Using the FileMaker platform we can harness the power and wow-factor of modern web interfaces. This post shows how we can build dynamic data-entry forms for use in our apps.
Continue reading “Dynamic Forms with JavaScript and FileMaker Web Viewers”
FileMaker supports bidirectional communication between a web viewer and data or scripts. So, you may find yourself doing more development using plenty of web code and JavaScript integrations.
If you’re having difficulty getting your HTML, CSS, or JavaScript to render in a FileMaker web viewer, there’s a great way to help inspect and fix it. You just need to know the hidden option to enable WebKit debugging in FileMaker web viewers.
Continue reading “How to enable WebKit and JavaScript debugging in FileMaker Web Viewers”
Over years of reviewing Ruby code, the same things tend to come up over and over. In this post, I’d like to address some of the most common code smells I find when reviewing OOP code (and Ruby code in particular).
Continue reading “Common Code Smells in OOP”We are pleased to release bBox version 0.95. bBox is a free utility plug-in to extend FileMaker solutions to easily use code libraries and macOS-based functions from Python, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, AppleScript, Bash/sh, XPath, and SQLite. Also included is a demo file that has over 210 examples of how you can put bBox functions to work for you.
Over time, without structure, things fall apart. So give them structure, a few conventions, and start to make them more maintainable. Let me say more, at least in the context of JavaScript in your applications (or did you think I was talking about gardens or buildings or such? lol.)
Continue reading “Modularizing The JavaScript You Already Have”
We are pleased to release bBox version 0.93, including new FileMaker script steps and web viewer functions. bBox is a free utility plug-in to extend FileMaker solutions to easily use code libraries and macOS-based functions from Python, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, AppleScript, Bash/sh, XPath, and SQLite. Also included is a demo file that has over 210 examples of how you can put bBox functions to work for you.
As developers, we are tasked with reducing complexity. Complexity is all around us, and good code organization reduces complexity while at the same time supporting increased flexibility, ease of change, quicker onboarding, faster debugging, and my favorite, better testing.
Continue reading “Dependency Injection in JavaScript, a Node.js example”
For awhile we’ve been asked: “Can you use Apple Maps inside FileMaker, rather than using Google Maps or MapQuest?” We decided to give it a shot, thanks to MapKit JS, the JavaScript implementation of the MapKit library widely used on macOS and iOS. Here is a technique our FileMaker and JavaScript development teams designed to enable Apple Maps inside a FileMaker solution.
We are pleased to release bBox version 0.90. bBox is a free utility plug-in to extend FileMaker solutions to easily use code libraries and macOS-based functions from Python, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, AppleScript, Bash/sh, XPath, and SQLite. Included is a demo file that has over 200 examples of how you can put bBox functions to work for you.
We recently built an application that included PDF document management. While it might seem as simple as a quick FileMaker container field, we wanted to impress our client with an integrated solution on par with a content management system (CMS). Here’s how we built a powerful PDF viewer directly into FileMaker.
Continue reading “Full-Featured PDF Viewer Embedded in FileMaker”
In 2017, we released several new versions of bBox plugin. In the spirit of yearly retrospective, let’s highlight perhaps the most exciting new bBox feature: JavaScript for FileMaker. The new JavaScript for FileMaker functions in bBox are great for heavy duty JSON processing tasks, repurposing JavaScript code for use in FileMaker, or other computation intensive processing. Here’s a recap…
“Code that belongs”.
This is the mantra, the quest, of Beezwax Senior Developer Ryan Simms; which he discusses in this 10-part article on building a large-scale web application using d3.js. It is to write code that fits the context intrinsically. The article focuses on specific techniques with the data visualization library, d3.js. But the lessons are broad: How do you make something fit — in ways that feel like it belongs?
Continue reading “Large d3.js Application Development”We are pleased to release bBox version 0.88. bBox is a free utility plug-in to extend FileMaker solutions to easily use code libraries and macOS-based functions from Python, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, AppleScript, Bash/sh, XPath, and SQLite. Included is a demo file that has over 180 examples of how you can put bBox functions to work for you.
We are pleased to release bBox version 0.86. bBox is a free utility plug-in to extend FileMaker solutions to easily use code libraries and macOS-based functions from Python, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, AppleScript, Bash/sh, XPath, and SQLite. Included is a demo file that has over 180 examples of how you can put bBox functions to work for you.
Using a combination of AngularJS, HTML5, CSS, WKHTMLTOPDF, PDFtk, bBox and FileMaker scripting, we can create PDF reports from a FileMaker solution, taking advantage of the design and development flexibility afforded by using JavaScript and web tools to accomplish the task.
Continue reading “JavaScript-driven PDF Reports in FileMaker using AngularJS”
With everything that we’ve learned with our last post, Communicating with a Web Viewer in FileMaker, it makes sense to wrap up the functionality into a FileMaker module and JavaScript library.
Beezwax has always been active in the FileMaker community regarding advanced use of Web Viewers. Check out these earlier posts if you’d like to learn more:
Continue reading “Communicating with a Web Viewer in FileMaker”
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.
Continue reading “Enable WebKit debugger in FileMaker Web Viewer”
What must an Operating System do to satisfy web developers’ needs? This is a tricky question, as each person is a whole different world, so it’s impossible to have a single answer to satisfy every person.
Attending jQuerySF 2015:
This week I had the pleasure of attending jQuerySF 2015, held in San Francisco, CA.
Despite the name of the conference, the range of web-technology topics included far more than just jQuery.
