ISO FileMaker Magazine

One of the best parts of learning to develop within FileMaker is you have a great sense of "full control" over the data you want to manage. This applies to situations even as simple as a hobby or something you enjoy. In fact, these "hobby databases" are some of the best ways to expand your learning about how to both structure and present data. If you haven't before, you should give yourself a challenge with something you enjoy!

In this video, I decided to break down the series of steps I took while simply creating a game tracking database for managing a hobby sport of mine. Pickleball is a fast-growing sport which seemingly sits right between tennis and table tennis (ping pong). I wanted my own solution to manage some games and decided to take a few hours to create the needed structure. Yeah, there's software out there, but I really like that "full control" feeling.

The solution developed quickly and I saved versions of the file as I went along. The benefit of your time investment in this video is, hopefully, a good explanation of how to approach the process of structuring and presenting your data. Along the way you may pickup some useful tips which may help your current and future database systems.

Any FileMaker solution is a growing collection of stuff to be maintained. By the nature of development, some things will be replaced leaving some aspects to be abandoned and others to be lifted up by revitalizing them. Regardless of what goes and what stays, it's best to have a plan for how things will be added and how easy it will be for your future self, or anyone else, to be able to identify those things.

In this video, I walk through the Home Project database I'm working on and I talk about adding styles to it and how it will impact my use of the theme down the road. This video provides great insight into how themes work underneath the surface and showcase a variety of good habits to have when adding styles to your FileMaker theme.

Being in need of a new database system myself, I decided to simply document the process of adding new features to a FileMaker system as it evolves. This is a great way to learn about the ins-n-outs of what goes on when developing a new system. There's a number of things which may or may not make sense when you take a look into how someone else created something. So, why not make videos as the solution progresses.

In this first video, I showcase how I originally started the file and where I should start to plan for a larger solution. There's a bit more needed than simply just throwing some fields into a table. There are also a number of settings and defaults which are created by FileMaker.

This video talks about those default elements, how to deal with them and how to start planning for an easy-to-maintain database solution.

Over the years I've created a number of videos about restoring user state. Returning windows to their last viewed location, restoring tabs and slider panels to those last viewed, etc. I've also created videos about super quick startup and managing users within a Users table.

What I haven't shown is how I combine all of those processes into a powerful user environment restoration routine. Along with highly maintainable (and transportable) code. I've used this approach on most all of the solutions I create and have found it to be the most flexible and best way to manage the user environment. It all came about when FileMaker 16 released with the then new JSON functions. If you haven't yet used JSON in your solutions, then this single video will give you reason enough to start using them.

If you'd like to provide each and every user of your solution with their own personal settings and make sure your FileMaker solutions acts and reacts like professional software, then you'll certainly want to take advantage of this video and the provided technique file!