Engineers at FileMaker Inc. have finally dispelled a rumor.
During the recent FileMaker Developer Conference in San Francisco last month, quite a few attendees approached us asking whether a statement heard in one of the sessions was true or not. It seems one of the presenters from FMI suggested the idea that Excelisys‘ now famous drag-n-drop technique was not necessarily reliable and should be used with caution.
The statement was made in recognition of the fact that the technique, which allows you to create a once-impossible user interface feature, is based on what engineers call an “unexpected behavior” which could possibly change in future versions of FileMaker Pro. However, this behavior is NOT a bug, and is in fact considered a feature by many developers.
The behavior in question is the fact that an auto-enter calc will trigger before a script trigger is executed. Discovering this behavior was a surprise to many, including FMI engineers.
We wanted to set the record straight, so we spoke with FileMaker engineers. The word finally came down from them this week that there is almost no likelihood of this behavior changing anytime soon. Of course, FMI can’t guarantee the low-level behavior will persist in future versions, nor would we expect them to. But we are confident that such a change is highly unlikely.
So relax and integrate this amazing technique into your solutions with confidence. The advice to use with caution is generally made when any technique is dependent on an unexpected behavior. But with a confirmation direct from the “horse’s mouth”, as it were, we consider this a green light.
Excelisys is proud to announce that eX-Team member Jeff Drake has passed his FileMaker 10 Certification exam, which was just released this week. Jeff has been certified in every version of FileMaker (7/8/9/10), since the exam was first created. The certification is an indicator of Jeff’s broad knowledge and experience across the FileMaker 10 product line. Congratulations, Jeff!! Well done!
Excelisys has been making the rounds! This time, President and Co-Founder Geoff Ryle along with Senior Lead Developer Andrew Persons both appeared on the ever-popular FileMaker Talk podcast with host Matt Navarre. Along with decidedly non-FileMaker related discussions, the trio talk about new FileMaker Pro 10 features such as script triggers, extreme portal sorting, reusable code, free tips’n'tricks, related technologies and other topics that are sure to interest any Filemaker developer. Check it out at: http://filemakertalk.com/
A group from Excelisys consisting of Andrew Persons, Mike Duncan and Geoff Ryle recently participated in the recording of an Adatasol podcast that was just released. We had a great time, and enjoyed talking tech and FileMaker with co-hosts Dan Weiss and Theo Gantos. In the podcast, we discussed our latest free “tips-n-tricks” postings that take advantage of FileMaker Pro 10‘s new script triggers feature. Check out this and past podcasts at their website or on iTunes.
A group from Excelisys consisting of Andrew Persons, Mike Duncan and Geoff Ryle participated in the recording of an Adatasol podcast last night. We had a great time, and enjoyed talking tech and FileMaker with co-hosts Dan Weiss and Theo Gantos. In the podcast, we discussed our latest free “tips-n-tricks” postings that take advantage of FileMaker Pro 10‘s new script triggers feature. Check out past podcasts at their website or on iTunes, and stay tuned for our upcoming episode.
Check out the new “Tips-n-Trick” file just posted to the “Downloads” section of our web site, contributed by Mike Duncan, Lead Developer at Excelisys, Inc.
FileMaker Pro 10 introduced native script triggers as a tool for developers to utilize in their solutions. This example demonstrates the usage of a search filter, which many FileMaker developers are familiar with in complex portal filtering solutions. Now, with the use of script triggers, it is simple enough to implement the same functionality but you are not restricted to displaying results in a portal, and therefore have much more flexibility in the interface. Instead of being required to set a complex key that drives a relationship, your search script can be as simple or exotic as your solution requires. One key difference available in FileMaker Pro 10 is that you no longer need to wait for a field to be exited in order to trigger an action, allowing interaction between the user and database not available before without the use of third party plug-ins.
