This is part 4 of a five-part series: Continue reading “Simple Bash Scripts for Lazy People | Part 4: Cadaver Dissection”
Simple Bash Scripts for Lazy People | Part 4: Cadaver Dissection
Posted in productivity, Tools, Unix, Web Development
Simple Bash Scripts for Lazy People | Part 5: When to Choose Bash
Posted in productivity, Tools, Unix, Web Development
This is part 5 of a five-part series: Continue reading “Simple Bash Scripts for Lazy People | Part 5: When to Choose Bash”
Simple Bash Scripts for Lazy People | Part 2: Rails
Posted in productivity, Tools, Unix, Web Development
This is part 2 of a five-part series: Continue reading “Simple Bash Scripts for Lazy People | Part 2: Rails”
Simple Bash Scripts for Lazy People | Part 3: Other Examples
Posted in productivity, Tools, Unix, Web Development
This is part 3 of a five-part series: Continue reading “Simple Bash Scripts for Lazy People | Part 3: Other Examples”
How Transactional is the FileMaker Data API?
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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Writing a Markdown Compiler – Part 3
Posted in Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Software Design, Web Development
Have you ever wanted to make your own programming language? Maybe a template engine? A JSON parser? If you have ever built any of those, you might have noticed it’s not exactly easy to get started. We’d like to help with that.
Welcome to Part 3, the final in this series on Writing a Markdown Compiler!
Continue reading “Writing a Markdown Compiler – Part 3”
Lost in Layout Space: Getting to Know FileMaker 17’s Layout Mode
Posted in All, Design, FileMaker, FileMaker 17, Techniques
Way back when FileMaker 14 was released, as developers we were treated to the new-and-improved script workspace, adding all kinds of features from line breaks to auto-complete/type-ahead coding. To any of us who spend most of our day working in FileMaker, the response was sheer joy.
For all of its speed, flexibility, and ease-of-use, sometimes our favorite platform is missing some of those “standard”, quality-of-life features you would expect. For a long time, Layout mode has been lacking a few key features you would normally expect to see in a modern design application. With FileMaker 17, we get much closer to bridging that gap, receiving a whole bunch of handy, time-saving features along the way. Let’s dive in and take a look.
Continue reading “Lost in Layout Space: Getting to Know FileMaker 17’s Layout Mode”
FileMaker Data Migration Tool – New Ways To Code In Complex Environments
Posted in FileMaker, FileMaker 17, Techniques, Tools & Add-ons
One of the most exciting new features of FileMaker 17 isn’t part of the product, technically: it’s a command line function called the Data Migration Tool. You invoke it from the terminal, but don’t let that fool you. This is a uniquely powerful tool, one that honors the pitfalls of developing in a hosted, high-trafficked app — finally.
The Data Migration Tool allows you to merge two files, so you can develop in an offline copy and then migrate the live system into your improved app. Migration includes user accounts, value lists, serial numbers and of course data, all at once.
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Using REST and cURL with FileMaker 17’s Data API
As y’all probably know by now, FileMaker 17 has been released, including the first production edition of FileMaker Server’s Data API. This API was originally released with FileMaker 16, but only as a “beta”, expiring September 2018. As you might expect, the FileMaker 17 Data API introduces significant changes. This means that any applications written against the FM 16 Data API need to be refactored for compatibility with FileMaker 17. And that’s the work we’re here to do!
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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.
Continue reading “Mark Scott presenting at DIGFM: Modular FileMaker Design”
Test Driving The FileMaker Server 17 Admin Console
Posted in FileMaker, FileMaker 17, FileMaker Server, Server Administration
Changes in FMS 17 Admin Console and How We’re Adapting
FileMaker Server 17 introduces a new generation of Admin Console, refreshed, fast, and reliable. If you are familiar with the FileMaker Cloud console, you’ll feel right at home in the new FileMaker Server 17 Admin Console. However, the update also brings some of the biggest changes in administrative functionality in years, perhaps ever.
While FileMaker provides an excellent overview of the differences, here I will highlight changes that affect us most here at Beezwax and some adjustments we’re making to compensate.
Continue reading “Test Driving The FileMaker Server 17 Admin Console”
Master-Detail Layouts in FileMaker
Posted in FileMaker, FileMaker 17
FileMaker 17’s new master-detail layouts display the list of records in the user’s found set. As the user performs finds, constrains, omits, sorts, or creates or deletes records, the master-detail portal will update to stay in sync. Imagine a portal that a user can sort any way they like, filter any way they like, and click a row to see details for that row, all right out of the box. That’s the power of the master-detail portal.
Overcoming TLS Frustrations with Python and macOS Sierra
The short version of this is that you probably want to upgrade to High Sierra (macOS 10.13) if you need to do much of anything with the built-in macOS version of Python and any network tasks.
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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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Working with FileMaker Cloud Backups Using SSH
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker Cloud, Server Administration
Recently, I needed to revert a database file hosted on a FileMaker Cloud 16 server. Due to a problem I was having with the Download function however I had to take a different route from the usual method.
Continue reading “Working with FileMaker Cloud Backups Using SSH”
Full-Featured PDF Viewer Embedded in FileMaker
Posted in FileMaker, Integration, JavaScript, Techniques
Integrating A JavaScript PDF Viewer Into Native FileMaker—No JavaScript Coding Required!
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.
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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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Logging PSoS Activity: Episode III – Return of the JSON
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker Server, JSON, Logging, Performance, Security
In looking back at our initial approach to logging FileMaker PSoS (Perform Script on Server) activity, I reflect back on a number of times where this has been extremely helpful. If you have come to rely on the benefits of PSoS then you also know some of its challenges — one of the biggest is debugging and monitoring how long sessions take.
Since FileMaker 16 introduced JSON, in new systems we’ve switched over to using JSON as the main way of exchanging data for parameters. Because we also use PSoS in new systems, we updated our method for PSoS Logging and this blog entry talks about the changes we made there and also restates the usefulness of this log.
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Server-Side Swift: New Hero in Web Town
Posted in All, Mobile Development, Swift, Tools, Web Development
There’s a new hero in the world of web applications, services, and microservices: Server-Side Swift is making serious waves across the industry. At Beezwax, it’s changing how we approach and solve many typical, long-standing coding challenges.
Agile Where You Least Expect It
Posted in Agile, All, Management, Organization Development, Project Management, Web Development
One of the things that I always think about is how linked Agile Methodologies are to Software development. But what concerns me the most is that sometimes it is believed that using Scrum in other contexts is impossible or that it is not even considered.