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Level: Intermediate

FileMaker Blogs

Kevin Frank

Recently a question came up on one of the lists asking about intermediate-to-advanced FileMaker blogs. Here are some I like to read (no doubt I’ve missed some good ones; I apologize for any inadvertent omissions).

Cimbura – http://cimbura.com/tech/blog

DB Services – http://www.dbservices.com/articles

FileMaker ’n’ the Web: Lessons Learned – http://blog.jsfmp.com

FileMaker Weetbicks – http://www.teamdf.com/weetbicks

FMDiff – http://fmdiff.com/fm

FM Forums Community Blog List – http://fmforums.com/forum/blogs

GeistInteractive – http://www.geistinteractive.com/blog

HomeBase Software – http://hbase.net

MightyData – http://www.mightydata.com/blog

New York FileMaker Pro Developers’ Group – http://nyfmp.org/blog

RobFM – http://www.sumware.net/robfm3

SavvyData – http://www.savvydata.com/blog

SeedCode – http://seedcodenext.wordpress.com

Six Fried Rice – http://sixfriedrice.com/wp/blog

Soliant Consulting – http://www.soliantconsulting.com/blog

Continue reading “FileMaker Blogs” →

Beverly Voth, General, Level: Intermediate, Macintosh, Version: FM 8 or later, Windows

Fixed Width for EDI and Other Reporting

beverlyvoth

Editor’s note: Today it’s my pleasure to present a guest article written by Beverly Voth. Like many other developers, I have enjoyed and benefitted from her ongoing contributions to the FileMaker community.

I do a lot of text manipulation for EDI (Electronic data interchange – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_data_interchange) and plain text exports with fixed-width field data. Some varieties of EDI use XML, but this article is about plain text. EDI may or may not use the fixed-width format. Fixed-width reports may or may not use delimiters and various “padding” characters.

I created two FileMaker custom functions to help me calculate fixed-width and EDI text for export, and if you wish, you can follow along in today’s demo file, Fixed Width EDI.

Continue reading “Fixed Width for EDI and Other Reporting” →

ExecuteSQL, Level: Advanced, SQL, Version: FM 12 or later

More Fun with Value Lists, part 2

Kevin Frank

Update 20 Aug 2012: Dr. Noda has updated the demo files to include Rob Russell’s clever fill graphic trick (as per the responses following the article). Thank you Rob and Dr. Noda.

As promised last time, today we’re going to look at a technique from Dr. Osamu Noda, which uses FM 12’s ExecuteSQL to create what appears to be a value list when in fact there are no value lists defined at all.

This technique, like some of the others we’ve seen recently, is decidedly esoteric, but it shows some clever outside-the-box thinking, and I appreciate Dr. Noda taking the time to share the demo (ValueListWithoutDefinition-RR-Edition) and write up his notes. One of the things I particularly like about this technique is that it allows the order of the value list items to be customized, even though the values come from a table.

Continue reading “More Fun with Value Lists, part 2” →

ExecuteSQL, Level: Advanced, Version: FM 12 or later

More Fun with Value Lists, part 1

Kevin Frank

One of the things I love about FileMaker is how many different ways there are to skin the proverbial cat. Following our recent look at “Magic Value Lists,” I received thought-provoking FileMaker 12 demos from John Ahn and Dr. Osamu Noda.

I’m going to save Dr. Noda’s files for next time, but today we have two variations on a demo which resulted from a discussion with Nick Chapin on FileMaker TechNet. Actually, the first variation is from John (lib_valueLists_john_ahn_mod), and the second is an alternate approach that I came up with. If you’re a TechNet member (registration is free), you can read the original discussion here. At any rate, the objectives were:

  1. Store the entries for all value lists in a single table (thereby allowing authorized users to construct and maintain value lists using name-value pairs, without having access to FileMaker’s “Manage Value Lists”)
  2. Use UUIDs
  3. Use popup menus
  4. Have the value lists work properly in Find mode
  5. Value lists should be “portable” (i.e., accessible from any table context)

Let’s start with John’s version.

This is the value list table:

Continue reading “More Fun with Value Lists, part 1” →

ExecuteSQL, Level: Intermediate, SQL, Version: FM 12 or later

Magic Value Lists

Kevin Frank

Folks, we have a superb demo today (MagicValueList), which comes courtesy of Andries Heylen of BH&A…

But first a bit of background. Prior to July 18, 2012, if anyone had told me you could base a value list on an unstored field, my response would have been something along the lines of…

  • What app are you using? (Because it sure as heck ain’t FileMaker.)
  • Why are you wasting my time with this nonsense?
  • Is today April Fool’s Day?
  • What are you smoking?

