Tag: Scripting

Records, Go Get ‘Em in Claris FileMaker 2025

by Vincenzo Menanno
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker 2025, Performance, Techniques

As a FileMaker developer, I have powerful tools. But I have long wished for a highly-efficient mechanism for representing and reproducing any arbitrary set of records. Now, it’s here, with FileMaker 2025:

• GetRecordIDsFromFoundSet – function
• Go To List of Records – script step

This is fantastic. Something I have wished – for a long, long time!

Now let’s cover these new methods, with an example file (which you can also download – see below).

Continue reading “Records, Go Get ‘Em in Claris FileMaker 2025” →

User’s Sandbox: Performance, data integrity, and UX for FileMaker

by Andrew Witschonke
Posted in All, Claris Development, Community, Events, FileMaker, FileMaker 19, FileMaker 2023, FileMaker 2024, FileMaker Go, FileMaker Server, Performance, Software Design, Techniques

The “User’s Sandbox” (aka “Local File”) technique builds a sandbox for data editing by users, protecting data integrity and transactionality, without sacrificing usability. After refining this approach to prioritize user experience and security, at Beezwax we’ve used it for years, adapting it to build more performant, more accurate, better looking, and more functional Claris FileMaker applications.

Andrew “Red” Witschonke, Director of Engineering at Beezwax, first presented on the User’s Sandbox technique at Claris Engage 2024 — the premier event for the FileMaker development community, held at Apple’s Austin Campus and hosted by Claris, an Apple company.

Continue reading “User’s Sandbox: Performance, data integrity, and UX for FileMaker” →

User’s Sandbox: Opening new performance, data, and UI/UX possibilities for FileMaker — Claris Engage 2024

by Beezwax Team
Posted in All, Claris Development, Community, Events, FileMaker, FileMaker 19, FileMaker 2023, Performance, Software Design, Techniques

Andrew “Red” Witschonke from Beezwax presents at Claris Engage 2024, the premier event for the FileMaker development community, held at Apple’s Austin Campus and hosted by Claris, an Apple company.

Andrew Red Witschonke - Director of Engineering at Beezwax presenting at Claris Engage 2024 on the topic of Users Sandbox - Opening new performance data, and UI-UX possibilities on February 7 at 1030 am CST
Continue reading “User’s Sandbox: Opening new performance, data, and UI/UX possibilities for FileMaker — Claris Engage 2024” →

fmsadmin: where did you go?

by Simon Brown
Posted in All, FileMaker

I have a few scripts, including some Facter reporting “facts”, that make heavy use of FileMaker Server’s fmsadmin command. After a 14.0v4 on install on Yosemite I was puzzled to discover that one of the scripts wasn’t working.

Continue reading “fmsadmin: where did you go?” →

A brand new Workspace!

by Vincenzo Menanno
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker 14, News, Techniques

As a FileMaker developer you probably spend a big chunk of your time writing scripts. The new Script Workspace in FileMaker 14 is going to help you in a big way. It’s a breath of fresh air and at first glance it might seem trivial in that we now have colors and we actually can have white space, but there are many other productivity improvements that lurk beneath the surface.

Continue reading “A brand new Workspace!” →

What Are Your Imports Waiting For? FileMaker Perform Script on Server – Episode II

by Vincenzo Menanno
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker Server, Performance, Techniques

Introduction

I hope that since our previous blog post you have been exploring the possibilities created by FileMaker’s Perform Script on Server (PSoS). This article is a continuation of the PSoS discussion and includes more cool things you can do with it, specifically running database imports on FileMaker Server.

Continue reading “What Are Your Imports Waiting For? FileMaker Perform Script on Server – Episode II” →

100x Faster – Flight Testing FileMaker Perform Script on Server – Episode I

by Vincenzo Menanno
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker Server, Performance, Techniques

Read the follow up to this blog post at What Are Your Imports Waiting For? FileMaker Perform Script on Server – Part II

Introduction

Since the release of FileMaker 13 we have been exploring a new feature called “Perform Script on Server” (PSoS) and trust me there are many cool things you can do with it. I’m going to describe how PSoS works, how it’s best implemented, and how our tests show PSoS can drastically improve database performance, more than 100x in some situations. However, there are also a number of considerations before you run wild and convert scripts to execute via PSoS. So, I’ll cover these as well.

Continue reading “100x Faster – Flight Testing FileMaker Perform Script on Server – Episode I” →

Popover Pop-up Menus

by Will Miro
Posted in All, Design, FileMaker, Techniques

Overview

This technique uses filterable portals contained in FileMaker 13’s new Popover object to provide user-friendly pop-up menu behavior.
Download

Popover_Popup 1

Continue reading “Popover Pop-up Menus” →

Cancel a FileMaker Script – with Easy Clean-up

by Vincenzo Menanno
Posted in All, FileMaker, Techniques

demo file:  Cancel_Clean_Up.fmp12

As FileMaker developers, sometimes we write scripts that take a long time to process data. Maybe it’s because we’re looping over many records gathering up a report. Or maybe we have set up a process — say for generating a new project, invoice or service order — that involves gathering up a list of tasks, and it takes time to do this.

Continue reading “Cancel a FileMaker Script – with Easy Clean-up” →

Curl HTTP Post from FileMaker

by Simon Brown
Posted in All, bBox, FileMaker, Techniques, Tools & Add-ons

I was trying to test out some HTTP post transactions with the curl command, and things weren’t working.

One glitch was due to how the curl command parses its options. All characters, including spaces can be significant, so “-X POST” is not the same as “-XPOST”. This difference might be hidden if calling from the shell, which trims extraneous spaces in parameters, but I was calling via the bBox plug-in’s curl function, and this calls the command directly from FileMaker.

Continue reading “Curl HTTP Post from FileMaker” →

Go, JavaScript Go!

by Brian Schick
Posted in All, FileMaker, JavaScript, Techniques, Tools & Add-ons

Introduction

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.

Continue reading “Go, JavaScript Go!” →

Native Web 2.0 Controls in FileMaker 12 Layouts

by Brian Schick
Posted in All, Design, FileMaker, JavaScript, Techniques, Tools & Add-ons

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” →

99 bottles of beer

by donovanchan
Posted in All, FileMaker, Techniques

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” →