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Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 21 or later

FM Clipboard Tool and FMXML

Kevin Frank
FM Clipboard Tool available here — https://codence.com/resources/blog/technology/filemaker-ai-foundations-fmxml-clipboard-tool

Demo file: 2026-may-multipurpose-demo.zip (in addition to the above)

If you are in a hurry, or prefer video explanations, I presented this material using a pre-release version of FM Clipboard Tool a few months ago on the FM Training TV Livestream. Here’s a link to the relevant segment — https://youtu.be/M9WWT_WE4qE?si=h6ODtftNk-a2Vlxe&t=2501

For a long time I’ve been intrigued by the idea of directly accessing FileMaker’s special XML clipboard and manipulating schema that way. The basic idea is to copy some schema, transform it via an external text editor (or, these days, perhaps via an AI engine), and then paste the transformed schema back into FileMaker Pro.

So, yes, I was intrigued, but hadn’t moved beyond the “maybe someday” stage. I knew that accessing the XML clipboard would require a plug-in and that there would be a bit of a learning curve — and also that there were a number of utilities out there to help make it easier — but a compelling need hadn’t arisen, until recently when I was asked to make a change to a scheduling system that I’d originally rolled out in 2012.

Continue reading “FM Clipboard Tool and FMXML” →

JSON, Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 21 or later

Traversing Arrays with Mod() and Floor()

Kevin Frank

Demo file: traverse-arrays-with-mod-and-floor.zip

Introduction

Today I want to talk about a technique that can come in handy if you need to walk a block of contiguous cells within a 2-dimensional JSON array for either reading and/or writing purposes.

[ 
   [ n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n ],
   [ n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n ],
   [ n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n ],
   [ n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n ]
]

The standard approach would be to employ a While within a While, the outer to walk the columns and the inner to walk the rows (or vice-versa). And that’s a very valid way to go about it, but I was wondering whether a 2-dimensional array of arbitrary height and width could be traversed via a single While call. Well it turns out that yes, it is possible, and we’re going to look at an approach that can accomplish this with help from the Mod() and Floor() functions.

Let’s say we have a 4 row × 15 column array, for a total of 60 cells that we want to iterate through. Since JSON uses zero based indexing, we can consider the rows to be numbered 0 – 3 and the columns to be numbered 0 – 14 like so.

Assume that our task is to fill the array with the letters A through Z, one letter per cell, starting with column [0] and populating all the rows in each column before moving on to the next column. Since there are only 26 letters in the English alphabet, after Z has been assigned start with A again, and keep iterating through the sequence until all 60 cells have been populated (and while we’re at it, let’s go with lower-case letters to make it easier on the eyes).

Conceptually, it looks like this…

…and as JSON, like this.


Continue reading “Traversing Arrays with Mod() and Floor()” →

JSON, Level: Any, Version: FM 21 or later

April 2026 FM Training Livestream

Kevin Frank

Here are links to articles and resources related to my April 16 FM Training Livestream presentation: Best of FileMaker Hacks Tips, Tricks and Traps, part 5

YouTube links

Demo Files

FMH Articles

Other Resources

JSONQuery

JSON, Level: Any, Version: FM 21 or later

March 2026 FM Training Livestream

Kevin Frank

Here are links to articles and resources related to today’s FM Training Livestream presentation.

YouTube link

Demo Files

Resources

JSON, Level: Advanced

March 2026 DIGFM Presentation

Kevin Frank

Here are links to articles and resources related to my March 12 DIGFM presentation on Tips, Tricks and Traps.

YouTube link

Demo Files

FMH Articles

Other Resources

JSON, Level: Advanced, Summary List, Version: FM 21 or later

JSON Object Destringification

Kevin Frank

Today we’re going to look at an issue that can crop up in FileMaker JSON processing, and explore some approaches one might take to address this issue. Typically the issue arises with preexisting JSON coming from an API, including, but not limited to, the FM Data and OData APIs.

Demo Files

Note: minimum version to open the files is FM 21, but the examples will run significantly faster in FM 22+.

