The West Side Montessori School (WSMS) has been offering a Montessori program for early learners since 1963. The school has grown from fifteen students to over one hundred and they also offer a teacher education program (WSMS-TEP) for adult learners training to become Montessori teachers. Based on the Upper West Side of New York City, they also have locations in New Jersey and Beijing China. In 2015, they renovated part of the children’s gymnasium into an adult learning space for their WSMS-TEP students. Needless to say, growth and development are important to the founders, faculty and students, both young and young at heart. And so we knew a Workplace Innovation Platform, like FileMaker, would facilitate that growth.
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One of the reasons FileMaker is a superior Workplace Innovation Platform is because of its integration capabilities. When our clients/prospective clients ask us if FileMaker can connect with other applications, my immediate answer is yes! But I think the better question to ask is: "how easily can the FileMaker Platform connect with other applications?" FileMaker offers many ways to integrate with other technologies. I myself have found very few limitations in terms of connecting a FileMaker application with other applications. As FileMaker, Inc. (FMI) releases new versions of the product, the integration capabilities expand. We've been able to connect FileMaker applications with other applications via ODBC/JDBC, live external data sources, PHP/XML APIs and flexible import/export options for many years. And now we have other integration functions like Data API (REST), cURL options in Insert from URL, native JSON functions as well as many JSON specific custom functions and a FileMaker and Tableau integration via a Tableau connector.
Since this time of year is associated with giving, we thought that we would share a FileMaker iOS gift. We created a retirement app using the FileMaker SDK. Some of us may find this app useful sooner than others, but we hope you benefit either way. The free app is available on iPad only on the Apple App Store.
Fun fact: the term debug was coined by Admiral Grace Hopper while working on the Mark II computer in the 1940's. A moth became stuck inside the computer and Grace commented that they were debugging the computer as they literally worked to remove the bug. The moth was eventually freed and then the term stuck. You can now find that moth at the Smithsonian Museum.
Back when I was introduced to JavaScript, I used alert dialogs to debug my javascript code. If you're chuckling reading this then you're probably a pro! If not, you should watch my demo where I show you a few different ways to invoke a JavaScript debugger to help you find a bug or resolve a semantic issue in your code.
Let’s Play Cards!
The Card Window was introduced in FileMaker 16. We learned some pretty cool development techniques and use cases for Card Windows during a FileMaker Developer Conference 2018 session.
TRANSACTIONS
Card Windows can be a great tool for transactional programming. You can easily arrange for transactional events to either pass or fail, meaning all edits/adds/deletes that happen during the transaction are either committed or not. Cards can be leveraged to guide the user through a process, storing the data via global fields, variables or JSON arrays along the way. Ultimately, the data will only be committed if the user completes all of the steps. Incidentally, you can also use slide panels to create this user experience.
We can’t give you “flowers in spring or robins that sing”, but we can give you some great advice!
There are at least 12 signs you need a custom business application. Most of our clients contact us because they have a problem:
- Inefficient workflows hindering employees
- Difficulties connecting their website to their database
- Manual data entry wasting precious time and money
We've created a cheat sheet to help you directly access the files in FileMaker Cloud. There are a few tutorials on the web, but none of them quite work anymore so we thought it would be useful for us to share one that does.
There are times when you may need to get to something in your FileMaker Cloud instance’s folder structure. Perhaps you need to access an old log file or even a file within the Documents folder - whatever the reason, you’ll know it when you need it. Please be aware that it's not a good idea to mess around with any of the files in the instance unless you have a backup and know what you’re doing. Having said that, here are three things you'll need to get started.
If you've ever planned an event, you can appreciate the immense amount of organization, coordination and communication required to effectively manage all aspects of the logistics. Technology, when leveraged effectively, can be extremely helpful in the process. Oftentimes event planners don't understand when and/or how to implement technology to streamline and automate tasks and information.
The prestigious University of California at Berkeley (UCB) came to us to help them streamline their event planning and management systems. The University Development and Alumni Relations department is responsible for generating and maintaining support for the university through various outreach initiatives including events for the Chancellor and fundraisers. The benefits of these programs circulate back to resources for the students and help the university to maintain its position as a world-famous institution.
As you may know, The Support Group has been offering FileMaker consulting services for over 30 years. So when it came to finding the best software platform to run nearly every aspect of our business, where did we turn? To the FileMaker Platform, of course!
We needed a framework for tracking our sales leads and customers, managing our projects, invoicing our production plus layers and layers of reporting. Our Vice President of Technology, Vince Dolan, was given the herculean task of architecting and building the system we affectionately call, Harry. The name was inspired by a dog from the animated television series, Stanley.
You've taken the plunge and purchased the FileMaker Platform software and now you're eager to build your own custom app. But where do you start? If you're completely new to the world of FileMaker, training might be the best place to start. Or, is it?
FileMaker, Inc. certainly offers a variety of support resources as do their partners, but we all learn and process information differently because we all have different experiences and expertise. The resounding theme of the FileMaker Platform is customization so it's reasonable for users to expect personalized support. We thought now was as good a time as any to offer a FileMaker support assessment. This is not like the FileMaker certification exam. True to an assessment, this quiz is not about right or wrong answers, but an evaluation of your proficiency with the FileMaker Platform so that you understand the support options that will help get you up and running as quickly as possible.
