Planet FileMaker

This will get the key and value from a php array. - Submitted by Todd Dignan

This video tutorial looks in depth at the functions and scripts behind making a PDF from a browser in IWP and FileMaker Pro using 360Works RemoteScripter. This works around incompatible script steps in Instant Web Publishing and allows a user to generate a report right from their browser... - (360Works)

CampSoftware’s FMSBFoundation is perfect to start a new project or breathe new life into an existing database. Foundation has a Dashboard, Contacts, Projects, Calendar, and Documents modules and a full featured settings area.

FMSBFoundation Overview – FileMaker Template is a post from: CampSoftware.com

Related posts:

1. FMSBFoundation – FileMaker Starter Solution CampSoftware’s FMSBFoundation is perfect to start a new project or breathe new life into an existing database. Foundation has a...
2. Art Licensing Manager Overview Video View a higher quality version overview video on YouTube.   Art Licensing Manager Overview Video is a post from: CampSoftware.com...
3. FileMaker Template for Developing iPad Apps Today we completed development on our FileMaker Template for Developing iPad Apps. All it needs now is your business data....
4. iBusiness Issue 3 – FileMaker Sells Real Estate We began writing about FileMaker in the i.Business Magazine to get more information about FileMaker in the hands of small...
5. FMSmallBusiness Updated to version 1.3.1 – Adds FileMaker 10′s iPhone Web Interface! Today we released version 1.3.1 of FMSmallBusiness (FMSB) which includes twenty five updates including new items, improvements, and updates. The...

Watch HOnza Koudelka’s expert presentation on Marvelous Optimisation #4 at PauseOnError [x] London 2011. In this session you’ll learn how to boost performance for FileMaker solutions.     Read all about his Marvelous Optimisation formula here. Further reading.

Last September I wrote an article about a custom function that I optimized to evaluate hundreds times faster. At the end of the article, I challenged my readers and myself by claiming that the already optimized custom function can be optimized even further. Do you remember?

Later on I actually really optimized it again, and talked about this optimization during my session at Pause On Error [x] London 2011. Now you can watch the video of this part of my session below:

Continue reading: Marvelous Optimization #4 – Optimized Again

Matt O’Dell of FileMaker Inc. presented this past Tuesday at the Philly FileMaker User Group, providing an overview of HTML5 and possible applications in FileMaker Go.

We’re happy to share that Matt has graciously provided his complete demo files and presentation slide deck for download!

Included are some pretty slick iPad geolocation demos, graphical seat assignment, canvas drawing and charting, web chat, and more!  All in all fun stuff.

Thanks Matt!

 

 

Lee Strong, with 20 years of database and FileMaker experience, and Dr. Andy Cohen, with 25 years experience in IT development for fortune 500 companies, discuss valuable tips and hard to find tricks which enhance developing applications in FileMaker Pro. These guys give an informative overview of not only the hidden stuff but also consulting issues such as project definition, pricing and scope as well as a regular review of functions and script commands. They also make a point of having a lot of fun!

This is the first in a series of articles that will present some useful and time saving tidbits for various areas of FileMaker. In this first article we focus on layout mode. There is no rhyme or reason, no common theme - just an assortment of our favorite time-savers, shortcuts, tips, hints, tricks, tools of the trade and more... - (Digital Fusion Limited)

This is the first in a series of articles that will present some useful and time saving tidbits for various areas in FileMaker. In this first article we focus on layout mode. Take it as it is - this is just an assortment of our favorite time-savers, shortcuts, tips, hints, tricks, tools of the trade and more…

FileMaker Server Advanced allows external systems to connect to its hosted database files via ODBC and JDBC. The remote systems can then run SQL commands against the hosted databases. Often the hard part is getting all the infrastructure ready for this. That includes the correct extended permissions on the FileMaker database file, needed drivers, firewall settings, etc.

FileMaker provides a test program you can use to check if a JDBC connection is working. It is a bit buried on their site, but can be found at: JDBC Test Application

However, it has come up several times that I needed to provide some working Java code that shows how to set up the connection. FileMaker has also provided us with a code fragment showing how this is done on page 31 of their ODBC and JDBC Guide. However, it doesn’t copy and paste cleanly, and it isn’t immediately obvious what needs to be changed to configure it for your system.

While I’m at it, we would really like a step-by-step list of what needs to be done to get this working. So here we go…

• Download the latest JDBC driver for Filemaker, currently at Software Update: FileMaker 11.3.76 xDBC Client Drivers

• For Mac OS X, it is recommended to copy the fmjdbc.jar file into the /Library/Java/Extensions folder. For Windows, there is no prescribed place for this, it just has to be somewhere in your Java classpath. See Wikipedia for more details on Java’s classpath, but simply putting it in the same directory as your Java could should suffice.

