The Value and Benefits of Transactions with Claris FileMaker

by Beezwax Team
Posted in All, Claris Development, Events, FileMaker, FileMaker 18, FileMaker 19, FileMaker Server, Performance, Techniques

Let’s talk about Claris® FileMaker® and transactions! Vincenzo Menanno discusses what transactions are, how they relate to FileMaker data operations (creating, updating, and deleting records), database normalization, and how to use transactional concepts to improve FileMaker performance, especially over a wide area network (WAN).

Continue reading “The Value and Benefits of Transactions with Claris FileMaker” →

bBox for FileMaker v0.98 with M1, GraphicsMagick & Sips

by Simon Brown
Posted in All, bBox, Claris Development, FileMaker, FileMaker 18, FileMaker 19, FileMaker Server, Tools & Add-ons

We are pleased to release bBox version 0.98, with with new image file functions and M1/Apple Silicon support.

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, C/C++, Bash/sh, XPath, and SQLite. Also included is a demo file that has over 220 examples of how you can put bBox functions to work for you.

Some of the changes in version 0.98 are:

  • M1/Apple Silicon binary
  • Ubuntu compatible version (in addition to CentOS)
  • updated to libxml2 version 2.9.12
  • added bBox_GraphicsMagick function & script step
  • added bBox_Sips function & script step
  • modifications to several functions & script steps to add parameters
  • fixed template text used in several functions & script steps to better describe parameters
  • limit POSIX commands to 3 cores
  • new mode to combine stderr with stdout

Continue reading “bBox for FileMaker v0.98 with M1, GraphicsMagick & Sips” →

Q Foundation – Increased Agility For Social Services

by Beezwax Team
Posted in All, Beezwax News, Business, Community, FileMaker

Beezwax helped the Q Foundation get ahead of a persistent pandemic and quickly pivot to decentralized operations to support a remote workforce.

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FileMaker Performance on Apple M1 | Astounding!

by Vincenzo Menanno
Posted in Claris Development, FileMaker, FileMaker 19, FileMaker Server, News, Performance, Server Administration, Tableau FM, Testing

When the Apple silicon Macs with M1 chips came out, I read and watched many of the reviews. Most of them had great things to say about the promise of Apple’s new M1 chip…I was impressed. When I finally received my Apple M1 MacBook Pro, and started to use it…I was amazed.

Back in 2020, FileMaker Pro 19.2 wasn’t optimized yet for Apple silicon processors, but ran fine under Rosetta emulation. On my M1 MacBook Pro, it already felt much faster than running FileMaker “natively” on an Intel-based MacBook…I was astonished.

Today, I’m running the just-released Claris FileMaker® 19.3, with native support for Apple’s M1 chip, on a new MacBook Pro. It is, in a word: Astounding!

Continue reading “FileMaker Performance on Apple M1 | Astounding!” →

InspectorPro 7.2 for FileMaker – Faster on M1!

by Vincenzo Menanno
Posted in All, Claris Development, FileMaker, FileMaker 19, FileMaker Cloud, FileMaker Server, InspectorPro, Performance, Tools & Add-ons

Everything about the M1 Apple silicon leaves you simply delighted and surprised. It’s like the first time you drive a super-charged Tesla and feel the rush of powerful acceleration OR I imagine it’s like when Han Solo first blasts the Falcon into light speed: it must be experienced to be believed.

Continue reading “InspectorPro 7.2 for FileMaker – Faster on M1!” →

OData for FileMaker – Examples, Tips and Nuances

by Steve Senft-Herrera
Posted in All, Claris Development, FileMaker, FileMaker 19, FileMaker Cloud, FileMaker Data API, FileMaker Server, Integration, Techniques

This blog post is the second of a three-part series about the FileMaker OData API, introducing a demo file with more than 40 examples plus helpful tips, along with Q&A. Part one of the series highlighted some of the key features of the API which make it an exciting addition to the FileMaker platform. As a follow-up, this post will cover the basics and dig into the nuances of using OData with Claris FileMaker.

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Integrating FileMaker’s Data API and Ruby with the fmrest-ruby gem

by Pedro Carbajal
Posted in Claris Development, FileMaker, FileMaker 18, FileMaker 19, FileMaker Data API, Integration, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Software Design, Tools & Add-ons, Web Development

We often work on projects that intersect two technologies near and dear to us: FileMaker and Ruby. This allows us to build robust web applications in Ruby on Rails, integrated with data sources from FileMaker solutions. When Claris introduced the FileMaker Data API we were naturally curious to try it out. At the time there was no off-the-shelf Ruby library for us to simply gem install, so we decided to roll up our sleeves and build one. Thus, fmrest-ruby was born.

This article will walk you through setting up and using fmrest-ruby in a Ruby on Rails project. Some level of familiarity with Ruby/Rails and FileMaker’s Data API is advised, although much of the content covered here is applicable to any Ruby project, Rails or not.

Continue reading “Integrating FileMaker’s Data API and Ruby with the fmrest-ruby gem” →

OData for FileMaker – New Player in an Old Game

by Steve Senft-Herrera
Posted in Claris Development, FileMaker, FileMaker 19, FileMaker Cloud, FileMaker Data API, FileMaker Server, Integration, Techniques

This blog post is the first in a three-part series about the FileMaker OData API, highlighting key features that make it an exciting addition to the Claris FileMaker platform.

