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Our Library of Videos
One of FileMaker's biggest strengths for working with outside web services, as well as your own data, is the convenient Web Viewer. This one layout object allows you to reach outside of your database and reference anything out on the Internet.
My personal subscriber's database for managing this very web site uses a number of dedicated web viewers within a multi-pane tab panel.
The most useful aspects of web viewers is being able to either pull information out of them, via the GetLayoutObjectAttribute() function or something as simple as using the Copy[] script step.
In this video, I showcase how I use a variety of Get() functions in order to determine the current user context and then provide enhanced functionality for making it easier to accomplish common tasks such as searching for data.
Enjoy making your solutions more powerful? Then this video should spark your imagination with what's possible.
Over my many years of FileMaker Pro development, I’ve often heard the following, “Why can’t they just build that feature in?”. This type of request pretty much applies to everything you can think of.
I can even recall wishing personally that simply flipping a switch for automatic audit logging would be nice. While having that wish come true would still be a nice convenience, it would take away from the learning and understanding one can have when implementing such a feature. It may also rob us of the flexibility we so often enjoy when working with FileMaker.
I’ve seen a lot of audit logging solutions and they all have their various approach. Some use a plug-in in order to access the full set of FileMaker’s SQL support. Others take a native approach and simply try to account for all fields on the layout and replicate the data into a single table. I’ve seen complex systems which add a lot of extra fields to a dedicated audit log table where they track the layout, the table occurrence, the base table and more data than may be necessary.
With some solutions, those provided for purchase, you’ll get the full suite of features. These include creates, deletes, changes and rollback support. However, in many cases, you may just need something simple which keeps track of the changes made to records.
In this video, I showcase an advanced level of knowledge wrapped around a very simple approach to audit logging. If you’ve never considered, or even avoided implementing an audit log to your solution, then you may be surprised at how easy it can actually be. This video will provide you with the insight and know-how in order to implement a powerful audit log in a quick and easy fashion.
Having recently arrived at the need for a syncing solution for a pro bono database, my options were pretty much limited to “create your own” or use what’s free.
It turns out that FMEasySync, from Tim Dietrich, is very robust and powerful syncing solution. In fact, it was awarded the FileMaker Excellence Award for FBA Development of the Year in 2014 by FileMaker, Inc. It has also been integrated into a few of FileMaker’s own solutions, such as the Devcon Speaker Proposal database.
There are a number of developers using the solution, and its attention factor is on the rise.
As with all solutions and techniques created within FileMaker, the integration process is what will take you the most amount of time. The first time takes the longest, and once you’re familiar, you can typically reduce the time by quite a bit.
My problem has always been opening the source files, then figuring out where to start and what to do next. The answer to that problem has always been a step-by-step document.
Well, Tim provided that on his web site, but, I wanted something easier - and faster. So, with a small investment of time, I created a new tool called fmRecipes. It uses the freely available Base Elements plug-in in order to work with all the various copy and pasteable code. I reduced the amount of time for integration by quite a lot and can now integrate FMEasySync in record time.
Watch this video and use the fmRecipes database (available to subscribers) to quickly integrate FMEasySync into your own solution!
When you spend a lot of time developing in one specific environment, you tend to pick up your own “way of doing things”. This applies to pretty much every developer and everyone has their own suite of favorite tools.
Because I’m asked this question often enough, I’m providing you with this video about the tools and tips I use which make my development experience with FileMaker just a bit more enjoyable.
If you’ve found a workflow, plug-in or tool which you enjoy using, then please leave a comment on this article’s page.
If you’ve not invested the time in making your development within FileMaker a bit easier and more efficient, then I’m sure this video will have a least something which will make you glad you watched!
Have you discovered the big advantages of FileMaker’s Popover objects? Not using FileMaker 13 yet? This video may have all the reasons why you should switch as quickly as possible.
In this video, I showcase how simply powerful a Popover button can be. I was deciding whether I should call the video and file “Single Step Coding” because so many of the objects within the popover only use one single script step. I decided, however, that what I was really showing was how much power you get when you pack a lot of functionality within a Popover object.
