as a PDF within minutes instead of hours.
This video provides all the critical know-how in order to start working with PSoS and it will get you going fast!
There's often a time when that fateful question is asked while developing in FileMaker. What's the question you ask? Well, it's this one.
"Wouldn't it be cool if FileMaker supported native hyperlinking?"
Well, now that's an idea. Maybe it doesn't support it natively, but you sure can make it happen. It's all a matter knowing what FileMaker provides in order to make it a reality.
Using some built-in FileMaker functions, in conjunction with fmp:// url and some Custom Function magic, you can certainly make the process of linking inline text to various records a very simple and easy task for any user. Of course, you'll be using a web viewer to display the hyperlinks and with it you get all the nice CSS formatting capability.
What you do with it and how you use it, is only up to your imagination!
When developing within FileMaker, there are often times when I'm surprised at how much "figuring out" is required to solve a problem. In this video article I provide a great deal of information about a problem I was having with managing a recurring import of some inventory data.
The data being imported was constantly changing and came from an external source where only a few fields are controlled by the user. With the original FileMaker system, it was structured in such a way where the "clean slate" approach was taken.
The "clean slate" approach, which you can likely guess, is one in which you simply wipe all previous data and simply import a whole new set. While this works well with small record sets, the more you import, and the larger the data set, the more of an impact, in terms of waiting time, you'll feel. You also lose the benefits of being able to assign your own internal key values and maintaining those within the schema.
So, what's the answer to the question of a recurring import where a significant percentage of data may not change? It's record modification tracking. You need to track which records were modified in order to know which should be post processed or updated by the logic of your solution.
This video and the sample file demonstrates exactly how I approached the problem and includes valuable information which I am sure will make you a better FileMaker developer. If you've never understood why you might want to use a "hash" for comparing data, or if you've thought you should really look into performing scripts on the server side then, by all means, jump into this video. It has a ton of great stuff to learn from!
Just like fashion, there are certain technologies which often cycle around and find new life in our modern tech world. A great example are animated gifs. And speaking of making the rounds, don't forget about the 20 plus year old tech of HTML Image Maps.
Since FileMaker Pro has integrated Web Viewers and with the addition of FileMaker's fmp:// url, we've long been able to integrate images with irregularly shaped areas offering any number of polygonal objects which are user clickable.
If you deal with any kind of map, seating chart, irregular shaped real-world object which requires specific defined areas, then look no further than HTML Image Maps. No Flash required here.
The biggest issue with using this straight forward tech is the time it takes to generate the defined object regions. That is, unless you know how to use the right software which makes the process a breeze. The rest is integrating into your FileMaker layout.
Using OmniGraffle to generate clickable HTML image maps, you can quickly and seamlessly integrate this old, but reliable, technology within your own FileMaker solutions. Need to make that company blueprint of all the corporate meeting rooms a clickable map? Look no further than this video. It has pretty much everything you need!
For me, it's always been one of those itches I could never quite scratch. You know, the fact that in order to show some of your user interface graphics you needed to store these graphics within your database - along with your data.
In fact, it's pretty much accepted that you create container fields, many times within a dedicated table, to store graphics and resources.
The issue I had with this approach was not that it needs to be done, but the fact that the user interface graphics were not separated out from the rest of my data. I wanted to be able to simply "draw" graphics onto the layout.
Well, this itch can now be scratched with FileMaker 13's new Base64* set of functions. While you still need at least one container field in order to render your graphics, the new additions have reduced the number of fields in total.
Watch this video to gain a full understanding of how this works and just how easy it is to integrate into your own solutions!
For the email purist, the only valid email is a plain text email. For the rest of the world there's HTML email. Currently, FileMaker only supports native sending of plain-text emails.
The available Send Mail script step is certainly a capable solution for sending your plain-text emails - and solves the problem most of the time. You can use your own SMTP servers or send email via a free hosted email account such as Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail.
If, however, your goal is to join the rest of the marketing world and make your email correspondence appear as clean and professional as the Apple's of the world, then you'll need to know how to make it happen within your solution.
This video provides the code and the know-how in order to integrate HTML Email sending within your FileMaker solution. True, you'll inevitably need a plug-in to make it happen, but with the new Perform Script on Server step, you can have the server send the email for you. No need to mess with client side configurations. Just create the script, put the plug-in on server and send your HTML straight from FileMaker!