Planet FileMaker

Removes any single or double smart/curly quotes from the specified text (requires FileMaker v10)

sums the numbers in a list - Submitted by Martin Spanjaard

Our next meeting will be February 23, at 6 PM, at the IT Solutions office. An official announce will go out closer to the meeting date, but here’s the blurb:

David Hollander makes databases for medical researchers. He’ll demo a project for managing lab samples that incorporates cool features in FM10 to make it as intuitive and goof-proof as can be. You’ll see how script triggers, conditional formatting, custom menus, and other interface tricks are put to work. Newcomers will come away learning new techniques; and veterans can compare their own favorite methods to David’s.

David Hollander is a longtime active member of the Philly FileMaker User Group, and we’re pleased to have him present.

You can RSVP here:
http://www.fmpug.com/rsvp.php?eventID=962

One of my pet hates is the use of “smart quotes” in FileMaker Pro. Smart quotes are the curly quotation marks and curly apostrophes and are usually entered in 2 ways:

1. the setting for smart quotes is enabled by default for the creation of new .fp7 database files on Mac OS X but not for Windows XP, so anytime you enter an apostrophe or a quote mark you will be using smart quotes.

2. pasting in text from Microsoft Word, which also has a preference setting for smart quotes and which is also enabled by default (you can get instructions for how to turn this off on Windows here)

Here are some examples of how they appear:

Single Left Smart Quote: ‘

Single Right Smart Quote: ’

Double Left Smart Quote: “

Double Right Smart Quote: ”

The smart quotes setting in FileMaker Pro can be found by opening a database file and going to the File menu > File Options, and click the Text tab (note that you must log in using the Full Access privilege set to edit items in the Text tab). Here you can toggle smart quotes on and off- if you enable smart quotes when it was previously off this will only affect new typing as any existing data will not be edited automatically.

For many users smart quotes are not problematic, but when it comes to exchanging data with other database platforms (e.g. SQL) and systems (particularly web based systems) their presence will often cause data exchange processes to break or for text not to be displayed correctly, which means you then have to deal with any smart quotes in your data. I was recently working on submitting FileMaker data to on online system and was required to URL encode my data. Everything was working well until one day data was being truncated for no obvious reason. After many tests I realised that some of the apostrophe and quotation characters were not being URL encoded correctly (I was using this handy custom function to URL encode the data before submitting it via HTTP POST). Once I zoomed in on the text to 400% and changed the font to a sans serif font all was clear – the text was using smart quotes which the customer has enabled as this was the default setting for a new .fp7 file on Mac OS X. I quickly turned that off which meant any new data entered directly into the fields would not be using smart quotes, but all the existing data needed to be cleaned up. I created a new custom function RemoveSmartQuotes (text) which uses one of the new functions in FileMaker Pro v10 to reference a character without having to actually type/enter the character into a calculation.

The following calculation uses the Char function to identify any instances of the single and double smart quotes/apostrophes and replace them with plain (straight) quotes and apostrophes:

Substitute (

text ;

[ Char ( 8216 ) ; "'" ] ; // left smart quote
[ Char ( 8217 ) ; "'" ] ;  // right smart quote

[ Char ( 8220) ; "\"" ] ; // left double smart quote
[ Char ( 8221) ; "\"" ]   // right double smart quote

)

I’ve dcreate a custom function that uses this calculation that you can copy/paste into your file which should appear shortly on Brian Dunning’s custom function site. This custom function can then be used in a number of ways to clean up text that cannot have any smart quotes in them, for example as an auto enter calculation on a field or in a script that transforms data. If you’re using a version of FileMaker Pro before v10 you simply need to change the use of the Char function with the actual smart quotes themselves and remember to escape the double quotes.

Removes any single or double smart/curly quotes from the specified text (requires FileMaker v10) - Submitted by Andrew Duncan

This is another group of functions that can be learned as a group. Each takes text as an input, modifies it and returns text. Upper ( text ) Lower ( text ) Proper ( text ) The Upper function returns the text as uppercase; the Lower function returns the text as lowercase; the Proper function [...]

If you use FileMaker to send Growl notifications, you may really benefit from Todd Geist’s post on Teaching FileMaker to Send Alerts to an iPhone.

Combining Prowl, the Growl iPhone client, and the 360Works ScriptMaster Plugin, Todd wrote a ScriptMaster Module to push any text you like to an iPhone.