Within one little Popover, I show you how to create, edit and delete data without ever closing the popover. This is all done in a very elegant fashion making your solution seem very clean, yet quite powerful.
Because of FileMaker’s Popover objects and sliders, your user interface may need a serious overhaul. These UI elements are game changers in how users interact with solution data. Long gone are the days of “show it all” layouts!
When first starting to use FileMaker, the templates you’re exposed to may impose certain conceptual limits on how you use the various areas of FileMaker Pro.
Take layouts for example, you use a form view to enter data and list view to view a list of options you can choose from.
There are, however, aspects of each of these areas within the application that lend themselves to abstracted uses. While List View may be used most of the time for viewing a list of data, this isn’t forced upon you.
FileMaker’s layout parts are simply parts of your display area which can be used in creative ways. In this video, I showcase how I’ve used the body area of a List View in order to maintain statically positioned Header and Footer areas while treating the body as a single form view.
There are also creative ways to use Sub-summary parts by conditionally showing or hiding them as desired. This is commonly called “Sorting on a garbage field” - or, at least I’m calling it that.
If you’re looking to expand your creative thinking with how data can be displayed within FileMaker Pro, then this video will certainly have what you’re looking for.
Personally, I’m all about the time-savings. I think most people are. If I can accomplish anything, without sacrificing quality, in a shorter period of time I’ll take it!
Well, this video is going to be worth its weight in gold if you’ve spent any amount of time within FileMaker’s Layout mode doing a ton of repetitious tasks working with layout objects.
You see, FileMaker is a very powerful tool, but, it does have its own shortcomings. It suffers from a serious degree of “dialogitis”. You often have to drill down through so many dialogs it can take hours to implement an interface which uses a lot of similar elements which only change by a tiny degree - typically by a simple incrementation.
This is where you stop and say “Isn’t there a better way to do this?” Why YES! There is. Using a very simple tool, built in FileMaker, and a freely available plug-in, we can save many hundreds (maybe even thousands) of hours of development time over the course of a FileMaker career. This video will show you how!
When was the last time you used FileMaker's Extended Privileges? Never? Well, how about taking advantage of them in such a way that you gain a double level of control over individual user-based privileges.
Using one single privilege set, it's possible to control which specific users can view, edit or delete records from your database. You can also turn off, or on, a specific privilege such as editing an invoice for a whole group of users or one specific user.
It's already hard enough to figure out how to make access privileges specific to users. Implementing this easily within FileMaker's own convoluted security is our ultimate goal.
If setting up security is the last step you take, then watching this video will hopefully reveal how easy it is to set things up at the beginning, or at any time in your solution's evolution.
Since FileMaker Pro provides the Extended Privileges section, there's no reason not to take advantage of it. Let me show you how!
What FileMaker developer wants their solution to be so difficult to use that it causes users not to want to use it? My guess, not a one.
So, the first general order of business, beyond your schema, may be adding many of those familiar features which users have already come to expect from any nice software package.
When it comes to features, some type of easy-to-use search feature is most likely at the top of the list. The trick is making it work and feel like all the other search features users have become used to.
This video showcases the implementation of a powerful OnObjectKeystroke script which enhances the familiar search field functionality.
When first learning structure and schema within any development environment, including FileMaker, the question of “Am I doing this the right way?” always seems rear its ugly head. The answer to that question, however, is not “Yes” or “No” but the more frustrating “It depends”. The reason for this ambiguous response is that the needs of the solution often dictate how it should be structured.
True, there are common pitfalls which should be avoided when planning out the structure of your database. Also, understanding fundamentals, like using a join tables, and how to get at the data you wish to display always depend on where the data resides. In this video, I showcase one of many approaches to managing groups of people. Information about how breaking down a common sentence of requested features can reveal a lot, and how to formulate your angle of attack.
If structuring data is something you’ve always had an issue with then this video may have the insight to help move you along.