• Download the test program’s source code here: FilemakerJDBCTest.java

• Edit the file to use the correct hostname or IP address for your FileMaker Server, as well as the database, user account, and password.

• In the Terminal or DOS prompt, cd to the directory containing the FilemakerJDBCTEst.java file.

• Type javac FilemakerJDBCTEst.java to compile the test program.

• Type java FilemakerJDBCTest to finally run the program.

If you’ve made it this far without problems, there’s a fair chance you should now see the No warnings message from the connection attempt.

Simon.

“Quick iPad Apps Developed with Innovative Software Tools” will be presented by City of Austin (Texas) IT staff at the MacIT conference. Jeff Moore, database administrator, will show how the Austin Convention Center eliminated paper-based work orders and achieved 200% ROI with FileMaker Go for iPad... - (FileMaker Inc.)

MonkeyBread Software today announces MBS FileMaker Plugin 2.5 for Mac OS X or Windows, easily the most powerful plugin currently available for FileMaker Pro. The leading database management solution for Windows, Mac, and the web, the popular IDE supports a plugin architecture that enables additions to its built-in feature set. MBS FileMaker Plugin 2.5 is the latest update of this versatile plugin and adds new features and capabilities, including CURL upload/download and CUPS printer functions... - (Monkeybread Software)

Have you ever wanted a standard navigation tool when developing a FileMaker solution? There have been dozens out there for years, using plenty of different methods to achieve something that sounds simple. Most come with large manuals that you need to spend a lot of time trying to figure out in order to get results, and then live with a lot of caveats and trade offs... - (Logicurio)

From Dwayne Wright PMP
Certified FileMaker Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright
YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughts

Please Note: If you are viewing this page in a news feeder, the images may get munged up a bit or other formatting of the posting may fail. For the best experience, please visit the journal directly by clicking (here).

A READER ASKS
---------------
in non-office scenarios such as email passwords and online passwords, how does the password get out, or discovered. Are there alot of people spending their time runing password genarators?

DWAYNE RESPONDS
---------------
There are a number of ways that a password can get out but the most prevalent method is via a concept called social engineering. Check out this wikipedia link for more information and research the term on the web.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_%28security%29
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.



MBS Filemaker Plugin 2.5

What's New:

• Added CURL plugin functions to download/upload with http/https/ftp/ftps/sftp and sending/receiving emails with pop3/imap/smtp.
• Added CUPS plugin functions to query printers and print jobs, cancel print jobs, and sending data to printer.
• Added WebView.DisableJavascriptAlerts to disable javascript alert on Mac.
• Added Math.HexToDec and Math.DecToHex.
• Added new optional NoAnimation parameter to Window.Resize function.
• Fixed a memory leak with GMImage.NewFromContainer.
• Fixed a memory leak with container JPEG functions.
• Fixed a few small memory leaks.
• Fixed a bug where GMImage.NewFromContainer did not read a container value, because there were two JPEG streams and the first one was empty.
• Fixed the error above for JPEG functions, too.
• Updated Screenshot functions for Mac OS X 10.7.
• Improved documentation with table formatting.
• Improved Form Utility:
  • Now shows right commands for textarea, checkbox and select fields.
  • Added Images tab.
  • Now uses $ for variable names.
• Improved reading containers for Container.GetJPEG* functions, especially for external jpeg files. Same for PDFKit, GraphicsMagick and functions
• Improved GMImage.NewFromContainer so it now also reads references image files.
• Trace function now works again with logging to file.

The MBS is easily the most powerful plug-in available for FileMaker today. There are over 130 functions that allow FileMaker developers to extend their solutions in some amazing ways.

The MBS FileMaker Plugin has several components. You can purchase each component separately, or you can purchase all of the components together. If you are planning to buy more than two of the components, you would be better off purchasing the complete component set. It will cost less.

Available Plugin Parts:

• AppleScript    -    Run AppleScript code
• Container    -    Get information about container fields
• FM    -     SQL functions, Variables and running scripts
• IKSlideShow    -     Use Mac OS X 10.5 ImageKit framework for Slideshows
• PHP    -    Run PHP scripts
• Screenshot    -    Make screenshots
• SystemInfo    -    Get information about the computer
• WebView    -    Additional functions for the WebView control
• Window    -    Window functions
• WindowsScript    -     Run scripts on Windows
• WindowTransition (CGS)    -    Apply transitions to windows

The release of FileMaker Go has added a new variable to the equation we use when considering whether to use a FileMaker plug-in. We are experiencing a big shift to mobile solutions. Within less than a year ignoring the iOS platform became an unforgivable mistake for every FileMaker developer. When creating a new solution, adding [...]