Author: tammy3444
Keywords: robert bob mckee samuel arkoff troma filmbay news red one camera girl woman nice
Added: February 5, 2010

The FMSummit offers to both developers and end-users the ability to increase their knowledge and to share their experience with FileMaker products. Prior to the conference, on Thursday, three "expert" pre-conference sessions will be presented. On Friday and Saturday, more than 15 sessions will cover a wide range of FileMaker-related topics... - (FMSummit)

Author: 524studio
Keywords: RB0500
Added: February 5, 2010

Live and breathe the principles of good design at SmallCo's FileMaker Design Master Class, inside the famed Harum-Alvarez home, built using the very same principles* that Albert uses to design software. The Green House was laid out with the Master Class in mind, with a spacious Great Room for meeting and private spots to curl up for individual work, including sun rooms, window seats, porches, terraces, worksites by the swimming hole and even a hammock strung between towering trees on the wooded park-like site... - (Small Company)

Microsoft latest version release of Windows, Windows 7, is not issue-free when it comes to compatibility with FileMaker 10 products. Upon my first glance at the FileMakers Knowledge Base’s report of known FileMaker compatibility issues with Windows, I remembered thinking the list was very small compared to the issues with Mac OS Snow Leopard. One reason is that previous versions of FileMaker have not been thoroughly tested with Windows 7. The developer’s of FileMaker says. “While these earlier versions may install and run on Windows 7, you may encounter installation and stability issues for which there is no resolution. We strongly recommend you use current FileMaker software”.

Windows 7 has been tested with FileMaker 10 products and the result may be disappointing. Another reason behind a shorter list of known issues is that FileMaker Server 10 and FileMaker Server 10 Advanced are not compatible at all with Windows 7, so there are no known issues to report for these products. FileMaker Pro 10 and FileMaker Pro 10 Advanced are the only compatible versions of FileMaker available to Windows 7 that are certified. You will be happy to find out that there are only two known issues reported with these products:

1. List control may get garbled when scrolling
2. Opened file names are not added to the Recent list

The small list of known issues with FileMaker on Windows 7, can be attributed to Windows 7 being only certified to be used with FileMaker Pro 10 and FileMaker Pro 10 Advanced. So if you plan on running Windows 7 as your operating system, make sure you are using one of these two versions of FileMaker.

This article covers nine functions that can all be understood as a group in three subgroups: Left (text; numberOfCharacters) LeftWords (text; numberOfWords) LeftValues (text; numberOfValues) Middle (text; start; numberOfCharacters) MiddleWords (text; startingWord; numberOfWords) MiddleValues (text; startingValue; numberOfValues) Right (text; numberOfCharacters) RightWords (text; numberOfWords) RightValues (text; numberOfValues) So each subgroup takes characters, words or values from the [...]

Author: IDAutomation
Keywords: filemaker barcode barcode in filemaker filemaker barcode creation create barcode in filemaker filemaker barcode generator filemaker barcode generation filemaker barcode tutorial barcode reports
Added: February 4, 2010

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. Occasionally joining them is well known FileMaker blogger Dwayne Wright, developer of InBizness FileMaker solutions with tidbits taken from his wealth of experience and online materials. 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!

The GetValue function returns a specified value from a list of values. In FileMaker Pro, a value list is a return separated list of text. Each value may be a single word or multiple words. Value lists exist in a lot of areas in FileMaker Pro. One of these is the contents of a field [...]

La Source multimédia, with the support of FileMaker France, is pleased to announce the sixth edition of the french speaking FileMaker Conference that will be held at the Novotel Paris Vaugirard - France, June 3-5, 2010... - (La Source multimedia)

TeamsoftTM, a worldwide leader in real-time collaborative group calendaring, scheduling, and resource management, today announces that it has released a Beta version of a FileMaker connector for TeamAgenda... - (Teamsoft Inc.)

If you are a user or developer of File Maker Pro and are located in the Washington, DC Metro area, please come to the DC File Maker User Group meeting today, February 3.  It will be held at the FileMaker office at 700 12^th Street NW downtown, from Noon until 2:00 PM.  The meeting will feature special guests from eConnectix, who will be demonstrating their XFM FileMaker Server. In a real-world implementation at Tekserve in NYC, which has 160 simultaneous clients, 87 files, 15 million records, and 10 GB of data, the eConnectix box was able to reduce back-up times from three minutes to 0.65 seconds. This required no re-coding of the FileMaker Application.  Additionally, Rosemary Tietge of FileMaker will be presenting on FileMaker Application Optimization and FileMaker Server optimization and best practices.  To register, visit www.dcfilemaker.com.

If you can’t make the meeting in person, it will also be available via remote connection.

The DC FileMaker User Group meets the first Wednesday of the month at FileMaker’s office in Washington, DC. The next meeting of the user group is scheduled for Wednesday, March 3.

