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Our Library of Videos
It's unlikely that all of the users of your database know how to find everything they are looking for. While FileMaker's query-by-form method of searching is pretty intuitive, the concept of multiple requests may be foreign to many users.
This is why you often want to provide an easy-to-search find dialog. The trick is making it easy enough for the most novice of novice users. Fortunately, the automation provided by ScriptMaker helps us achieve that task. Using a single script we can provide a dialog that will search any layout from any window in a given file. Watch the video and give it a try. This may be just what you were looking for!
It's a whole new database world we live in, and knowing who did what to which field on which record is on your auditor's mind. Even if you don't have an auditor, you may want to know who did what.
Whether it's CFR 21 Part 11, HICFA requirements or any other requirement for knowing what happened in your database, you need the easiest, most comprehensive method for adding audit logging to your system. If you've already started working on it, or know you're going to need it soon, then watching this video will give you everything you need to implement a comprehensive system!
Whether you're using Mac OS X or any flavor of Windows or Linux, there's one thing you come to expect - and that's sorting list views. Can you really imagine a modern day interface which does not offer both ascending and descending views on each and every column shown in a list? I didn't think you could. Now can you expect your users to do with any less?
Adding the ability to sort on each column in your FileMaker list views is an easy task to accomplish. You simply have to think of the core pieces to the puzzle. Once you know what you need to track you can put the system together. If you can't figure it out on your own then watch this video for all the details.
Accessing information quickly is what it's all about. Portals present the perfect opportunity to show a smaller subset of a larger amount of data. The trick is getting the smaller subset to be recognized from the larger set. This is when we arrive at the FileMaker 7 technique for filtering portals. It's a little known trick that will let you add power filtering with little (if any) cost to the size of your database.
The older method was to break out a string of text into each of its possible combined parts. You know, "matt" would be "m", "ma", "mat" and "matt". Well, do away with the costly older method and use this new power method. Watch it now and know within minutes!
When simple related value lists just aren't enough, you have to come up with a solution that allows for the assignment of a hierarchy of values. The trick is creating a method which limits any subsequent selection to staying within the hierarchy of the parent selection. You may be working with the classification of organisms or tracking all the various parts that make up a computer circuit board. Whatever the task is, there may be a need for infinite assignments.
Working off of what we learned in Infinite Hierarchies, we can create a system which is not only structurally correct, but allows for an infinite level of flexibility!
Ok, so it sounds like your standard late night infomercial, but this is real! You can add a system for managing tabs, which is not only dynamic, but also supports as many languages as you want. This is dynamic design at the best level.
Need to add a new tab? Don't waste time dragging graphics around. Just duplicate the layout and type in the name of your tab. It really can be that easy. Watch this video to learn how quick it can really be.
This video article is a follow up to the first article about separation of data from interface. If you are working in a situation where many different groups or departments must access the same data, yet will want to design or create their own interface to that data, then this article has the information you need. This is also a great way to deploy a shrink-wrapped solution.
While separation in FileMaker is possible, this article provides some insight about the pros and cons of making the jump to a separation model.
Separation is a popular topic for FileMaker Pro. The reason for this is, FileMaker Pro was never intended to be a "front end" to be used for a database "back end" - at least not in the way it is with SQL. Separation is popular because it allows for different types of front ends to be build for one common back end. One department may want feature set X and another department may want feature set Y. With separation this is possible.
Today, FileMaker 7 does allow a greater degree of separation. Keeping your data clean from ancillary calculation fields is the goal. This video will present the beginnings of how to truly separate your data from your interface.
Folder Trees, as they are commonly known in an interface designer's vocabulary, are one of the more complex techniques to add to a database. You need to have a solid understanding of the Parent > Child relationship between records and understand how one series of inter-related records is different from any other series - all within one table. Oh, and there's that new aspect of FileMaker Pro 7 that allows for recursion within calculations.
This video presents a very powerful technique which teaches you how to create and use an infinite hierarchy of records - well, maybe not infinitely, but a whole bunch!
Search FileMaker help for the word "multi-key" and you'll find one page that includes it. Yet, showing what you want within a portal hinges on knowing about multi-keys. This video will show you two different techniques that use a multi-key to force a portal to reveal what you want.
The first technique uses a portal to show search results of a find. The second uses a portal to page through a large set of records. Managing large datasets within a portal can be a hazardous task in a large database, the network has to transfer the whole dataset to the FileMaker client. But thanks to Script Parameters and the new Let () function we can manage those thousands of records by showing smaller subsets. Watch this free video to learn how it's done!