Sometimes it happens that the real value of a blog posting emerges in the comments section. Such was the case last time, when Paul Jansen posted an elegant little workaround to remedy a performance issue with the FilterValues function. Paul’s workaround is deserving of its own demo, and that’s what we’re going to look at today.
Demo file: filtering-values-v2.zip
Today we’re going to do some experiments with the FilterValues function, which takes two return delimited lists for input…
FilterValues ( textToFilter ; filterValues )…and produces the intersection of the two lists as output.
As 2019 draws to a close, I am mildly astonished to note that FileMaker Hacks is now nine years old. As promised in my recent conversation with Jeremy Brown, and in response to a number of reader requests, here, for the first time, is a comprehensive table of contents.
While some of these articles have become obsolete, a surprising number of the older ones are still relevant today… a tribute to the continuity of FileMaker and how knowledge gained in one version can remain useful indefinitely.
Another aspect driven home for me during the compilation of this T.O.C. (which entailed revisiting 200+ articles — some of which I’d completely forgotten about) is what a profoundly collaborative effort this blog has been, not only thanks to the illustrious list of guest authors, but also due to the sheer volume of articles that, while written by me, would not have existed without the input, examples and inspiration provided by so many others in our community.
28 Dec 2019: Table of Contents has been moved to its own page, and will be updated as new articles appear.
Earlier this month I was contacted by a DevCon presenter asking permission to include some slides from my eleven-year old anchor/buoy materials as part of his presentation. I said I’d be honored, but then added, “You might mention that I haven’t used A/B on a new project in about eight years.” He asked what system I was using instead, and a number of other colleagues have wondered as well, which brings us to the topic of today’s article.
Over the last few years I’ve been collecting miscellaneous tips and tricks with the thought of eventually aggregating them into a blog posting, and it appears that day has finally come. Ideally there will be something new and useful here for developers of all levels, from the neophyte to the most grizzled of FileMaker veterans.
We start off with a couple FM 14-specific tips.
In layout mode in FileMaker 14 you can hover your mouse over any badge and an informative tool tip will display.
Did you know you can add new line above the current line in the Script Workspace by pressing Shift-Return? It works with the standard Return key, as well as the numeric Enter key.
Update 5 May 2014: article and demo have been updated as per observations by Jeremy Bante in the comments section.
This weekend I threw together a Unicode utility file (unicode-characters.zip). It takes the values 1 through 65535 and converts them into Unicode symbols, and makes it easy to copy characters and values into the clipboard.
(The original version of the demo had 99999 records, but as pointed out by Jeremy in the comments section below, the range 65537 – 99999 is a repeat of the range 1 – 34463, with 65536 being a special case.)
Any value over 99999 the Char function will interpret as multiple characters, and bear in mind that multiple values are interpreted a) from right to left, and b) in five digit blocks with leading zeros, except the leftmost one will not have leading zeros.
Recently there has been discussion in the FileMaker community regarding a known problem with live development (i.e., modifying database schema while other users are connected to the system). The problem is that under certain circumstances, the “New Record” command and script step will fail.
The aim of this article is to identify some specific circumstances under which New Record will fail, and also identify some specific circumstances under which it will *not* fail, and is based on a series of tests conducted using FMS 13v1 and a couple clients running FMP Advanced 13v3.
Disclaimer: These are preliminary findings and do not claim to be exhaustive or conclusive. If you are doing live development, you should test for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
Methodology: A system with two tables, Sales and Employees, was used. For all tests, the developer opened Manage Database and then did something (or in the case of the first test, nothing), but then did not click OK — instead the Manage Database dialog was left open. In no case was the “OK” button clicked.
If you recently experienced broken links within this site, they have now been corrected. If you’ve had problems coming into this site via an external link, here are updated links to recent articles, and I apologize for any inconvenience.
FM13: Summary List + Virtual List
http://filemakerhacks.com/2014/02/02/fm-13-summary-list-virtual-list
Summary List Fields in FM 13, part 2
http://filemakerhacks.com/2014/01/22/summary-list-fields-in-fm-13-part-2
Summary List Fields in FM 13, part 1
http://filemakerhacks.com/2014/01/19/summary-list-fields-in-fm-13-part-1
FileMaker 13 Popovers
http://filemakerhacks.com/2013/12/14/filemaker-13-popovers
Generating Sample Data
http://filemakerhacks.com/2013/12/01/generating-sample-data
It’s Sorta A Value List Thing
http://filemakerhacks.com/2013/11/22/its-sorta-a-value-list-thing
Tab Panels: Seen, Unseen and Simulated
http://filemakerhacks.com/2013/11/18/tab-panels-seen-unseen-and-simulated
Conditional Tab Panel Access
http://filemakerhacks.com/2013/10/23/conditional-tab-panel-access
UPDATE, 7 JAN 2013: THANK YOU FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES EVERYWHERE. THIS PROBLEM HAS BEEN RESOLVED THANKS TO YOU. I AM NOW @FILEMAKERHACKS ON TWITTER. I CANNOT BEGIN TO EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE AND APPRECIATION.
Dear Friends, Colleagues and Fellow FileMaker Enthusiasts,
You know the old saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? Well, I’m here to tell you that having experienced it first hand, I’m not feeling even remotely flattered. Pissed off? Yes. Violated? Yes. But not flattered, and not amused. Here’s the short version:
Me:
The Impostor:
Here’s a longer version: Last year a colleague wrote to ask why I wasn’t using my logo on my Twitter postings. Me: “I don’t do Twitter.” Him: “Sure you do, I’m one of your followers!”
Continue reading “Resolved: My Very Own Twitter Impersonator”
Have you ever wanted to export a single field and maintain all the characters in that field? This article explores the possibility with XML Export and the use of a simple XSLT. But first we’ll explain the good, the bad and the ugly of some different standard ways to export TEXT out of FileMaker.
Using this sample text in one field (and one record) we will make different exports and review the results:
Continue reading “An In-Depth Look at “Export Field Contents””
