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Today, May 4th is Intergalactic Star Wars day! The non-Star Wars fan may need an explanation. Perhaps one of the most memorable phrases from Star Wars is “May the force be with you.” Today that becomes: “MAY the FOURTH be with you.”
In honor of this special day, we have put together a FileMaker database that uses html, CSS, and Javascript in a web viewer to display the original Star Wars intro titles with customizable text.
As a bonus, there is also a navigable Starfield so you can feel almost like you’re steering the Millennium Falcon right from your FileMaker database!
Download the Free demo file.
View the source, Luke. ...
BrilliantSync – A framework for keeping WordPress and FileMaker in Sync
BrilliantSync is a custom technology solution from Cimbura.com for connecting FileMaker to WordPress, with add-ons for WooCommerce, Gravity Forms and the ability to connect data via custom tables. We’ve also integrated with Drupal, and can interface with other web content management systems (CMS) if needed. Read more on Cimbura website
There seems to be a lot of confusion in the marketplace as to what the new FileMaker WebDirect product is. Here we provide some clarifications on when WebDirect fits and helpful tips for using WebDirect.
WebDirect is powerful technology for easily deploying FileMaker solutions via a web browser ...
Read more on the blog post
This “Tampered” error happens when an externally stored container image in FileMaker is altered by another application or operation outside out the FileMaker. For example, you might go into the directory and resize the image.
It’s not entirely intuitive how you might get the image back.
Here’s the solution ... Read more on Cimbura post ...
Send Real Printed Mail from FileMaker with Lob.com Dr. Egon Spengler pronounced the death of print in the 1984 hit comedy Ghostbusters, but he may have been a tad premature. We don’t send “snail mail” letters and postcards as often as we used to, but the paperless office is still science fiction for some. Receiving a physical piece of mail is a novelty, and can make you (or your customers) feel special. But doing real mailing with real paper is time consuming. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could let someone else take care of all of that? Sure there are online printing services, but what if you want to send just one? Or a handful? Or thousands? All driven by your data? That’s the niche that is filled by Lob.
Lob is a service that lets you send letters, postcards, and even checks. They take care of the printing and mailing. They also offer address verification. And it’s all a web service with an API (application programming interface), which means that you can connect and use the service from just about any program. And of course this includes our favorite rapid application development platform: FileMaker Pro. So to test it out, we put together a demo file.
We Simplify Spatial.
Cimbura.com GIS solutions help businesses derive value from data through maps, custom applications and spatial analyses.
LKT Laboratories sells biochemicals for life science research in areas such as cancer prevention and neuroscience. LKT contacted Cimbura.com so that they could take advantage of their existing technology investment in a FileMaker database used to track all products. They needed a new eCommerce website and wanted it to automatically connect to the FileMaker app already used to track all their chemical information internally. ...
This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series GIS and FileMaker
You’ve read our Mapping and More post. You know what Geographic Information Systems are. You’re starting to understand why you need GIS in FileMaker… now let’s get to the how. In this post we’re going to cover the basics of creating maps in your FileMaker solutions from built-in, no code required options to interactive Leaflet maps that require just a bit of HTML, CSS, & JS.
If you’re new to web programming and these acronyms make your cringe, don’t fear, we’re providing a demo file with all (**the minimal amount**) of the code you need to get started. The demo file is actually set up as a sandbox where you can effortlessly experiment with creating maps and other webviewer technologies in FileMaker… more in bit. For now, let’s dive in assuming you have a database that stores mailing address information in some way, shape, or form and want an interactive map. Read more on the blog ...
FileMaker Devcon 2016’s unconference provided the perfect opportunity for us to speak about Geographic Information Science (GIS)–a subject we’re quite passionate about. At Cimbura.com we’ve been offering GIS services for some time now ranging from simple webmaps to custom Geographic Information Systems built on FileMaker, WordPress, and other platforms. The GIS apps we build help customers visualize, question, analyze, and interpret spatial data to better understand relationships, patterns, and trends. Organizations of all sizes and in almost every industry are using GIS to solve business problems and analyze data with spatial context. Read more on the blog ...
As you may have read, FileMaker 15 was released today. As such, if you are an existing annual volume license or annual maintenance customer, you may have received an email from FileMaker, Inc. with your new license keys and download links. (Note that if you have not received an email yet, don’t worry. We are told they are staggering upgrade emails over the next few days.) If you are like some of us, new software releases are like Christmas morning, full of anticipation, surprise, and wonderment! New toys! I can’t wait to try all the new things!
