Category: Level: Intermediate

JSON, Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 18 or later, Virtual List

Virtual List Reporting, part 4

Kevin Frank

Introduction

Back in 2017 I wrote about a technique to enable users to a) produce multiple on-screen reports, and b) interact with those reports in browse mode. The article was called Virtual List Reporting, part 3, and while the approach it advocated works well enough under most circumstances, today I’d like to share some fresh ideas.

Note: as you might guess from the title of this article, implementing this technique in your solution, and/or understanding what’s going on under the hood, requires some knowledge of virtual list. If you are not familiar with virtual list, or need a refresher, you may find this article helpful: Virtual List Simplified.

Demo Files (require FM 18 or later)

Continue reading “Virtual List Reporting, part 4” →

Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 13 or later

PSOS – Run Script in File not open Locally

Kevin Frank

Update: See Jason Wood’s suggestion in the comments section for making this technique more secure.

INTRODUCTION

Today I want to take a look at a certain Perform Script On Server (PSOS) behavior, and for those who find this behavior to be inconvenient, propose a work around.

Here’s the behavior, or misconception, actually: a server side script initiated via PSOS (apparently) cannot access files on the server unless the user already has those files open locally. But of course there may be circumstances where you’d like to be able to access files server side that the user does not have open client side, either because the user’s credentials do not allow access to those files, or because you’d rather not have to open the files client side merely to facilitate a PSOS call.

If we consult the online help entry for running scripts on server, the official word is that server-side scripts can access other FileMaker files only when…

…in other words, if you want PSOS to be able to access files, you need to either a) already have the files open client side, or b) throw caution to the wind, and configure the hosted files to auto-open with pre-entered credentials.

Hmmm… I think we can agree that from a security standpoint “b” is a non-starter, and the whole point of this article is to avoid “a”. Fortunately there is a “c” option not mentioned above which I’ll get to shortly, but first let’s demonstrate the issue. Continue reading “PSOS – Run Script in File not open Locally” →

Level: Intermediate

When 2 is greater than 10

Kevin Frank

Today we’re going to take a quick look at a potential “gotcha” that can occur when performing numeric comparisons. Jason DeLooze and I discussed the general behavior back in 2011 (Space Is The Place), but this time around I want to focus on one particular set of circumstances where the problem can arise.

At first glance this may appear to apply to beginner-level developers only, but the problem is nuanced, and I have occasionally seen it crop up in solutions written by experienced developers as well as those created by newbies.

Specifically, when comparing two variables, for example…

ExitLoopIf [ $counter >= $rows ]

…FileMaker must determine whether to do a text comparison or a number comparison, and under certain circumstances, contrary to developer expectations, may perform the comparison in “text space” rather than in “number space”.

Of course we can explicitly ensure that all comparisons take place in “number space” like so…

ExitLoopIf [ GetAsNumber ( $counter ) >= GetAsNumber ( $rows ) ]

…but let’s dig a little deeper to see the circumstances under which GetAsNumber is actually necessary. Continue reading “When 2 is greater than 10” →

Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 18 or later

A Value List Experiment

Kevin Frank

Demo file: a-value-list-experiment.zip

Note 1: today’s demo is recycled from the one that accompanied Virtual Portal, part 2. All we care about this time around is how we assign the parent company; the remainder can be ignored.

Note 2: if you’re unclear on value list basics, check out Thinking About Value Lists, part 1.

“I want it to work like it does in Quickbooks.” Based on a client request I recently implemented a Quickbooks-like picker… shown here enabling the user to easily assign a parent company via auto-complete as the user types the first few letters of the company name.

To be clear, we aren’t actually storing the parent company name, merely using it as a selection mechanism. When a name is chosen via this interface, the corresponding foreign key is immediately auto-entered into “id_parent”… Continue reading “A Value List Experiment” →

JSON, Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 16 or later

JSON Currency Exchange Rates

Kevin Frank

Update 11 Apr 2021: as per comments below, demo has been updated to use a new service: openrates.io.

Welcome back for another exciting round of JSON exploration. Last time we discussed a JSON-related bug fix in FM 19, as well as a free package tracking service that returns results in JSON format. Today we’re going to look at a free currency exchange rate service.

Demo file: json-exchange-rates-via-openrates.zip

2020-08-24_09-12-59 Continue reading “JSON Currency Exchange Rates” →

JSON, Level: Intermediate

A JSON Miscellany

Kevin Frank

Today we’re going to look at a bug fix in FM 19, and a free web service that returns useful information in JSON format.

Fixed in 19: JSON validation bug

In FM 18 (but not in 16 or 17) JSONFormatElements and other JSON functions can mask mangled JSON errors, making them harder to detect and correct. I wrote about this in detail last year, but, briefly, a JSON bug that was introduced in FM 18 has been corrected in FM 19.

Steps to replicate:

Create some JSON, and then transform it, but intentionally botch the transformation, for example, attempt to update an array using object notation:

2020-07-05_125525 Continue reading “A JSON Miscellany” →

ExecuteSQL, Level: Intermediate, SQL, Version: FM 10 or later

GetFieldName Revisited

Kevin Frank

Long time readers of this blog will be familiar with the following scenario —

An ExecuteSQL expression is given, e.g.,

ExecuteSQL ( "
   SELECT SUM ( net_amount )  
   FROM cc_transactions 
   WHERE batch_date = ? 
      AND batch_region = ? 
      AND card_type = ? 
" ; "" ; "" ; $theDate ; $theRegion ; $theCard )

…followed by a disclaimer along the lines of

For readability, static code has been used… in the real world I would employ robust coding practices to prevent accidental breakage due to field and/or TO renaming.

…with the link pointing to custom functions utilizing a combination of GetFieldName and Quote to ensure that using reserved words or potentially-problematical characters (such as a space or #) in table occurrence or field names, or renaming either of the preceding, will not break your SQL code. Continue reading “GetFieldName Revisited” →

ExecuteSQL, Level: Intermediate, SQL, Version: FM 16 or later, Virtual List

2-Column Magic Value Lists, part 2

Kevin Frank

Disclaimer: the techniques shown in this article are provided on an as-is basis. Use with appropriate caution and at your own risk.

Introduction

This is a quick follow-up to last month’s article on 2-Column Magic Value Lists, and, to avoid repetition, will assume the reader is familiar with that material. A colleague pointed out that it might be helpful to offer some real-world applications of this somewhat esoteric technique, and today we have two demos based on last month’s demo #2, but this time actually doing something useful.

2019-11-11_065703.png

Demo Files

Continue reading “2-Column Magic Value Lists, part 2” →