FileMaker 10’s Script Triggers feature opens the door to create richer, more dynamic and more responsive user interfaces. For example, it is now possible to create as-you-type search functionality similar to that found in iTunes and Mac OS X Spotlight where the list of results updates dynamically as the user types. This is a slick [...]
Continue reading ...Faster, Maintainable Scripts with Variables
February 26, 2009 – 1:15 am
9 FileMaker Pro Tips using the Set Variable script step to make your scripts more efficient, portable and easier to maintain.
Use variables instead of global fields. Variables are stored in active system memory while fields are stored on disk. Therefore, accessing a variable is much faster than accessing fields. So, use global variables instead of [...]
Continue reading ...Google-like Search Through Relationship Filtering
January 14, 2009 – 1:50 pm
This article describes a script-less technique for using dynamic relationships and portals to search values in a related table using a single global field. It is a part of a series on Advanced Search Interfaces.
This technique produces an interface similar to the Google-like Search described in previous articles in this series, but instead of using [...]
Google-Like Searches In FileMaker - Non-Contiguous
October 28, 2008 – 12:00 pm
This article is a part of a series on Advanced Search Interfaces.
In my article, Google-Like Searches In FileMaker, I described a method for creating a search-engine-like interface for searching the contents of a FileMaker Pro database. This article expands on that method by eliminating one of it’s shortcomings: it would only find records containing all [...]
Google-Like Searches In FileMaker
October 23, 2008 – 12:00 pm
This article is a part of a series on Advanced Search Interfaces.
Using a single, global field and a fairly simple script, you can create a search-engine-like interface for searching the contents of a FileMaker Pro database.
Step One: Create a Global Search Field
Create a text field in any table. In the field options, set the new [...]
Advanced Search Interfaces
October 22, 2008 – 12:06 pm
FileMaker Pro’s built in Find Mode is great for those of us who know FileMaker well and understand the data structure of our databases well enough to know which fields to search in. But a more elegant, user friendly search mechanism is often needed.
There are a number of techniques that I recommend for making user [...]
FileMaker Pro Custom Function - Global Search and Replace
October 2, 2008 – 12:37 am
This article, reprinted from one I submitted to Ezine Articles, discusses the creation of a Search and Replace function similar to the built-in Substitute function. When this article was written, the Substitute function did not exist. However, the article still serves as a learning tool for creating recursive custom functions in FileMaker Pro Advanced.
The introduction [...]
Connecting FileMaker Pro with MySQL in Mac OS X
October 1, 2008 – 11:14 am
Previous Versions of FileMaker Pro and ODBC
Filemaker Pro has had the ability to connect to and use ODBC as early as version 7. Using the Execute SQL script step, you could specify a ODBC DSN (Database Source Name) and execute any SQL statement that you can build with a FileMaker Pro calculation which could include [...]
