Tag: JSONGetElement

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

JSON Optimization in FM 21

Kevin Frank

Introduction

If you work with large JSON structures in FileMaker, you may be aware that the current shipping version of the product (FileMaker Pro 21, a.k.a. FileMaker Pro 2024) has a single-element JSON cache, which is reset whenever JSONSetElement or JSONGetElement is called, and that you can boost performance by taking this into account.

Six months ago Josh Halpern was kind enough draw my attention to this in a comment on one of my articles, and added…

“If you’re interested, I wrote a couple more points about how the JSON cache behaves here: https://the.fmsoup.org/t/performance-core-principles-10-scripting/1867/25?u=jwilling. But the gist is… only touch one json at a time.”

[The above is required reading as far as I’m concerned, and has changed the way I work with JSON.]

More recently I was discussing JSON caching with Steve Senft-Herrera, and he shared a couple additional optimization ideas that had not occurred to me, and that I am definitely adding to my tool kit. (Thank you Steve.)

At any rate, today we’re going to take a look at applying all three of these ideas to speed up processing of large JSON structures within a While statement, and you can follow along in today’s demo file if you are so inclined.

Demo file: fm-21-json-optimization.zip  (requires FM 21 or later)
Continue reading “JSON Optimization in FM 21” →

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

Thinking About JSON, part 1

Kevin Frank

This article is part of a series. See also…
•  Thinking About JSON, part 2
•  Thinking About JSON, part 3
•  Thinking About JSON, part 4

I’ve been working on a couple large JSON projects over the last few months, and with the one year anniversary of FileMaker having built-in JSON capabilities just around the corner, this seems an opportune moment to share some reflections and opinions (some of which may contradict JSON-related opinions I have expressed previously).

Demo file: json-sandbox.zip

This article is intended to be a structured introduction to JSON in FileMaker. There are some other good FM/JSON resources out there, and I recommend these in particular:

At any rate, if you’re not yet completely comfortable with JSON perhaps some of the following will be helpful, or failing that, amusing (intentionally or otherwise). Continue reading “Thinking About JSON, part 1” →

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

JSON + Virtual List

Kevin Frank

31 July 2017: As per my exchange with Beverly Voth in the comments section of part 2, the date encoding technique used here is strictly intended for situations where FileMaker will both produce AND consume the JSON.

29 July 2017: demo has been updated to require a minimum version of FileMaker 16.02 as per my exchange with John Renfrew in the comments section.

One nice thing about FileMaker being on a yearly release cycle is that there is always something new to learn and write about… and, having recently attended a pair of highly informative sessions on the topic of JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) at Devcon 2017 — thank you Todd Geist and Anders Monsen — it is clear to me that JSON + virtual list is a compelling combination.

2017-07-27_152145

Demo file: json-plus-virtual-list.zip

My original plan was to integrate JSON with virtual list reporting, but in the interest of clarity, I decided to save that for a future article. Today we have a straightforward demo that a) generates a small amount of JSON from a standard FileMaker table, and then b) renders it in a virtual list table. Continue reading “JSON + Virtual List” →