Thanks to those of you who attended the recent webinar on charting in FileMaker Pro 11.  A number of people have asked about getting the demo files used by Bob Bowers in the session … there’s a link to them below.

Download webinar files.

Do you have a client that has a huge database and a hard time letting go of old data? Archiving may be a good solution to decrease the database size (therefore increasing the performance) and allow the client to access old data when needed. Using FileMaker Server 10, archiving is made easy and fast by simply exporting data into a temporary .csv file in the documents folder, and then importing the same data into a separate archive database.

Before I show you the 4 steps to server side archiving, there are a few things you should know:

• Filemaker Server 10 can only import and export from the documents folder ([MachineName]/Library/FileMaker Server/ Data/Documents/) or a temporary folder. It can import and export any usual file type except the server cannot export to .fp7. I recommend using .csv because every computer has text edit or some similar application, and you can open the file in excel and see the data nicely.
• You’ll want to use the Get( DocumentsPath ) to construct your importing and exporting file path. The nice thing about using Get(DocumentsPath) is when you run your archiving script from a FileMaker client, your files write to your User/ Documents folder (which is nice for testing) and when the script runs from FileMaker Server, the files will write to the FileMaker Server/ Data/ Documents folder.
• If you are writing the files into a subfolder of the documents folder, be sure that the FileMaker Server Admin has read & write access to that folder, otherwise the export files cannot be written. A folder inside the documents folder is not necessary, but it provides organization.

Here are the steps needed to archive data using FileMaker Server 10: (more…)

The attached file demonstrates how to build a back/forward and tabbed navigation into a FileMaker Pro database using a set of custom XML functions that roughly (very roughly!) model XPATH commands.

It’s packaged as a somewhat plug-and-play API, but it’s not necessarily a no-brainer.

Download Related File – Zip (310 KB)

This example file demonstrates how to create a pop-up window in FileMaker Pro and also demonstrates how to create a pick list within a pop-up window.

Imagine a case where a user needs to associate, say, a person with membership in a group. Click “add person” and the database opens a pick window. Within that window, the user can then search for the person in question, get a set of results, and choose the appropriate individual. At that point the window closes and they’re back in their original work flow. Hope you find it useful.

Download Related Files – Zip (152 KB)

This file demonstrates a process by which you can import a vCard into FileMaker Pro using just FMP scripting. The parsing and data mapping involved is a bit complex, but the file should make it a painless process of just a few short steps.

My intent was to make this as painless as possible for someone to import the scripts and fold the functionality into an existing solution without any significant fuss.
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These custom functions are the same as provided with our FileMaker Pro 9 Desk Reference. The file contains a library of functions we use at Soliant and have (fairly well) tested. We hope they’re useful for you.

And if you haven’t learned to use custom functions in your development efforts, we enthusiastically recommend them. They’re a great addition to any developer’s toolbox.

Download Related Files – Zip (126 KB)

Movie: Auto-resize in action

One of the significant new capabilities in FileMaker Pro 9 is the “auto-resize” feature. We are thrilled with the user interface improvements this functionality makes possible. An added benefit is how auto-resize can reduce development effort, at the very same time.

In prior versions of FileMaker, making a particular layout look good on both small and large monitors meant creating multiple layouts—one for each target screen resolution. Now, however, layout objects can be made to automatically move and/or change size as a user changes the window size. So a single layout can adapt itself on the fly, to perfectly serve various monitor and window configurations.

In addition to providing a richer user experience and streamlining development, auto-resize is easily applied to existing .fp7 solutions, potentially producing huge usability gains for perhaps a half-hour or less of actual work per layout.
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INT608 – Integrating with SQL-Based Applications
Presented by: Steve Lane

In this session, we’ll look at how to use the new External SQLSource (ESS) feature in FileMaker 9 to integrate a FileMaker solution with one or more SQL-based products. By embedding a product’s SQL tables in a FileMaker solution, it’s possible to create a hybrid application that allows one-way or even two-way data exchange between FileMaker and SQL-based products such as content management systems, bug trackers, accounting systems or project management systems.
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ADV 304 – Advanced FileMaker Pro Techniques
Presented By: Scott Love

This session will present a series of concrete, hands-on examples of day-to-day techniques that will help developers deliver more advanced functionality in their FileMaker Pro solutions. This session assumes that audience members are familiar with most of the standard functionality within FileMaker: calculations, scripting, how to work with portals and tab controls, etc., and quickly move into more in-depth techniques. Highlights from previous developers conference sessions have included dynamic portal sorting, portal row highlighting, programmatic control of tool tips, audit trails, and more. This session will focus on portals (you’ll explore the problems of “rectangular data” , for example calendars), and highlight some advanced “deep drilling” techniques with the relationships graph.

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As if to illustrate the main point in our recently published whitepaper (posted June 10) on handling passwords securely, The Associated Press reported yesterday on a scam where hackers broke into Citibank’s network of ATMs inside 7-Eleven stores and stole customers’ PIN codes. The article reports that, “despite industry standards that call for protecting PINs with strong encryption — which means encoding them to cloak them to outsiders — some ATM operators apparently aren’t properly doing that. The PINs seem to be leaking while in transit between the automated teller machines and the computers that process the transactions.”

While most of your web apps may not be as attractive targets as bank ATMs, it certainly highlights the password handling vulnerability brightly. Read our whitepaper for suggestions on how to guard your web app against this.