This example is a simple implementation of script triggers by using the OnObjectModify trigger set on the global fields that are being used to provide search criteria on the sample data. As the user types search criteria, a search script gets run, narrowing the search results in real time. Also used in this demo is the new functionality to set a field by name. This is used to allow the user to select a field to search on, which is used to set the field by name that is searched. This sounds simple enough, and displaces the need for large, complex branching “if” statements in a script editor that might have duplicated this functionality in previous versions of FileMaker.
Since these fields wouldn’t be applicable in Find Mode, we also set an object with text that displays only when you are in Find Mode that alerts the user to this fact as a reminder, as well as graying out the filter fields. This is done using conditional formatting to change the appearance of text and layout objects that are dependent on the current mode.
Script Triggers in FileMaker Pro 10 are an absolute game changer for developer in what they can accomplish. Hopefully this example provides a small peek at the potential that this new functionality provides.
Everyone at Excelisys loves to hear that rhetorical question asked: “Woah! You can do THAT in FileMaker?” Oh yeah, you can. Well this is one of those moments, and we just posted a demo file and white paper about it up on our Excelisys web site.
With the new script triggers introduced in the recently released FileMaker Pro 10, we all can now deliver a richer user experience to our customers – one that incorporates a familiar and elegant interface mechanism: drag-and-drop.
The new demo file we’ve posted is fully unlocked, requires FileMaker Pro 10, and includes three interface examples of the drag-and-drop technique. There is also an embedded PDF white paper that further explains how the whole thing is built, with sample code.
The most obvious use is sorting. Let’s say you’re in a band and you’re trying to organize a set list. Just drag the song titles into the order you want, or change it up again just by dragging. How long have we wanted this feature?
Another great use is building a list. Let’s say you’re managing the receiving dock in a warehouse and you have two lists: the one on the left shows four items ordered on a PO, while the list on the right is blank but will include the items you are receiving. Today you only received one item, so you drag that item from the list on the left into the list on the right. Easy, right?
But here’s yet another great example: nesting in a hierarchical interface. We’ve previously posted a tip on how to build a hierarchical interface, so here’s how to – BAM! – kick it up a notch. Let’s say you have an outline for a presentation, and you decide to move some of your subtopics to another parent topic. By just dragging the subtopic to another topic in the list, you have rearranged your outline – any nested subtopics in the item you moved are automatically moved with it, just as you’d expect.
And that’s when it hits you… THIS is FileMaker???
These great techniques, examples and white papers are brought to you (once again) by eX-Team Senior Developer Andrew Persons.
Can you think of any other great drag-and-drop example ideas? Leave us a comment and tell us about it, and if applicable let us know how this technique helped you in your projects.
Harry has a great disposition and you can tell he REALLY loves his FileMaker, and our solution. I was impressed with the questions he asked, and saw that he appreciated the true benefits of the eX-BizTracker, most important being its multi-user foundation. More of a “smart jump-start”, this design resolves many common issues developers find with “templates” that at first appear useful but ultimately require a great deal more customization to reach this level of detail and control in a multi-user environment. Not to mention the fact that it’s FREE and UNLOCKED. If you haven’t checked out the eXBT yet, go here and see for yourself how Excelisys has taken the idea of a “template” to a whole new level.
Now that FileMaker Pro 10 is out, what are you going to do with it? Better yet, what can it do for YOU? If you want to learn about some of the new features, go to http://www.fmstartingpoint.com/ and take a look at their free FM Starting Point template.
At Excelisys, we love the idea of free templates — anything that can help jump-start a project. This was one of the reasons we agreed to build the FileMaker Business Tracker in 2005 for FileMaker Inc. We then updated it as the eX Biz Tracker 2 for FileMaker 9 in 2007, unlocked and completely free. In today’s economy, free goes a long way.
After reviewing all the free templates, give us a call. We can modify them to fit your needs or create a custom FileMaker solution for you.
So You just got the latest copy of FileMaker Pro. Looks great. Installed in your dock and ready to go. All you need to do now is click the icon in the dock and away you go. But wait, you have FileMaker 8, FileMaker 8.5, FileMaker 9 Advanced all in your dock already. If you do you know what the problem is already. ALL the icons are the same! Here is a quick fix to save your sanity.
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