Learning Claris FileMaker

In a word processor you can highlight text and then hit a button to change formatting, line BOLD, UNDERLINE, COLOR…etc.

In Filemaker you use the format drop down menus, but does anyone know how to make a button to change the format of the currently highlighted text?

I knew I had done this before but struggled to find the solution where I had done this, so I am making a note here for future reference to myself and others.

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Why would you want to delete files in the Finder from FileMaker Pro?

I had a request to build a simple document management system using a Fujitsu scanner to bring PDF files into FileMaker.

I have talked about some of the issues with scanners and FileMaker in a previous blog post, — there is no really great way to have the scanner files go straight to FileMaker Pro, so my idea was to keep things relatively simple and have the user scan to a set folder on their computer and then run a FileMaker script to import from a that folder location.

Once the files are imported into FileMaker, the files are removed from the user’s ‘Scanner Document’ folder on the Desktop of their computer.

This is a fairly simple technique using only standard FileMaker Pro capabilities, without the use of plugins or AppleScript to delete files from anywhere on your computer.

This is a powerful technique, so please use it with caution.

FileMaker 17 introduces a useful new feature called “Create Directories” when creating files.

This works with saving a copy or clone of the database, as well as exporting PDFs or text files.

I decided this was a good time to update my old Backup database script. 

I use this script when developing locally.

If I am about to make a major change to a layout etc, I can invoke this to give me a date and timestamped version of the database.

This script could also be useful when developing for people who are using the database in a stand alone environment (ie. not on FileMaker Server), running it with FileMaker Pro client.

Because you don’t know much about the client’s environment, such as where they want to backup to or the folder they want to backup to, it is useful to have a general purpose script like this. 

The only thing that took a bit of work was figuring out where iCloud Drive stores it’s files.

See below for the solution.

Making FileMaker interact with Google Translate

I have been looking for a Web Viewer calendar module to add to my FileMaker solutions.

There are some great paid options out there including:

• SoSimple Calendar
• FMCalendar
• SeedCode Calendar

Wonderful as these solutions are, they are often more than I need and can add to the cost of a solution.

I just wanted something simple, more than you can do in FileMaker only, but not as much as the paid modules cost, so when I saw that there was ...

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I (DOUGLAS ALDER) built a Word Cloud to run in FileMaker using an existing D3 Javascript that generates a Word Cloud.

I designed it to work on the Desktop or iOS, using the same layout.

Recently, a friend asked me about automating the export of data from FileMaker to Evernote.

A web search found that someone had already figured this out.

I thought this might be useful to send data to Notes, the app that I use.

I recently saw an article about creating Org Charts from FileMaker in OmniGraffle.

OmniGraffle is a great program, but it is Mac-only and costs money.

I thought to myself: “Myself, I says, I could probably figure out how to do this for free!”

So I proceeded to spend way too long (six hours or more) making this work, using the Google Chart API Javascript library to generate a decent looking Org Chart right in FileMaker Pro. 

Then to make it more useful, I figured out how to use FileMaker 16’s fmpurl script capabilites to do call backs into FileMaker Pro.

Turns out there is a fairly easy way to do this.

It involves creating a bookmark in your web browser that is written in Javascript.

It calls a FileMaker script using the URL scheme ‘FMP’ and sends the web page title, and the page’s URL to FileMaker.

You can add this to your FileMaker solutions after reading Douglas Alder's post.