We’re a FileMaker User Group serving the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware Region
For the past few weeks I have been thinking about our last Philly FileMaker user group meeting back in May. It was all about connecting your database to other services and extending your information to contacts and calendars outside of your database. Imagine being able to dial a phone number right from your database! How positively retro.
Continue reading ‘Dial My Database’
Enjoy this guest post by our friends at Skeleton Key in St. Louis.
I used to use the keyboard shortcut in previous versions of FileMaker Pro to get to the “object info” window. One of the things I didn’t like about FileMaker Pro 11 is not being able to get to the inspector without using the mouse. Then I found the shortcut. You may have known this from the start, but if you did shame on you for not telling me 
While in Layout Mode on Mac OS X you can use Command+1 to go to the Position tab of the inspector. Command+2 takes you to the Appearance tab and Command+3 takes you to the Data tab. Use Control instead of Command on Windows. Once there, the tab key will navigate you through the items on that inspector tab.
Also if you have multiple inspectors open at once (one showing each tab), then these keyboard shortcuts will switch inspectors for you instead of switching tabs on the current inspector window.
Thought you might want to know about this hidden gem!
Chad Adams, FileMaker Certified Developer at Skeleton Key
The status toolbar is the gray area located horizontally across the top of a FileMaker Pro 11 window and can be easily customized to suit your needs. If you’re using older versions of FileMaker, the status toolbar combines all of the functionality of the old status area, which was located on the left side of the window, and the optional standard toolbar, both of which existed in versions prior to FileMaker 10. By default the status toolbar comes loaded with commonly used features, such as record navigation (the book), Show All, New and Delete Record, and Find. Depending on how you use FileMaker, there may be other buttons that make more sense for you to have on the toolbar. With a few clicks, you can set up your FileMaker toolbar however you’d like.
Continue reading ‘Customizing the Toolbar in FileMaker Pro 11′
The Problem: Creating Master-Detail interface elements in Filemaker 10 and earlier was not straight forward.
You’d have to create a field to store the id of the currently selected record, then create a relationship matching just that id. If you’re in a multi-user setting you’d have to make sure the id storage field was global, so that selection was per user, not per record, otherwise you’d have the problem when one user changed the selection the selection would change for everyone.
The Solution: Now in Filemaker Pro 11 that all goes away with Filtered Portals.
Setting the global variable can use the same mechanism (onObjectEnter) on the portal. Remember though, in Filemaker Pro 11 you’ll need to add a refresh to update the portal.
Now all you have to do is set a script that sets a global variable, drop a relationship on the layout (potentially the same relationship you make the selection from) and filter it by the selected id.
Set the Calculation of the Filtered portal to match the selected ID with the record ID
Now you’ve got a simple interface that is easier to maintain and modify.
Problem:
Every once in a while, I have a client say, “I want to have the modification date on the layout. Oh, but I only care when the <<Insert Field Name here>> has been modified”.
Filemaker has a built in auto enter option on a field called ‘Modification’. This lets you create a field that gives you information about the last time the record was modified. You can capture any of the following: User Name, Account Name, Date, Time or Timestamp. This is a great function, but it updates the value whenever any field in the record is modified – in other words, it doesn’t give feedback as to which field was modified.
Continue reading ‘What’s so great about the Modification Date?’
Recent improvements in Filemaker have let me take a second look at the way I do many tasks in databases I have designed. This month I will review printing scripts.
Most databases have a set of scripts that handle printing tasks. Using a single set of scripts accomplishes XX tasks at the same time. 1) it is a great exercise in learning how to write more modular code. Write it once and use the same code all over your solution. 2) at the same time it creates a unified way to accomplish the task. No matter where the user is in the database, they know how to print and what will happen when they hit the print button.
In solutions using Filemaker 7 through 9, I typically handle printing with a script that gives the user this experience;
Here is a typical Print script:
The problem I always had with this is that it is not always obvious for a novice. Although obvious to the developer, I think I have had to tell every single user I have ever trained, “After you click the Print button, you have to hit the ‘continue’ button, it is on the left” The expected action, clicking the close window widget, doesn’t work, since the script is paused.
This is all different in Filemaker 10. Taking advantage of FM 10 gives us two advantages. 1) scripting can be more flexible and simpler 2) the users can have more flexibility. In a Filemaker 10 solution, here is how I now handle a typical printing routine;
The main differences from the users perspective is that they can chose the PDF, or Print options after seeing the printout. They can close the window using the window tool, or leave the report up for later. Since there is no script running, the user can leave the window open and return to the solution, if they want. I have given the users more choice and saved myself script steps too.
Here is a typical Print Script that I am now using;
If you want to perform any actions after printing, you can perform them using custom menus. Attach a script to the “Print” menu item that perfoms your script when the print command is successfully completed. But in general, being aware of the new features in Filemaker 10 lets you give the users more power in their solutions and at the same time letting you use less scripting.
Have you ever been too lazy to click twice and select Tools>Script Debugger when you were about to run a script from the Script Manager? I thought so, because I am. A quick shortcut is to hold down the shift key as you click on the Run button. Voila! The Script Debugger magically opens and pauses on the first script step.
Earlier this year I mentioned a method for sharing color palettes on a Mac, useful if you have multiple developers working on a project and you need to keep everyone on the same color scheme.
Recently on Twitter someone posted a link to Mondrianum (FREE from Lithoglyph). I’m not a habitual downloader of the latest/greatest, but this was such a simple, elegant and useful tool that I thought I’d share – I think this thing is great.
Essentially it pulls content from the Adobe Kuler online community into the Mac system-wide color picker, making the color themes available in ANY Mac app that uses the system color picker (Which FileMaker does).
Once you’ve installed it, you can select any color theme and either view it online, or add it as a new Apple Color List.
If you add it as a color list, then you’ll have a new Color List in your dropdown menu in your Palette tab, and can start playing around. Download it now, and have fun!
By Jerry Salem
I was working on a project for a client recently. They were replacing an old system with a new one built using Filemaker 9. The system is a standard client, invoice database. One of the reports requested was a summary of sales. The report presents sales summarized by product type, in addition sales sumarized by product location. It was presented as a nice one page summary to ‘the boss’ weekly.
Continue reading ‘Two sets of summary data, One report’
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Speak your Mind. Using Comments, part 1.
Recently I was on a family trip to Pittsburgh. We were walking around the campus of Carnegie Mellon and I saw this memorial brick;
It got me to thinking about some of the monster databases that I have had to take over for clients. When I take over a project, often I am spending a great deal of time just trying to figure out what the developer was trying to do.
Our earlier posts on this blog are generally concerned with improving the user experience(better printing workflow) or getting more out of your data (One Report two sets of summarized data). Today I would like to return to that lowly person, the developer. Anything that I can do that can make my job easier will make be a better developer and ultimately make my customers happier. Or as my grandfather would say to my grandmother, “What would you do if I got hit by a bus?” Continue reading ‘Speak your Mind. Using Comments, part 1.’