I wanted to code sign a runtime to avoid issues with users who had the higher security level set on their 10.8 based systems. Although lowering these permissions or holding down the control key when the app is launched will all help with this issue, code signing seems a reasonable and desirable, and removed the support issue.
Consider the humble button.
Since the very first moments of FileMaker cosmos, the button has been an essential element of our platform. Over the years, across major and minor product releases, the unassuming button has remained a trusted constant and a dependable workhorse.
How do you begin designing a new database or application? If you start with an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD), you’re doing it wrong.
It’s natural for a technical person to begin categorizing things into entities – a company has contacts, which have addresses, etc. But this process immediately narrows your perspective to a small subset of the issues at hand, blinding you to many more important challenges and opportunities.
Here’s an interesting FileMaker challenge:
How can you dynamically slice off a set of values from a repeating field in a related table, the way you’d grab a column of values in a spreadsheet?
It’s easy enough to do this for a single repeating field in the current record, but how do you do this with a repeating field in a different table, operating not just on a single record, but an entire record set?
In order to more easily work with XML data, I’ve added the libxml2 library to version 0.54 of the bBox plug-in.
Among other things, libxml2 provides support for XPath 1.0 queries, which can be used to easily extract or set values from XML data, so XPath was my first choice. Although XML has lost a bit of its shine as JSON has come into vogue, XML is still integral to many systems, including FileMaker. Also, the XPath routines can be used for similar syntaxes, so for instance, you might find it helpful for scraping data from a HTML page.
We’re pleased to announce three Beez who earned the title of FileMaker 12 Certified Developer.
FileMaker 12 Certification is the official credential offered by FileMaker, Inc., certifying a developer as achieving an “essential level of knowledge, experience and skills in developing FileMaker 12 solutions.”
Continue reading “Our First FileMaker 12 Certified Developers”
It’s hard to believe it’s been only a few months since SQL was introduced as part of FileMaker 12.
Continue reading “FileMaker 12 SQL: Crafting Structural Beauty”
MIAMI, Fla. – July 16, 2012 – Beezwax Datatools, Inc. today announced InspectorPro 4, a major new version of the leading developer tool for FileMaker 12 database analysis. Rewritten from the ground up to take advantage of FileMaker 12’s new architecture, InspectorPro 4 is up to 10 times faster than previous versions at processing FileMaker Database Design Reports. New features provide deeper analysis of database elements, a central dashboard, localized UI options, and powerful data visualizations – enabling FileMaker developers to discover more about their databases than ever before.
Continue reading “[PR] Beezwax Announces InspectorPro 4 for FileMaker 12”
You gotta love FileMaker Go. Go’s ability to effortlessly create data-driven mobile apps and extend existing desktop data applications to mobile users is transformative. But sooner or later, almost all of us run up against one of Go’s core limitations: its lack of native plugins.
I needed to investigate why a script was being run, and I was pretty sure cron was launching it. The problem was, little useful information was being logged, and no one was sure how it had been set up or what user it was under. Although launchd is now the preferred mechanism on Mac OS for these kinds of things, you’ll still see many systems where cron is being used.
First, you want to become the root user. The following Terminal command is one way to accomplish this:
sudo -s
Continue reading “List cron entries for all users on Mac OS X”
I wanted to do some conditional formatting, such that when a global field had a certain value the label would change its appearance. For example, if my sort column was “address”, then I wanted the column header containing the text “Address” to highlight.
Continue reading “Getting a FileMaker label’s text in a conditional formula”
I’ve been looking for a way to interface with some Cocoa classes in the Mac OS X API from FileMaker for a while. My initial target was PDFDocument, part of the PDF Kit suite of classes. For more information on Cocoa’s PDF Kit see here: Introduction to PDF Kit Programming Guide
Continue reading “Using Cocoa’s PDFDocument class from FileMaker”
There’s been plenty of discussion on FileMaker’s developer forums about the implications of using CSS to style layouts in FileMaker 12. In case you weren’t aware, FileMaker 12 introduced a new layout design surface whose styling is based on CSS. It’s a powerful new feature that hints at an exciting roadmap for the FileMaker product line. I’m not going to indulge in any details on this topic, however, because FileMaker has yet to officially expose the CSS styling to developers.
But say you were curious, for educational purposes, about what that styling looks like…
Continue reading “Freebie: Grab CSS From FileMaker 12 Layout Objects”
One of the most exciting aspects of the newly-released FileMaker 12 product line upgrade is a major redesign to the product’s UI. A new Design Surface modernizes FileMaker Pro layouts and updates every built-in control, giving developers and designers powerful new tools for designing better interfaces.
But as great as Design Surface is, why just stay on the surface?
Continue reading “Native Web 2.0 Controls in FileMaker 12 Layouts”
FileMaker, Inc. introduced the next generation of their database platform today with the release of FileMaker 12. This is a major upgrade to every part of the FileMaker product line. There are new versions of FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Pro Advanced, FileMaker Server, FileMaker Server Advanced, and FileMaker Go – which is now free for iPhone and iPad.
FileMaker Server Advanced allows external systems to connect to its hosted database files via ODBC and JDBC. The remote systems can then run SQL commands against the hosted databases. Often the hard part is getting all the infrastructure ready for this. That includes the correct extended permissions on the FileMaker database file, needed drivers, firewall settings, etc.
Continue reading “Recipe for testing JDBC connection to FileMaker Server”
Here’s a fun little challenge for your Friday afternoon. You can do it at home, in a bar, or hopefully even at work. Best of all, it’s technical and creative. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to produce the lyrics to 99 Bottles of Beer in your favorite programming language. I chose to do the solution below in FileMaker. See 99-bottles-of-beer.net for the official challenge details. Continue reading “99 bottles of beer”
Demo file: RepeatingFieldFunctions.fp7
I began using FileMaker at the spry old age of FileMaker Pro 8, so I’ve never been through the trenches of using repeating fields to accomplish what can now be done with portals. However, repeating fields still have a variety of uses, and I’m happy to have them in my toolkit.
When I’m working with a repeating field, there are several questions I might ask of it, depending on the task at hand.
Demo file: Sir_Williams_Heirs_fp7
That old Bard, good Sir William, is nearing the end of his life. Having already provided well for his five children, he now seeks to divide his literary empire among his eleven grandchildren:
Here’s an interesting interface challenge we recently faced: A client needed to place text fields on a layout and fluidly choose which fields would be editable or read-only—the same field might exist in both editable and read-only state on the same layout.
Now, here’s the challenging bit: Each read-only field must have all the same capabilities of its editable cousins—users must be able to scroll, select, and copy text, and the field control must display all rich text formatting entered.
Continue reading “FileMaker Read-only Fields: Lighter, Smarter, Friendlier.”
