ISO FileMaker Magazine

If you don't pay close attention to the fields you add to your record load in Claris/FileMaker, you might end up facing a transfer penalty, especially when dealing with container data. In many cases, your end users may not require the data from heavy multi-megabyte container fields. Nevertheless, every time the record data is loaded, that large container data gets included as part of the transfer.

Unlike SQL or a document database, where you can request only the necessary data, FileMaker provides the entire record, including all field data. Therefore, it is essential to create a structure which optimizes the utilization of containers. While I have previously covered this topic, this video offers a walk-through experience as I demonstrate how to implement support for a singular Files table, which can be used in multiple locations across a solution. I also discuss various options, such as one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many relationships, when it comes to loading associated file data.

If you have ever wondered how to further enhance the speed and performance of your FileMaker solution, this video provides valuable insights into how you should likely structure your use of container fields. Understanding the concepts covered in this video will likely improve the performance of your solutions.

Even though your "database" includes the word "data", data isn't the only thing we categorize and track. We often need to track discrete files and FileMaker is perfectly adept at doing this. In fact, FileMaker's container field is ideally suited to store all kinds of different files.

The problem, however, is simply throwing a container field onto your layout is never really a good idea. If you allow users to simply drop anything into a container, then you'll surely end up with a collection of duplicate files and files which may not even need to be in the database.

The best method for properly managing uploaded files is to make sure you control what gets in and how it gets in. This isn't going to be handled with your simple addition of a container field to the same table tracking your contact information. This is best suited with a couple of gateway keepers. Filtering based on extensions and preventing duplicates are two methods you implement into a highly optimized uploading method.

In the associated video and technique file you'll have access to all the instruction and code needed to start you on the path to implementing the proper and ideal way for managing file uploads into a FileMaker database solution.

When first learning about database development, and how to store large files such as media, archives and documents, I was introduced to the concept of a BLOB (Binary Large OBject).

At that time, I wasn't using FileMaker Pro as of yet but a database called FoxPro. The concept of FileMaker's Container fields, as places to store BLOBs, came so much easier than having to convert a file into another format which can be stored within a SQL data store - which is what you have to do with some other database systems.

In today's modern computing world you need to be familiar with how to encrypt things and how to transfer them between various services. This video will overview the Base64 encoding functions, the Crypt functions and all the other Container related functions. If you'd like to understand how and where the container functions will help you out with working with containers then you'll likely find what you need in this video.