But should I? Sigh… Maybe not quite just yet. Oh, the pains of being a grown up. The struggle is real.
If you a regular reader of our blog, you might notice that we have talked about upgrades before. More than once, in fact. Our advice is always the same, but we get the questions every time, so we will keep talking about it.
Have a plan. Read more on Cimbura blog ...
At our office we’re prepared for the worst to happen to our computers…and you should be as well. You never know when something bad is going to happen. If you depend on your software, hardware, and data for doing anything important you need to take note now.
First, we use strong passwords to protect computers, databases, and websites. See this article for our recommendations on how to manage that.
Second, we have multiple backups in place for our computers in case something should fail. See this article for making certain that your data is safe and backed up.
But what happens if someone steals your computer?
read more on Cimbura.com blog post ...
FileMaker mobile development just got VERY interesting. Yesterday, FileMaker released the iOS App SDK for FileMaker that allows developers to build a native iOS app with FileMaker.
This new capability is mainly about distribution. In the past, FileMaker could create a mobile app with the help of FileMaker Go. It required FileMaker Go (the app) to be installed so that your custom app could run. Now that is no longer necessary. Your application or database created with FileMaker can become a separate icon on the iOS device that is not dependent on another app being there to be fully operational. It can then be distributed through Apple and other 3rd party mobile device management (MDM) systems as well as TestFlight. Read more of this interesting post on Cimbura.com ...
WordPress Every business needs to have a strong public facing website to be viable in today’s market. WordPress is our recommendation for the best tool available to build that website today. WordPress powers 28% of the internet, it’s easy to update, provides responsive themes that work on mobile devices, ranks highly with SEO, and has …
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Schweiss Hydraulic and Bifold Doors Use FileMaker as One Key to Success
Schweiss Doors is the premier manufacturer of hydraulic bifold doors in the world.
Located near Hector, MN their custom doors are sold all over the world. Some notable installations include Red Bull Headquarters in California. SilverWing Airpark, Rocket Hangers in Cape Canaveral Florida, and Under Amour headquarters in Maryland. The super hi-tech King Stadium in California features five Schweiss 6 story tall bi-fold hanger doors. Companies choose their doors for the their high quality design and construction. T hey can be customized for almost any building situation from rocket and airplane hangers, to stadiums, restaurants, and corporate headquarters.
Schweiss has been a long time user of the FileMaker custom database application platform for more than 20 years. They built a very sophisticated solution that exactly meets their needs while it automates and tracks nearly every aspect of their business. It even integrates with their website. FileMaker is an important competitive advantage to their business. ...
In this article we will discuss some of the under-the-hood technical details about how FileMaker databases are created and then explain why this is critical information for the business owner and beginning developer to know when building a FileMaker solution.
Relationships are hard. No, I’m not talking about people. Unless those people are an entity that you track in your FileMaker database. How are those people related to companies? And events? And jobs? And invoices? And, and, and… See what I mean? Complicated. Luckily, FileMaker makes connecting those various tables easy, in a friendly interface called the “Relationship Graph.” Read more on Cimbura.com blog post ...
... a great opportunity to create a quick FileMaker app to help us out. It’s a simple database of sounds, titles, and two container fields to hold an image and an mp3 or wav sound file. Along the way we learned that playing a sound on command is a little trickier than expected. Read the details on Cimbura blog ...
FileMaker has been helping companies transform their business more than 30 years and developed quite the installed user base around the world. Here’s a run down of some FileMaker statistics and facts.
The FileMaker platform consists of 6 separate products that work together to create custom application solutions: - FileMaker client (desktop macOS/Windows),
- FileMaker Advanced (developers),
- FileMaker Go (mobile iPhone/iPad),
- FileMaker Server,
- FileMaker Webdirect (web), and
- FileMaker Cloud (hosting via AWS).
Over 24 million copies of FileMaker have been delivered in 15 languages to organizations of all sizes.
(50% or more of them have been overseas.)
The FileMaker mobile client FileMaker Go for the iPad and iPhone has over 2 million downloads on iOS devices making it the most popular mobile database app in the app store. With over 1 billion active iOS devices in the world it is a huge opportunity to be grow even more.
As a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple (the largest company in the world) FileMaker has been independently profitable for 72+ quarters consistently.
DB Engines reported FileMaker in the top 17 databases…and it connects to the top DBs (Oracle, mySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, and Postgre SQL) automatically via ESS. FileMaker usage has been trending up over time.
