The Support Group Blog

A few months ago, I delivered a webinar on advanced scripting and calculations. Along with the video demonstrations, I made available the FileMaker file for download. Dennis watched the webinar, downloaded the file, and asked a most reasonable question:

A reader asks:

A reader asks:

Is it possible to create a portal paging system with filtered portals in FileMaker 11?  I am interested in showing a portal without the scroll bar.  Buttons will take the user to the first, previous, next, and last set of records in the portal.  I know this is possible when the filtering occurs on the Relationship Graph but I can’t figure out how to do it when the filtering occurs on the presentation layer in FileMaker 11.

Thanks to all who attended!  If you missed the webinar, or want to watch it again, download the recording (which requires the WebEx WRF Player).  You can also download the sample FileMaker file used in the presentation.

When it comes to FileMaker Pro, calculations and scripts are your tools to “make stuff happen.” In this webinar, sponsored by FileMaker, Inc. and based on our Advanced Scripting and Calculations class, we explore some techniques for building robust, feature-rich databases with complex calculations, powerful scripted automation, and elegant user interfaces. 

When you release new functions or reports to an existing client, you must show them where the new features can be found and how best to go about testing.  Changes to a database people use every day—a database they use to get important work done—can trigger a variety of reactions, including alarm and anxiety; effective conversation can help them realize that the scope of the change is manageable.  They will be able to do what they always have, but now benefit from new reports or functions.  Conditional formatting provides an easy way to spotlight changes in your database. Conditional formatting offers the ability to highlight text or to make text bold or an unusual color.  To point out new items, simply use a formula like the following:

Reader Deborah wites:

I want to get running totals or summaries in my portal rows for number fields. Also, I want my portal rows to show a row number in a “self” relationship portal (I tried the Get(PortalRowNumber) function and could not get it to work). Hope that you can help. Thanks!

This article originally appeared in our old Get ( Answers ) newsletter.  I recently heard again from Marcelo, announcing his new consulting company and FileMaker 11 certification (congrats!), and thought I should update this.  With some new features introduced in FileMaker 10, this technique is even easier to implement.

DevCon is over; summer vacations are finally wrapped up.

Back in July, I presented a preview webinar of one of my DevCon presentations: FileMaker and the Cloud: Integrating with Google Apps.  We are now making that webinar recording available, as well as making the sample file available for download.

UPDATE 4:

Geolocation is now natively supported in FileMaker Go 12 with the new mobile functions Location()and LocationValues().  Yay! For FileMaker Go 11, read on…

Elizabeth in San Francisco is one of many to ask this interesting FileMaker Go question:

My first reaction was “unfortunately, no.”  FileMaker Go can’t access the GPS features of the iPhone, and since we can’t use plug-ins with Go, there’s no opportunity to add that feature.  But never say never, right?

We have a bunch of really smart FileMaker developers here at The Support Group who can do some clever stuff with FileMaker. To find out just how clever, Julien, our Development Director, ran a contest for the entire technical staff to see who could build the fastest Sudoku puzzle solver using FileMaker.