Using an auto-enter calculation on a field is a great way to populate its contents when other fields are modified, including itself. But what do you do if you want to use a calculation that references itself without having it trigger its own auto-enter calculation? The answer lies in thinking outside the calculation... Read more...
One of the shortcomings of FileMaker is its inability achieve easy cross-tabular reports and data entry in a normalized structure. There are various techniques to replicate cross-tabular interfaces, but they often involve many relationships for either the columns/rows, or are for display only. The goal of this article is to present a lightweight method for cross-tabular data entry using as few relationships & fields as possible... Read more...
All too often, the Refresh Window script step is used with the 'Flush Cached Join Results' option checked. Sometimes this is through lack of understanding, but other times it is required to refresh those pesky relationships which have trouble re-evaluating. This article explains why Flush Cache can be detrimental on performance, and offers an alternative and more efficient method for refreshing relationships… Read more...
This article demonstrates how you can filter a relationship to one table, by using information located in a related table. The example I will be using is filtering a relationship to a Customer table, but by searching on a customers related Contacts, which are in an entirely different table… Read more...
In this article I will demonstrate a very nice way to format a portal using conditional formatting. This method is suitable for portals whose underlying relationship is sorted by a grouping/category field - similar to if it were like a sub-summary report. The easiest way to explain it is to just get stuck in with an example, so here we go.... Read more...
I've always wondered how many FileMaker dialogs you can have open at once, or more specifically, how many can you "string" together before hitting the limit, if there is one. So, though a little trial and error, I set out about trying to find the path to the most dialogs, and here is what I came up with… Read more...
The Replace Field Contents command/script step is a very powerful tool for updating field values across records in your found set. This article goes into depth about the use of this command, some of its benefits, and some of the potential pitfalls you need to be aware of… Read more...
Part two carries on from where Part one left off. This article outlines the construction of a basic join table solution from woe to go… Read more...
Perhaps one of the most asked questions that I see asked on the FileMaker Cafe is in regards to join tables. While some users have an understanding of what they are, they may lack the FileMaker skills to implement them. Others are unfamiliar with the concept altogether, but will explain their real word example. Usually it is a prime candidate for a join table. This article provides a real world example that will give you an understanding of why join tables are important, and in what circumstances they should be used. The example will then be implemented in a simple FileMaker solution… Read more...
In part one, we built a couple of basic conditional value lists to select sport names & equipment items. Part two demonstrated how the conditional value lists could be tweaked for use within a portal. The last part in the series gives some basic techniques to help the selection process from your drop-downs, and ensure that the chosen values remain consistent and correct… Read more...
Part two in this three-part series deals with constructing conditional value lists that are to be used within a portal. In part one, the conditional value lists built were for use on a single record on a layout. Portals however may contain many rows, each row being a record with it's own field values… Read more...
Conditional Value lists may be the most asked about piece of functionality on the FileMaker Cafe. To try and provide a thorough and easy to follow explanation of what they are and how they work, I decided to write an article on the subject and build a small example file to help illustrate the technique… Read more...
With the introduction of script triggers in FileMaker 10, live filtering or portals was made possible. Numerous techniques were introduced to help achieve this. In conjunction with existing filtering techniques, the "Live" aspect was achieved usually by introducing an OnObjectModify script trigger to the filter entry field. As soon as the user enters a value into the field, the triggered script would force a save of the fields contents, thus updating the relationship in question, which in turn updated results in a portal on screen… Read more...
The count function allows you to produce a count of the number of records through a relationship. However what may be less clear is that in order to achieve this, every record must be downloaded to the client computer, making the process very slow over a wide area connection. There is, however, an alternative to count in this situation which is almost instantaneous, this article explains how... Read more...