Converts time (HHMMSS) to Minutes - Submitted by Diego DAlessio

I had a bit of a laugh the other day. I opened a little FileMaker file I use to track receipts and the chart at the top of the screen looked like this: I think I stared at it for nearly a minute trying to work out why it looked like that, before the forehead smack!

Soooo… your well-planned day just had a wrench thrown in it. Now what??? There is, of course, no way to plan for everything. But, you can plan for some of it!

Best laid plans go astray, they say. And I flatly disagree. If your plans are going astray, it is usually because there has been no room for contingencies or you forgot to include some important steps, which means, they weren’t really the best laid plans!

For example, if you know that you have a project going live, you should probably assume that something is going to go wrong and have someone available to fix it immediately.

If it’s too quiet, you should probably dig in to find out about what’s bubbling up behind the scenes.

If you must be at a meeting out of town, you should probably fly there the day before to avoid any travel complications.

If you are going to an offsite meeting, you should probably make sure that you have cell phone numbers for all attendees in case someone gets lost or is late. (Or, in case that someone is you!)

If you are going to a trade show and having a laundry list of items delivered to a hotel or staging area, you should confirm that everything was received in good order as soon as feasibly possible, regardless of what your shippers provide as tracking information.

If you think it is going to take you 15 minutes to get there, assume there will be traffic and leave at least 20 minutes early.

I could go on and on and on, but you get the gist. If it can go wrong, it likely will. (Wait… I think that’s some sort of famous Irish law.)

The tip I can share with you is for each project, think through each step entirely. And think of what might be needed on the other end. More importantly, think of what your plan would be if part of your plan didn’t happen.

Prepare the onsite person with everything they might need. Prepare your team to leap into action. And then have some nice proactive tasks you can focus on if none of that is necessary.

You still might be surprised, but it is much less likely.

Lee Strong, with 20 years of database and FileMaker experience, and Dr. Andy Cohen, with 25 years experience in IT development for fortune 500 companies, discuss valuable tips and hard to find tricks which enhance developing applications in FileMaker Pro. These guys give an informative overview of not only the hidden stuff but also consulting issues such as project definition, pricing and scope as well as a regular review of functions and script commands. They also make a point of having a lot of fun!

From Dwayne Wright PMP
Certified FileMaker Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright
YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughts

Please Note: If you are viewing this page in a news feeder, the images may get munged up a bit or other formatting of the posting may fail. For the best experience, please visit the journal directly by clicking (here).

A READER ASKS
I just watched a few of your FMP tutorial videos on your "FileMakerThoughts" YouTube channel -- thanks for them, very helpful.I hate to impose on your time, and I know just blanketing you with a not-so simple FMP question is not all that proper, but truth is, I haven't been able to get any responses from the FMP Forum, and I'm dead tired of reading my FMP 10 Bible (no matter how great and thorough it is) and viewing Lynda.com videos (again, as good as they are). Problem is, I know just enough to get me in trouble. Let me quickly explain...

I know from reading on the internet that my problem isn't unique. In fact, it appears to be quite common. But I cannot find any tutorial that tackles the problem in FMP. I want to create an FMP database for my division's program. Further, I want to normalize the data as best possible (see, I know a bit too much already and I think it's getting in the way of progress). Essentially, I want to develop this DB correctly, the first time.

I wish to have a single PERSON entity table that contains general data (FirstName, LastName, etc.). From there, I need to make each of those people assigned to roles (STUDENT, FACULTY, ALUMNUS, PROFESSIONAL, VISITING LECTURER, etc.). Being assigned a role attaches various related data. For instance, if you are a STUDENT, the Student Record layout would show related ReviewScores in a portal.

I've attempted to complete an ERD, but I cannot get past having a bunch of 1:1 relationships to solve the roles, which I know is a no-no in general and not proper in FMP.

I get TO's (somewhat) and I am fairly comfortable getting around FMP.

So (he asks humbly...), what's the best way to set up this approach in FMP?

Or is it not correct (?).

Essentially, I don't want to create a bunch of tables for each role (that just splits up PERSON). I'm not crazy for thinking this way, am I???

Some specs:

- A PERSON can be part of one or more roles at a time (i.e. STUDENT, FACULTY, ALUMNI, PROFESSIONAL)
- Each role has associated data connected to it (i.e. ALUMNUS has "GraduationDate"; FACULTY has "HireDate" and related Advisees).
- A STUDENT will be an ADVISEE of a FACULTY.