G2 Crowd ranked FileMaker as the #1 rapid application development software. Grid℠ for Rapid Application Development | Fall 2016
There are over 1,200 FileMaker Business Alliance partners worldwide. In the Americas there are about 50 FileMaker Business Alliance Platinum partners.
The FileMaker Community has over 50,000 members.
Statistics gathered from FileMaker’s Company info page, FileMaker DevCon, and other sources as linked.
Gain insights into the FileMaker business world, highlights of sessions at DevCon including WordPress and GIS, Women of FileMaker, and many other ideas from Tim Cimbura (CEO), Dr. Brenda Cimbura (COO), and Nick Ciske, CTO at Cimbura.com, Inc.
Getting WordPress and FileMaker to talk
So given that WordPress and FileMaker play their respective roles for your company toolset, how do we get them to talk to each other?
We’ve detailed many ways that you can publish FileMaker information on the web through custom web publishing. Pushing and pulling information from a web site is a two way system. Information can be entered in FileMaker and displayed on the web as well as information can be accepted on the web and pulled into FileMaker.
Yesterday (28 sept 2016), FileMaker, Inc. took the wraps off of the latest addition to the FileMaker platform: FileMaker Cloud. It was announced at FileMaker DevCon 2016 in July, but we were not able to talk about it publicly until now. This post will be an overview of what FileMaker Cloud is, how it compares to existing offerings, reasons why it may or may not be a good fit for you, what it costs, things to watch out for, plus other resources if you want to dig deeper.
FileMaker’s default Paste behavior is to paste formatted text in a FileMaker text field. Additional steps, either by the user or the developer, must be taken to paste unformatted text. Text stored with custom formatting may interfere with readability issues, especially when a print layout is designed to display a company name in 18 pt Arial Bold, but instead displays it in 12 pt Comic Sans (because that’s what was originally pasted into the field).
In the animation below, you will see a user copying and pasting contact info into a Contacts database (a Starter Solution created with FileMaker Pro 15). There are no special steps being taken; just a very common method for data entry. Read more about ways to improve the Paste command ...
Choosing a Mapping Framework
What does a Mapping Framework do?
If you think of web maps as cars, as we discuss in Anatomy of a Web Map (the first of this 6 part series), a Mapping Framework is the engine.
It is a JavaScript library that loads when your web page does. It manages the display of your map data, handles user interactions with that data (e.g. clicking, scrolling, zooming, etc.) and provides ways for your own custom code to interact with the map and data. Read more on the post ...
Web maps are like cars. It’s easy to appreciate a nice looking web map, but most people don’t need to know about everything that’s going on under the hood. Just like when buying car, however, if you understand the basics of how a web map works you’ll be in a much better position to make decisions when building a new one.
Users expect web maps to be everywhere now, in their car, on their watch, on your WordPress web site, in your FileMaker database and anywhere else you present them with mappable data.
This is the first post in a 6 post series which will go through each major component of a modern web map. With an understanding of web map essentials you’ll be ready to make important mapping decisions for your website or application.
...
Read more on the blog post
We recently did a check in with a client that we hadn’t worked with in a while to see if they wanted to do any updates, enhancements, or maintenance.
We built a custom FileMaker solution for this commercial printing company to replace their paper job tickets and manual production lists for scheduling. In the past, the Production Manager had to go through at least 12 piles of tickets in various offices and production stations just to get a count of jobs. Now they know exactly how many jobs they have at any point in time, their status, and they can search for past jobs without manually digging through file cabinets.
The Production Manager told me that there were a few enhancements that he and the Customer Service Reps would like to see, however… the owner said, “Everything is working great, so I don’t see any reason to pour more money into this.” Sad trombone!
It’s great to hear that the solution was built so well that it has been running for over a year with zero maintenance. On the other hand, “no change” is a dangerous mindset when it comes to technology, and it is bound to cause headaches down the road. Here we’ll explore some reasons why you should have a plan for software and hardware updates and maintenance. Read more on Cimbura website ...
There is a world of choices out there in the technology world. Business owners are faced with the big decision of what software applications are best to run their company. There are a lot of factors involved in making this decision. Here we examine some of those factors that will lead you to an informed decision. Let this article guide you forward like a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) should. Read more on Cimbura's blog
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![A Little [FileMaker] Relationship Advice and Anchor Buoy | Cimbura.com | Learning Claris FileMaker | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/qkvtsNa8S09is6n8UeuWRTl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
Also look at http://www.scoop.it/t/learning-filemaker/?&tag=Star+Wars