ISO FileMaker Magazine

In the process of creating a simple media archiving database I found I had used the same skill twice because of how FileMaker returns data from certain functions. Hence, I decided to provide you with my simple little start to a Media Archiving solution.

Simply, it asks for a folder, then pulls the paths to all files from the selected, and enclosed, folders into the database. It's really a pretty simple thing because it's managed with one simple function from the BaseElements plug-in.

However, not all simple things are that simple. There are many things you need to account for when importing something from an external file and how you go about addressing things like prompting a user for a required plug-in. Regardless of whether you're needing a media archiving solution or not, there's always something more you can learn about working with FileMaker in order to accomplish your desired goals.

Continuing on with the two part series about Narrow vs. Wide tables, this video will go into how to best filter your data, especially if you have a large amount. It will present the data within the structure we'd created within the first video.

Knowing the impact of data operations isn't just limited to the structure of your tables. It's also about how much data is loaded and shown to the user based on what the user needs to see. If you have a relationship resulting in hundreds of thousands of possible records, it doesn't really make sense to show anything other than what the user really needs to see.

If the user only needs to see 3 months of data then simply load the three months and allow the UI to provide options to adjust. That's exactly what we cover within this video. Let's learn how to limit what is shown within your narrow table structure.

It seems like it's taken decades for many businesses and government agencies to move from pushing paper into the digital age of transactions. Recently, I was reminded of this by heading into town hall and having to push a bit of paper myself. Banks and other financial institutions still actually offer paper options surprisingly. I guess being in the world of tech comes with its own biases. But, despite the seemingly slow adoption, the migration is still happening and more and more things are going pure digital. The real estate markets are finally making the switch to mostly digital and this means it's a great time to know how to take advantage of this fact.

Fortunately, storing a PDF into FileMaker is as easy as drag-n-drop or the click of a button. Getting information out of that PDF still requires some type of external software. In the FileMaker market you'll find a variety of options including both free and paid options.

In this video, I'll walk you through one of the easiest and freely available options for pulling PDF content into FileMaker. With this license-free options you'll never be scared of getting the exact content you wish to extract from any PDF.

Recently, having had a conversation with a fellow developer about a FileMaker theme potentially causing issues with slow performance, it was asked about how it's possible to update a theme.

Whether you simply want to update existing styles and/or remove and add others, there's only a few critical things you need to remember about updating and migrating a theme. If you can get those few things right, then making any number of updates to your existing theme can be quite easy to accomplish.

The great thing about updating a theme is that it can be accomplished in a completely separate copy of your live file. All you need to do is download the file from FileMaker Server and then make the desired changes/deletions/additions and then simply apply the updated theme onto the previous version. This migration can be done with minimal fuss provided you keep both the theme name and the theme styles named exactly the same.

Needing to update your FileMaker theme for all your layouts? Watch this video if you'd like some insight into how you can go about migrating your theme from an older version to a newer version.