Check out the following blog post for a written recap from Pause On Error, the FileMaker unconference in Portland. This has a little more info about the back story and where the movement itself may be headed. This post is available on an IT blog that is hosted by IT Solutions: http://bit.ly/aIzZkx

Pause On Error is a FileMaker unconference that is quickly becoming a FileMaker movement. What is an unconference? According to Wikipedia, “an unconference is a facilitated, participant-driven conference centered around a theme or purpose. The term ‘unconference’ has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid one or more aspects of a conventional conference, such as high fees and sponsored presentations.”

During the summer of 2009, three top names in the FileMaker community, Andy Gaunt (FMPug), John Sindelar (SeedCode), and Ernest Koe (Proof), thought it might be cool to gather a bunch of FileMaker minds together in a hotel with one goal: share. The idea was to share ideas, techniques, and best practices around all things FileMaker. There would be no commercial advantages, no booths, no ads, and most importantly, no registration fee for anyone who wanted to attend. Sounds like an unconference!

With no budget to speak of, they turned to the free side of the web and social networking giants like Twitter and Facebook, along with free event planning resources, to handle what little organization they would actually need. In a recent interview with Ernest Koe and John Sindelar, Koe explained that at a minimum they just needed to pick a time and place. And so they did. The first Pause On Error unconference was scheduled for July 16 and 17, 2009 at the Ace Hotel in New York City. Approximately 60 or 70 people from around the country crammed into attendees’ suites to speak, listen, and share. It was a smashing success and word spread around the FileMaker community with lightning speed. After the dust settled in New York, Molly Connolly (Thorsen Consulting) joined the original three and formed the Pause On Error steering committee. They soon set their sights on the west coast.

Pause II was held at the Ace Hotel in Portland, OR on January 21 and 22, 2010. How could this sophomore effort prove to be better than its predecessor?  Koe explained that Portland had the benefit of following New York’s template. Sindelar chimed in that there were a lot of philosophical questions being asked before New York.  Those questions had answers by the time Portland was being planned. Having a baseline from which to work made planning quite a bit easier. Also the dates were announced with more advanced notice for anyone planning to travel.

I was fortunate to attend the first day of Pause On Error and was blown away by the high level of enthusiasm, collaboration, and content. Over one hundred people descended on the Ace in Portland and to the dismay of the steering committee, they had to cut off registration a few weeks before the event in fear of overcrowding the accommodations. The hotel was at capacity and some late registrants had to stay elsewhere. Sessions were held in four suites on the fourth floor. In the more popular sessions, seating on couches and chairs went fast, but attendees found whatever space they could, including the bathrooms and the beds. In the grass roots spirit of Pause On Error, sessions were geared more toward discussion and less toward a one-way dissemination of information. Presenters simply planted seeds and then opened up the floor and let the attendees guide the conversations.

In the evenings, without any kind of official events planned, attendees formed ad hoc social groups and explored the neighborhood in search of local cuisine, or simply gathered for continued conversation at the hotel’s pub and coffee shop. The night before Pause, I found myself with a seemingly random crew of eight developers from around the country sampling some fine seafood at a restaurant a block from the hotel. Then after a full day of sessions I spent hours catching up with friends, old and new, at the hotel pub over some fine local brew.

In the true spirit of a grass roots gathering, everyone contributed to the energy of the sessions by donating gear and helping run tech. In New York, the sessions had been streamed using Ustream, the free web broadcasting service. While the audio transmissions were adequate, the video quality was very poor. For Pause in Portland, the steering committee decided to record the sessions in HD with an assortment of borrowed cameras and high quality microphones. Each session had volunteers running the a/v equipment while the presenters recorded their screens. In the weeks following Pause, live video and slides will be merged for a full quality broadcast for anyone to experience. According to Sindelar, Pause is still being broadcasted, just with a little delay.

I attended two sessions about testing and development practices with Gerald Chang and Vince Mennano (Beezwax). While the sessions weren’t connected, there was some overlap in content. Gerald focused his session on the development and testing environment at his company where he’s an in-house developer. Vince expanded on the idea of development environments with a review of upgrade deployment options and an overview of some migration techniques that he has been working on.

In the afternoon I attended a packed session by Kirk Bowman (Mighty Data) on value pricing. The dialog was very lively as Kirk laid out the basis for Mighty Data’s migration from hourly billing to value pricing. It was obvious that the community is very interested in finding out more about this fresh approach to pricing projects. So obvious that the only free space I could find to sit during the talk was in the bathroom with six or seven other folks trying to squeeze in!