The Issue

APIs that return data as JSON are sometimes unable to recognize JSON as input, and will pass it as text rather than as an object or array. For example, both of today’s demo files include a text field containing a JSON object (the field name is “json”), and if we retrieve records via the Data API, or via the  Execute FileMaker Data API script step, the “json” field data will come back stringified (i.e., as quoted text) as per this close-up detail…

Continue reading “JSON Object Destringification” →

JSON, Level: Advanced

November 2025 FM Training Livestream

Kevin Frank

Here are links to articles and resources related to today’s FM Training Livestream presentation: Best of FileMaker Hacks Tips, Tricks and Traps, part 3.

YouTube link

Demo Files

FMH Articles

Other Resources

Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 16 or later

FM 22: Pseudo Indexing

Kevin Frank

Demo file: FM-22-Pseudo-Indexing.zip (works w/ FM 16 or later)

When I wrote about Sort Values and Unique Values back in 2017, I made passing reference to an article I’d written a couple years previously on the topic of “pseudo indexing“, i.e., displaying a list of unique values for a specific field for a found set, rather than for all records.

Actually, I wish things were that simple. Full disclosure: there was the original FM 13 demo/article. Then when FM 16 was released, I did a second demo/article, “FM 16 Pseudo Indexing”. Recently I discovered a flaw in the approach I used in the FM 16 article, so I am pulling that demo and article off line in favor of this one.

Today we’re going to dust off the old pseudo indexing demo, and update it to take advantage of various FileMaker functions and innovations that were not available back in 2015. Why bother? Here’s why: the new implementation…

  1. is simpler (has fewer moving parts)
  2. scales better
  3. is less brittle (prone to breakage if schema is renamed)
  4. enables you to bring new fields on board faster
  5. can sort the pseudo index in ascending or descending order

Continue reading “FM 22: Pseudo Indexing” →

ExecuteSQL, JSON, Level: Any, SQL, Virtual List

October 2025 Full Access Resource Page

Kevin Frank

Here are links to articles and resources related to presentations/discussions I will be participating in at the [Full Access] un-conference Oct 20-23, 2025.

JSON Demo Files

JSON Articles

JSONQuery

Virtual List Demo Files

Virtual List Articles

SQL Articles

JSON, Level: Advanced, Version: FM 19.6 or later, Virtual List

Virtual List Even More Simplified

Kevin Frank

Demo file: virtual-list-even-more-simplified.zip  [expects, but does not require, FM 22 or later]

Note 1: The example in today’s article/demo is intentionally very basic.
Note 2: The demo is self-populating to keep the data current, so the values you see in the screen shots may not exactly match those you encounter in the demo.

As long time readers may recall, between 2011 and 2019 this blog featured numerous articles touching on various aspects of the virtual list technique — or, more properly, series of techniques. The following year, in 2020, I decided to distill the core bits into a basic “beginner’s guide” with accompanying demo file, and I called it Virtual List Simplified. And if you’re still using FM 21 or earlier, and are looking for an introduction to virtual list, I highly recommend that article.

However, with the release a few months ago of FM 22 (a.k.a. FileMaker 2025), the landscape dramatically changed thanks to a re-written JSON engine that is significantly more powerful (i.e., faster) than before. Why should that matter? Because JSON is typically where virtual list gets its data from, and thanks to this awesome performance boost, it’s time to recycle and update the 2020 article and accompanying demo file to take advantage of it. And good news: it’s now less complicated and easier to understand.

At the risk of stating the obvious, there are many, many ways to skin the virtual list cat, and the purpose of today’s article is not to say “this is the best way”, or imply that other approaches are flawed, but simply to propose one particular approach you might take — especially if you are either: a) new to virtual list, or b) already using virtual list, but aren’t completely happy with your current implementation.

At any rate, my aim today is to gather useful insights from earlier articles into a single document (with a couple new ideas thrown in), and some of what follows has been recycled from those earlier articles.

Spoiler alert: two-dimensional JSON arrays are now viable and performant as back-ends for virtual list. Prior to FM 22 this was not the case… things would appear to be fine when the 2D array was relatively small, but would slow down dramatically with larger 2D arrays. For details see Virtual List with a 2D JSON Array in “FileMaker Pro 22: Initial Impressions”.

Continue reading “Virtual List Even More Simplified” →