I’m always excited each time the FileMaker Platform gets new capabilities. It isn’t just the new features on their own that make things interesting, but what happens to the platform as a whole which provides for some interesting and inspiring innovations. In this case, it is a new way to do transactional record editing in FileMaker. This is the first in a multi-part series on this topic.
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Category: FileMaker 16
Mark Scott presenting at DIGFM: Modular FileMaker Design
We have better tools than ever in FileMaker to create reusable modules. In this video of Mark Scott’s presentation at a Bay Area FileMaker developer meetup, he explores why the combination of card windows and JSON reigns supreme for modular FileMaker architecture. Included is an in-depth look at how modules can open, close, and communicate.
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Azure AD (Active Directory) Authentication with FileMaker
In addition to the more typical external authentication methods, FileMaker supports client authentication using OAuth accounts from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. In this instance, I needed to set up a FileMaker Cloud server to use a company’s directory accounts, which were hosted at Azure. In order to set this up I hit a couple of minor complications, which I’m going to cover here.
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Monitoring FileMaker’s CWP Connectivity
Posted in FileMaker, FileMaker 16, FileMaker Server, Monitoring, Server Administration
I needed to set up some monitoring for FileMaker Server that made moderately heavy use of the XML interface for Custom Web Publishing (CWP). The server was mostly working well, but was due for a rebuild, or at the least, an upgrade, but the client wanted to squeeze out one more season before we did this.
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FileMaker Server 16 Gotcha: Get ( SystemDrive ) and Friends
Posted in All, bBox, FileMaker, FileMaker 16, FileMaker Server, Tools & Add-ons
FileMaker 16 has been out for several months, however we wanted to call attention to a change that can effect your application’s use of server side scripting. Recently, we upgraded a client project to FileMaker Server 16, and found that critical functionality had mysteriously broken. After a bit of sleuthing and gnashing of teeth, we found that changes to the output of Get(SystemDrive), when executed server-side (PSOS or via a scheduled script), was the culprit.
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Creating Your Own SSL Certificates For FileMaker
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker 16, Security, Server Administration
Typically, you buy an SSL certificate for a server from a SSL vendor. However, some companies may decide that they want to issue their own SSL certificates. Often this is because the domain is only used internally, and most vendors don’t easily allow (if at all) the signing of server certificates for non-public domains. Additionally, issuing your own certificates can remove complications caused by the certificate verification process used by most vendors, and there are no fees needed for each certificate.
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LOgiCATOR Part 3: Ready, Set, Integrate…Into Your FileMaker Apps
Posted in All, Design, FileMaker, FileMaker 16, JSON, Techniques, Tools & Add-ons
We’re thrilled to announce the official, “integration-ready” version of LOgiCATOR. LOgiCATOR is a modular search interface for FileMaker that can be easily integrated into new or existing solutions. It’s designed to help users locate data with logical precision, via a powerful yet intuitive interface for searching across FileMaker tables. This article includes a download link for the module and demo file, describes what’s changed since the preview version (a lot), and explains how to integrate LOgiCATOR into your FileMaker solutions.
Visit the LOgiCATOR page at Beezwax. Continue reading “LOgiCATOR Part 3: Ready, Set, Integrate…Into Your FileMaker Apps”
FileMaker & Tableau | A Match Made in Data Heaven!
Posted in All, Beezwax News, Data Analytics, FileMaker, FileMaker 16, FileMaker 17, Integration, Tableau FM
Last year when I wrote this blog post we were talking about FileMaker 16 and the Data API being in beta. Now that FileMaker 17 has officially been released and along with it the Data API is out of beta and is a version 1.0.
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LOgiCATOR, Part 2: FileMaker Card Windows and Modular Design
Posted in All, Design, FileMaker, FileMaker 16, JSON, Techniques
In Part 1 of this series, Introducing LOgiCATOR, I mentioned that LOgiCATOR grew out of a search interface I developed for a project several years ago. In ways we’ll briefly consider here, it wasn’t extensible, but all that has changed. As that early search interface grew into LOgiCATOR, it made a quantum leap in context independence. The reason we were able to accomplish that can be attributed to a powerful synergy of FileMaker card windows, JSON, window improvements, new functions, and the Layout Objects window — in short, FileMaker 16!
Visit the LOgiCATOR page at Beezwax.
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Getting Started with REST and cURL using FileMaker 16’s Data API
Posted in FileMaker, FileMaker 16, FileMaker Data API, FileMaker Server, Integration
If you are FileMaker developer, but new to the notion of web APIs and web development in general, then you might take on a kind of deer-in-the-headlights look when confronted with FileMaker Server 16’s new Data API, aka “REST API”. Fear Not! It really is simpler and more straightforward than you might expect. I like to take the attitude that no skill is difficult, only unfamiliar. With study and repetitive exposure and practice, any skill can be mastered.
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Introducing LOgiCATOR: A Modular Search Interface for FileMaker 16
Posted in All, Design, FileMaker, FileMaker 16, Front-end Design, Techniques, Tools & Add-ons
We’re excited to announce the release of LOgiCATOR, a new modular search interface for FileMaker. It’s designed as a module you can drop into a FileMaker application and, with minimal configuration, add a rule-based search interface to any number of layouts in that solution. LOgiCATOR is also a springboard for learning about some great new design and integration features of FileMaker 16, like card-style windows and native JSON.
Visit the LOgiCATOR page at Beezwax.
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Step-by-step for FileMaker Cloud
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker 15, FileMaker 16, FileMaker Cloud, Server Administration
Although setting up your AWS account and creating a new FileMaker Cloud instance is a fairly easy process, it does have dozens of steps, and a few places where you could easily take a wrong turn. On this post we’ll go through each step in the configuration of your Amazon AWS account and requesting your first server.
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Enable WebKit debugger in FileMaker Web Viewer
Posted in FileMaker 14, FileMaker 15, FileMaker 16, JavaScript, Techniques, Tools & Add-ons
If you are having difficulty getting your HTML, CSS, or JavaScript to render in a FileMaker Web Viewer, you may have a struggle ahead of you trying to find the problem, and no good way to debug it. In comparison, most web browsers have debug facilities that can help developers find problems in their code.
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