Jason Young (Mighty Data) presented his findings from some recent performance testing that he’s been doing to found out the fastest ways to set and get values from across large data sets. Did you know that looping through records is significantly faster on a layout set to form view, and that table view is significantly slower than both list and form? Another fascinating insight from Jason’s presentation had to do with getting data. When using a script, building a list of values from a field across a large found set is faster when navigating to each record in a loop and setting a field, as opposed to using a function like Get Nth Record. But as Jason pointed out, the List function (when applicable) still rules for getting data when it comes to performance!

Finally, my day ended in a session with discussion facilitated by John Sindelar (Seed Code) that focused on the FileMaker development community itself. It was obvious what was important to this segment of the community: we need to unify and become much stronger from a “big picture” perspective and not get hung up on the little things. We need standards, big picture conceptual standards, not more arguments over naming conventions. This end-of-day session was packed and encompassed all that I believe Pause On Error is growing to represent. It is a movement that is helping a community of developers find its way organically through enthusiasm, through the collaboration of people willing to volunteer time and resources to contribute to a higher cause, and through and extremely talented pool of resources that can bring a high level of content to the table so we all can become smarter and better at what we do.

I asked Ernest and John about the future. I asked them what is next for Pause On Error. Fortunately for the FileMaker community the answer wasn’t “nothing”. But we’ll have to wait for the dust to settle over Portland before we get to pause our day-to-day lives and book the next plane ticket. My advice is to get in early because it’s not going to get any easier to land the coveted spot on the couch at Pause III.

- Jason Mundok (IT Solutions)

Yesterday, Facebook announced a new PHP runtime technology, HipHop, which allows PHP applications to run significantly faster.

No related posts.

Bootcamp for FileMaker is a three-day intensive educational experience for FileMaker developers. This is not classroom training, it is session-based learning through discussion. Top developers and trainers will moderate the sessions. These will cover a broad range of topics around FileMaker development including relational theory, business analysis, project management and user interface design. We will [...]

The Filter function uses a character filter to determine which characters in the original text are returned. Filter ( textToFilter; filterText ) Input: text Output: text Consider the filterText as a list of permissible characters. This list is applied to the textToFilter and only those from the list are returned. So the expression: Filter ( "Filter this text now" [...]

Dacons LLP releases Toolbar - indispensable plug-in that lets you go beyond the user interface capabilities of FileMaker... Toolbar lets you create your own toolbars that are rendered in a system-native style on Mac OS X and Windows. This is an indispensable plug-in that lets you go beyond the user interface capabilities of FileMaker... - (Dacons LLP)

At last week’s meeting I presented some FileMaker performance analysis findings that were compiled by Jason Young, Mighty Data (Denver, CO). He had shared them during his session “What’s Faster?” at the recent PauseOnError unconference in Portland, OR a few weeks back. Jason sent a follow-up email about some of his findings and some tidbits he’s learned since Pause On Error, along with the slides from his presentation, which are attached here. If you weren’t at the meeting, check out the meeting video on an earlier post to gain some context for this update (fast forward to the 54:20 mark).

After the presentation at PauseOnError, Jason received some great info from a few FileMaker engineers. Here are the results:

• Regarding loop speeds, freeze window trumps all and looping through a layout set to Form view is the fastest. Even when List and Table view are frozen, they still have to manage more records and are doing some “fetching-ahead” of records not currently being displayed.
• We had discussed that that “Setting Values Through a Portal” performs better than looping through actual records. The reason is that none of the child records are committed as you loop through them. Looping through a found set commits every record when it is exited. But, all portal rows close when the parent record is committed, which means all child records are locked until the process completes and if you revert the parent, you also revert all children records (similar to the Replace command).
• Jason also did some server testing and found that Replace and portal looping were identical. (Locally, replace beat portal looping while setting a single field). So, looping may be the way to go, given the two options, because you can error capture if any records fail.

We are looking forward to hearing more on future performance testing. Thank you Jason for sharing your findings with Philly FileMaker!

SMTPit Pro is a next generation email plug-in for FileMaker Pro 7 and greater. SMTPit Pro is built from the ground up taking advantage of years of plug-in development knowledge and the latest FileMaker plug-in API. SMTPit Pro provides a vast array of email options. You can send simple text based messages or you can send complex HTML messages. You can send a single message or an entire mail out. Its functionality is flexible enough to cover many email tasks. SMTPit Pro makes customizing you...

Keep on reading: SMTPit Pro

Author: lessardpeter
Keywords: filemaker consultant
Added: January 31, 2010

Parses data between 2 strings for all occurrences in the specified source and returns them in a list - Submitted by David

Parse between start and stop html tags, or any other string - Submitted by David