But then John Ahn showed this amazing Conditional Value List demo during the DevCon “Unconference” session devoted to ExecuteSQL (see previous posting), and to my way of thinking, the most intriguing part of session was only incidentally concerned with SQL, because John seemingly had achieved the impossible — a value list based on an unstored field.

Continue reading “Magic Value Lists” →

ExecuteSQL, SQL

FM 12 ExecuteSQL “Unconference” Session

Kevin Frank

11 Sep 2012: The ConditionalVL_SQL demo has been updated to fix a minor bug.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of co-presenting a DevCon “Unconference” session with John Ahn on the topic of ExecuteSQL. I wasn’t sure if there would be much interest in this somewhat geeky subject, but the room was packed, and the audience ran the gamut from SQL newbies to SQL power users.

We started out with a basic intro, and showed a few simple demos. Next we moved on to a discussion of some of the issues, nuances, gotchas, etc. Then John showed a couple ExecuteSQL-powered demos which I strongly commend to your attention: a) Multi-Column Dynamic Portal Sorting…

…and b) Dynamic Value Lists…

…which, incidentally, caused every jaw in the room to drop, due to the fact that John’s method of constructing these conditional value lists seems to violate at least one fundamental law of FileMaker physics — more on this in an upcoming posting.

Here are links to everything we referred to during the presentation, in roughly chronological order.

FileMaker Hacks postings:

John Ahn’s demos:

Other links:

Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 10 or later

Wim Decorte’s FM 12 Trigger Reference

Kevin Frank

The other day I had a question about some nuance involving script triggers. The details of that particular question aren’t important, but I recalled that when script triggers were first introduced, Wim Decorte had produced a detailed, color-coded reference.

I wondered if he had updated it for FM 12, and it turns out that he has, and with his permission I am sharing it here. There are actually two files in today’s download (Wim Decorte FM 12 Trigger Reference): the four page PDF reference, and a FM 12 file demonstrating the firing order of the various triggers.

There is a wealth of information to be gleaned from these two files, and I encourage you to download them and check them out. And of course if you find any mistakes or have any trigger-related observations to share, I hope you’ll post a comment here.

Note: even if you are sticking with FM 10 or FM 11 for the time being, if you use script triggers, the PDF in today’s download contains much that you will find relevant (hence my categorization of this post as “Version: FM 10 or later”).

Level: Intermediate, Version: FM 8 or later

A Simple Backup Script, revisited

Kevin Frank

In October 2011 I posted a simple backup script that has made my development life easier, but of course that version was for .fp7 files only (the release of FM 12 being six months in the future), and when I began converting files to FileMaker 12, I realized that the backup script was not intelligently rolling with the changes. So recently I modified the script to accommodate both .fp7 and .fmp12 files, and also to be more flexible with regards to separators within the backup file name, e.g.,

Rather than repeatedly referring the reader back to the earlier article, I have “deprecated” the prior one and reproduced it here with appropriate changes, and have also updated the demo file (see below). Continue reading “A Simple Backup Script, revisited” →

Level: Intermediate

Dwindling Value Lists, part 2

Kevin Frank

One thing I love about this blog is how much I learn from your comments. Having said at the end of part 1 that I couldn’t think of any serious use for a DVL on a check box set, Michael Rocharde kindly provided this example file (Conditionals), which I am sharing with his permission.

This is one of many example files and techniques available in his new interactive e-book, FileMaker and Me, available for iPad via the iTunes store.

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

Dwindling Value Lists, part 1

Kevin Frank

A few months ago I mentioned “dwindling value lists” in passing, and said I would do a proper article on them at some point in the future. Well, then FM 12 was released and I went on an ExecuteSQL binge, so I’m just now getting around to honoring my promise.

Dwindling Value Lists (DVLs) are value lists that shrink up, by removing individual list items as they are selected. They can come in very handy when you need to schedule resources and want to prevent double booking. This example comes from one of today’s demo files, Dwindling Value Lists, and shows how a DVL might be used to schedule employees for a work shift.

Essentially, a DVL is a filtered value list that updates in real time (or something very close to real time), and this is done by building a multiline key of selected values, and then filtering the VL to only show remaining eligible values. Continue reading “Dwindling Value Lists, part 1” →