Continue reading “OData for FileMaker – New Player in an Old Game” →

OOP Fundamentals: The Decorator Pattern

by Federico Ramirez
Posted in All, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Software Design, Swift, Web Development

The decorator pattern is one of my favorite patterns. It is simple, extensible and powerful. It feels like it follows the essence of object oriented programming beautifully. Sadly though, it is also easy to be misused or misunderstood. So, in this post I will show you the essence of the decorator pattern, illustrated with a few examples.

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OOP Fundamentals: The Dependency Inversion Principle

by Federico Ramirez
Posted in All, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Software Design, Swift, Web Development

The dependency inversion principle is one of the cornerstones of object-oriented programming. Without it, there is no object-oriented design. It’s that important.

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bBox for FileMaker v0.96 with JSON processing, Python 3 and more

by Simon Brown
Posted in bBox, FileMaker, FileMaker 18, FileMaker 19, Python, Ruby, Tools & Add-ons

We are pleased to release bBox version 0.96, with JSON processing via jq, Python 3 compile/run,  and improvements supporting Zsh, cURL and Ruby.

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, C/C++, 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.

Continue reading “bBox for FileMaker v0.96 with JSON processing, Python 3 and more” →

Integrating your dev workflow with WSL

by Federico Ramirez
Posted in All, productivity, Tools, Vim, Web Development

Windows Subsystem for Linux, or WSL for short, is a quite impressive piece of technology, and one of the best moves Microsoft could have made to attract developers. Particularly web developers.

Continue reading “Integrating your dev workflow with WSL” →

Something out of Nothing: Null Object Pattern

by Hannah Yiu
Posted in Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Software Design, Web Development

What is nothing? nil? null? undefined? A vast void of emptiness that fills your soul with dread? Oh sorry, that’s just my stomach.

We often think of nothing as… well, nothing. It’s when something doesn’t exist and therefore cannot be interacted with. So in our code, we try account for having nothing. No User? No problem.

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Using REST and cURL with FileMaker’s Data API

by Beezwax Team
Posted in Claris Development, FileMaker, FileMaker 19, FileMaker 2023, FileMaker Cloud, FileMaker Data API, FileMaker Server, Integration

FileMaker 19 introduced a couple of important new features related to using the FileMaker Data API. Here, we’ll cover an overview of the new authorization endpoint, Validate Session, API versioning updates, as well as a new script step, Execute FileMaker Data API.

At the end of this article, you’ll find the demo file for learning more and trying out various REST and cURL functionality with FileMaker’s Data API. Enjoy!

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Math in a FileMaker field, for Inputter’s sake

by Christos Savva
Posted in All, Claris Development, FileMaker, FileMaker 18, FileMaker 19, UX

Editor’s Note: An often-ignored reality of data management is that entering data, correctly and cleanly, into all of these database apps we build can be a royal pain in the…
Assumptions can be dangerous, like assuming that your office manager-doubling-as-bookkeeper wants to manually calculate tax on every Invoice row. Or even has the time to.

Not many job titles (anymore) are simply “Data Entry Manager,” and yet entering data is a task that continually must be managed, by one or by many, in the role of “Inputter”. Just entering data can be tedious enough — so, let’s not make it harder. In fact, let’s strive to make it easier. With that in mind, Beezwax Senior Developer Christos Savva provides an example of performing math in a FileMaker field, using a custom function. This is designed to improve data entry user experience, for the sake of Inputters everywhere.

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Ruby’s Safe Navigation Operator &. and is it a Code Smell?

by Hannah Yiu
Posted in Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Software Design, Web Development

What is &.?

Ruby devs are probably all too familiar with seeing this error:

NoMethodError (undefined method `foo' for nil:NilClass)

Most of the time, it’s probably due to a typo, but every now and then we end up having to do something like:

defined?(bar) && bar.foo
# returns nil if bar is nil

If you’re on Rails, or are using ActiveSupport, you can use present? or try():

Continue reading “Ruby’s Safe Navigation Operator &. and is it a Code Smell?” →

Dark and Light Modes: 3 Simple Paths to FileMaker UX

by Christopher Edwards
Posted in Claris Development, Design, FileMaker, FileMaker 19, Front-end Design, Front-end Development, Techniques, UX

FileMaker 19 introduced support for Dark Mode. Not only does the application’s chrome support Dark Mode (like many applications), but developers now have the ability to detect the OS Dark Mode setting.

Let’s look at three easy techniques to give FileMaker Pro users a choice between Dark Mode and Light Mode, plus an option to automatically adapt modes based on OS settings.

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Composition over Inheritance, with JavaScript examples

by Federico Ramirez
Posted in JavaScript, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Software Design, Web Development

If you are into object-oriented programming, you most likely have heard about composition over inheritance. The concept itself is simple: Whenever possible, prefer to compose objects rather than introducing inheritance.

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Setting FileMaker’s startup file from CLI

by Simon Brown
Posted in All, Claris Development, FileMaker, FileMaker 18, FileMaker 19, Techniques

We had a client that was upgrading their system to FileMaker 18. They had already pushed new FileMaker Pro clients out to their user’s desktops. But now that the upgraded system was ready, how could they give users a quick and easy way to launch right into the new database system?

Continue reading “Setting FileMaker’s startup file from CLI” →

Dynamic Forms with JavaScript and FileMaker Web Viewers

by Alec Gregory
Posted in Claris Development, FileMaker, FileMaker 19, JavaScript, Techniques

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” →

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