It gets really confusing when I need to create value lists that only dynamically show those in a particular role, as when one would select the proper FACULTY ADVISOR on the Student Record screen.

Again, with all of these roles "in" the PERSON table, am I now in the strange world of self-joins (that I find so difficult to get my head wrapped around)?

Any assistance / help is greatly appreciated.

-------
DWAYNE RESPONDS
I'm not sure how much help I can be on this one either. I would have to spend some considerable time with your solution to recommend something and (with the day job) I just don't do that level of support these days.

Honestly, I simply do not agree with some of the viewpoints about normalization from my fellow seasoned developers. In fact, I think the conversations about normalization do as much harm as they benefit the FileMaker community. The SQL world rules of normalization simply are not absolutes in the FileMaker world.

It sounds like a reasonable approach is to have a join table that has every unique combination of a person and a role. Then you can join this to your staff table and on startup, you can write a routine that finds a person's staff record and then locks them out from viewing any other records. You can have relationships flow through the join table so that it filters associated options on the other side.

Off the top of my head, I can also think of a half dozen other ways to go about doing this including multiple line key fields, security schema using extended privileges and even a heavily scripted routine.

I would recommend that you do some experiments with a new file and work out the kinks there first. Then you can migrate the working code into your solution. Take a peek at some of the FileMaker sites that have a large number of example files like John Mark Osbornes databasepros.com (http://databasepros.com/resources.html).

You might also try the new free FileMaker Technet (http://www.filemaker.com/technet/).

Sometimes, when writing a FileMaker script to do a find, sort, or export, doing it manually first can save you LOTS of time.

I was just tasked with creating a script to export all the fields on a layout.  The layout, however, is non-trivial and contains fields from multiple different tables, and the relationship graph I inherited is very complicated and nearly impossible to decipher.  It would have taken me HOURS to identify the table occurrence and field name of every field on this layout and then set up the export in a script.

What I did instead was first perform the export manually. When exporting manually, the Specify Field Order for Export dialog defaults to showing you all the fields on the current layout, including the related fields (when writing a script, the same dialog only allows you to choose each table, since there is no “current layout” for the script to use).  I chose the Move All button to select all the fields on the layout, went back to editing the script, added the Export Records script step, and chose Specify export order. The last, just-performed export was already there by default.  I was done in minutes.

You can use the same idea to speed up specifying a sort order (where you can again choose the current layout’s fields) or search (where it’s easier to find fields laid out on the screen, rather than hunting around for them in the Edit Find Request dialog).

Examines a list of values, removing lines that do not contain a given filter value. - Submitted by Rob Atkinson

From Dwayne Wright PMP
Certified FileMaker Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright
YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughts

Please Note: If you are viewing this page in a news feeder, the images may get munged up a bit or other formatting of the posting may fail. For the best experience, please visit the journal directly by clicking (here).

Just thought I’d toss this up quickly on the blog and share it with its readers. I’ve recently begun to bring a digital cameral to all my client meetings. This allows me to take snapshots of the whiteboard illustrations that are created during a meeting. It has become a nice addition to meeting notes to include the picture and comments that come to mind from it.

It also can become a great way to reference back to why you did this or did not do that in a project.

COMMENT FROM A READER BEFORE I MOVED THIS POST TO A DIFFERENT AREA
That is an excellent idea, Dwayne. I also suggest that when you get back to the office, you type up whatever is written on the whiteboard to make it more readable if the handwriting may be hard to understand.
Sometimes the client is outlining his ideas himself and I have on occation had difficulty reading the handwriting after some time has passed and when the subject matter was not so fresh in my mind any longer.
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.



From Dwayne Wright PMP
Certified FileMaker Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright
YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughts

Please Note: If you are viewing this page in a news feeder, the images may get munged up a bit or other formatting of the posting may fail. For the best experience, please visit the journal directly by clicking (here).

A READER ASKS
I have a very strange thing happen to me and I cannot seem to be able to fix it. I have a global container field to hold a company logo. The field has the right hand scroll bar, which doesn’t work and I cannot seem to get rid of it. The option is unchecked and grayed out, although the bar is clearly there.

-------
DWAYNE RESPONDS
I’ve done this myself and here is how it happens. If you take a scrollable text field that is about the size you want, duplicate it and convert it to a container field. The original scroll bar is still there and cannot be removed while the field is defined as a container field. The fix is to ...

- convert the field back to a text field
- on the layout, double click the field and turn off the scroll bar
- convert the field back to a container field.
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.