Tip of the hat
Having skipped DevCon in order to afford an iPhone, I’ve been dealing with my DevCon envy by exploring some of the wonderful sample files that people have been putting together for FM9.
The fuss over Andy’s conditional formatting tricks, for example, is certainly well-deserved (though let’s face it, we all would have worked that stuff out on our own, right? no?). After playing with those for a bit, a post about Ray Cologon’s “Progress Bars” ( http://www.nightwing.com.au/FileMaker/demos.html ) caught my attention, and I ended up spending a good afternoon hacking that file apart. Read more
Conditional Formatting Tips
Conditional Formatting is currently my favorite FileMaker 9 feature. It used to be that we had to add all these extra barnacles to our database in the form of fields, calculations or relationships to highlight a simple portal row. Conditional Formatting goes a long way towards eliminating all that nonsense. CF is a big deal because for the first time in FileMaker’s product history, you can actually apply an expression (a formula) to layout objects–you can now program field objects…at least…sort of.
Yes, it isn’t exactly the feature I had in mind. I would have preferred to have full-blown access to all object properties and a way to program them using the calculation engine. But, Conditional Formatting gets me very close.
Here are a couple of basic highlighting patterns solved using CF.
1. Highlighting a Focused Field
There was quite a bit of buzz about Andy Lecates’ DevCon 2007 session where he showed off this active-field highlighting in his demo app. Andy noted that he was almost embarrassed to tell people that the formula behind this technique was literally a “1″. This puzzled me a bit so I decided to reproduce the technique. I have been told the credit for discovering this should properly be attributed to Chad Novotony of The Support Group. Kudos, Chad; it is really quite brilliant in its simplicity.
FileMaker Nine
The release today of FileMaker Pro 9 and FileMaker Server 9 marks another milestone for FileMaker, Inc., as well as a significant new direction for the FileMaker family of products.
With the introduction of support for seamless connectivity to external SQL based data sources, the company demonstrates its continuing commitment to FileMaker Pro’s becoming an enterprise level player for businesses large and small. The ability to draw data from back-end “big iron” types systems such as Oracle and SQL Server 2005 and to utilize those data within the FileMaker Pro solution construct will open new markets for FileMaker products and for FileMaker developers.
While a considerable amount of attention and experimentation will center on this External SQL Source functionality, the new FileMaker Pro 9 and FileMaker Server 9 have some additional enhancements that are both compelling and useful:
•Scripts can now be organized into folders and subfolders, a major step forward in organization and management of even modestly complex solutions. Developers eagerly await the extension of this functionality to other objects such as tables, fields, layouts, and value lists.
•ScriptMaker now has non-modal windows, meaning that several scripts can be open for editing at the same time and that items can be copied from one to another without closing any windows. Additionally, developers can switch between ScriptMaker windows and layout windows.
•An enhanced script debugger permits running of scripts with subordinate level Accounts but then temporarily authenticating for high level privilege functions. As a result developers can see how the script behaves for different levels of privileges.
•Conditional formatting of layout objects, based either on hard-coded formulas or on dynamic calculation results will significantly enhance UI capabilities. For example, if an invoice is over 60 days old, its total can be made to turn to red automatically without need for scripting or other workarounds.
•In FileMaker Server 9 the venerable SAT Tool has been replaced on both Macintosh and Windows platforms with a new Uniform Admin Console. In an enhanced panel focused on connected users, the Account Name, Privilege Set name, and IP address of each connected user can be made to display.
•Since Custom Web Publishing is now part of the core FileMaker Server 9 product, its configuration is also managed through the Uniform Admin Console. The configuration options have been simplified and more tightly integrated into the core parts of the Console. For example, there is no longer the need to specify the User ID and Passcode or to have separate credentials for accessing the Web Publishing Engine’s management options.
•Finally, FileMaker, Inc. added several new functions to FileMaker Pro 9, my favorite of which is the Self function. As its name implies, it returns the content of the object in which a calculation is defined. This is useful for creating a single calculation formula that can be applied to many different objects. It provides a way for a calculation to reference an associated object without having explicitly to reference it.
Steven H. Blackwell
Google Mapping in FileMaker
UPDATE: I’ve written a follow up to this post which shows how to produce a map with multiple addresses.
Google Mapping in FileMaker
I’m sure you’ve seen the Web Viewer maps in FileMaker. Sure, they’re serviceable, but you’ve got no control. And with Google recently adding “Search Results” and “My Maps” to the screen as well (a laudable feature, to be sure), the available real estate for the actual map shrunk by almost half. What can be done? I’ll show you how to roll you own mapping engine using PHP and the Google Map API.