FileMaker Log Files: Episode VII – PSoS Awakens

Now more than ever we’re relying on Perform Script on Server (PSoS) to maximize FileMaker performance, so naturally a need arose for a way to proactively monitor how many concurrent scripts are being triggered. This type of logging helps us see if we’re reaching our maximum limit, or have a rogue script eating up processing power.

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InspectorPro 5.5 Feature List!

InspectorPro 5.5 is here! With it come some great enhancements and complete support for FileMaker 14:

• Now supports new features, themes, and styles found in FileMaker 14
• New visualization gives you a quick view of referenced and unreferenced items and problems
• New streamlined database view to help you get a bird’s-eye view of your database
• Automatic detection of malformed XML or invalid characters

A brand new Workspace!

As a FileMaker developer you probably spend a big chunk of your time writing scripts. The new Script Workspace in FileMaker 14 is going to help you in a big way. It’s a breath of fresh air and at first glance it might seem trivial in that we now have colors and we actually can have white space, but there are many other productivity improvements that lurk beneath the surface.

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Using InspectorPro 5 with FileMaker Pro Advanced 14

FileMaker 14 is here, and while the Database Design Report (DDR) hasn’t changed, here’s a “Getting Started’ walkthrough for using InspectorPro with the latest version of FileMaker Pro Advanced.

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The Force “FIELD”

For the longest time I thought field labels were something special and there was some sort of connection between the label and the field. So if you have ever created a new field and put that field on the layout with the label to the left of it. Then 10 seconds later you change your mind and decide to rename the field. Presto your label has also been renamed.

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SystemVersion – When numbers are not what they seem!

I recently moved to OS X Yosemite, and once again repeated the annual cycle of wondering whether or not my existing solutions will be compatible with the new version. I’ve loved using AppleScript to trigger OS X Notifications from FileMaker since they were introduced in OS X Mavericks, but they stopped working as soon as I installed Yosemite.

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NoSSR ( Not Only Sub-Summary Reports )

To describe this next technique I came up with my own acronym, and I call it "NoSSR", which stands for Not Only Sub-Summary Reports. The goal of this blog post is to show you a way to build and deliver similar results but in a statically defined way. Another way to put it is to architect for performance, so let’s see what can be possible. This post also assumes you know how to build a FileMaker sub-summary report layout already.
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Button Image Masks

Introduction

When you’ve been using FileMaker as long as I have, you know we’ve done all kinds of crazy things to get image masks to work on our buttons. For example, we would use a set of grouped native FileMaker line objects to cover an image just to get an ugly looking mask. I hope that not many developers suffered for too long using that technique.

Download Using Icons

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What Are Your Imports Waiting For? FileMaker Perform Script on Server – Episode II

Introduction

I hope that since our previous blog post you have been exploring the possibilities created by FileMaker’s Perform Script on Server (PSoS). This article is a continuation of the PSoS discussion and includes more cool things you can do with it, specifically running database imports on FileMaker Server.

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100x Faster – Flight Testing FileMaker Perform Script on Server – Episode I

Read the follow up to this blog post at What Are Your Imports Waiting For? FileMaker Perform Script on Server – Part II

Introduction

Since the release of FileMaker 13 we have been exploring a new feature called “Perform Script on Server” (PSoS) and trust me there are many cool things you can do with it. I’m going to describe how PSoS works, how it’s best implemented, and how our tests show PSoS can drastically improve database performance, more than 100x in some situations. However, there are also a number of considerations before you run wild and convert scripts to execute via PSoS. So, I’ll cover these as well.

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Cancel a FileMaker Script – with Easy Clean-up

demo file:  Cancel_Clean_Up.fmp12

As FileMaker developers, sometimes we write scripts that take a long time to process data. Maybe it’s because we’re looping over many records gathering up a report. Or maybe we have set up a process — say for generating a new project, invoice or service order — that involves gathering up a list of tasks, and it takes time to do this.

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Re-Thinking is the new Rebuilding

Sometimes you just need to start over and to take a fresh look at how you are doing things. Many of you know that I usually like to start things anew, but its also understandable that this is impractical at times.

With the release of FileMaker 12, I was inspired to dive deep into how InspectorPro 4 (IP4) was architected and change my way of thinking. It isn’t about REBUILDING per se, but rather this is about RE-THINKING your solutions as you move to FM 12.
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