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Ever wish there was a way to ‘Send to FileMaker’ from your Web Browser?

July 26, 2017 by Douglas Alder 0 Comments


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. Once you have this in FileMaker, you can […]

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Apple, FileMaker Go, FileMaker Pro Techniques, Macintosh
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FullCalendarIO – a Javascript/HTML Calendar for FileMaker Pro

June 10, 2017 by Douglas Alder 9 Comments


Add a free open source calendar to Filemaker Pro databases by using the Web Viewer.

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FileMaker Pro 12

How to Automate Saving the First Page of a Batch of PDFs as JPGs

November 30, 2015 by Douglas Alder Comments Off on How to Automate Saving the First Page of a Batch of PDFs as JPGs


Not specifically a FileMaker challenge today, this is an Apple Macintosh Automator/Shell Script routine. I recently had the requirement of generating a set of images for a large set of PDFs—I just needed the first page of a batch of PDFs converted into JPG files.

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AppleScript, Automator, Shell Script
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Join Tables in FileMaker Pro

November 16, 2015 by Douglas Alder 7 Comments


To get around the problem of having a many-to-many relationship you need to break apart the many-to-many relationship into two one-to-many relationships. Using a third table, commonly called a “join table”, does this. Each record in the “join table” would have the foreign key fields of the two tables it is joining together.

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FileMaker Pro 12
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Display Formatted Text in a Web Viewer

November 11, 2015 by Douglas Alder 2 Comments


This idea has been documented before, (Using a Web Viewer as a Field) but I rediscovered it myself recently and thought I might have something to add. As was pointed out in The Support Group article, sometimes as a developer, you want to display a long chunk of text (anything that requires scrolling within a field) to the user, but not allow them to edit that text. Some examples might include displaying a block of help text, or a long software agreement. It is obviously possible to format your text using HTML to achieve this effect, but that can become complicated especially if you are not that good at HTML. Fortunately FileMaker offers a much simpler way to display formatted text this using the GetAsCSS function.

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FileMaker Pro Techniques
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Smart Phone Caller ID Triggers Customer Search in FileMaker Pro Database

October 19, 2015 by Douglas Alder 4 Comments


A while back, I did a blog entry on capturing Caller ID to look up FileMaker database contacts using a VOIP system. I thought it might be interesting to see if the same thing could be done with just a mobile phone, such as an iPhone or Android device.

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AppleScript, Caller ID, FileMaker Pro 13, FileMaker Pro 14, FileMaker Pro Advanced 13, FileMaker Pro Techniques
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Taking & Sharing Screenshots of FileMaker Go layouts on your iPad/iPhone

August 24, 2015 by Douglas Alder 2 Comments


Communicating with your FileMaker application developer or other users of a database system can be greatly facilitated by the use of screenshots. Sending a screenshot from FileMaker Go is fairly easy to accomplish, if you know the secret of capturing. Here is how to do it.

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FileMaker Pro 13

FileMaker Go 14: Keeping Button Bars and Slide Panels in Sync

August 17, 2015 by Douglas Alder 4 Comments


Someone suggested using the combination of FileMaker 14’s new button bar with a slide panel to emulate a tab panel. Why bother you ask? Well you get the cool slide animation effect.

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FileMaker Go 14
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Free Mortgage Calculator for FileMaker Go 14

August 13, 2015 by Douglas Alder 1 Comment


The beauty of the FileMaker Platform is that in a few hours you can create an ‘app’ …

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FileMaker Go 14
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Alphabetic Search Buttons using Button Bars in FileMaker 14

August 10, 2015 by Douglas Alder Comments Off on Alphabetic Search Buttons using Button Bars in FileMaker 14


FileMaker Pro 14’s new button bar brings a new twist to an old technique for creating alphabetic searches of your data. Instead of creating 26 individual buttons it is possible to create a single button bar object and then easily reformat it using text style changes or FileMaker CSS style changes. The button bar can also be repurposed to horizontal or vertical layouts. Finally I demonstrate how to use the same script from different contexts to perform different searches — a list search and a portal filter.

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FileMaker Pro 14, FileMaker Pro Techniques
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Click, Display, Capture – Google Map Longitude & Latitude into FileMaker Pro

July 17, 2015 by Douglas Alder 3 Comments


Using a Javascript overlay on Google Maps and FileMaker’s URL scheme to channel those coordinates into FileMaker records. Click on a map, add longitude and latitude to FileMaker Pro.

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FileMaker Pro 13
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Locked into a FileMaker Go Screen? You Won’t Believe How One User Got Out!

June 8, 2015 by Douglas Alder Comments Off on Locked into a FileMaker Go Screen? You Won’t Believe How One User Got Out!


FileMaker Go has a great new features called ‘Reconnect to Server’, which helps keep your database connection open if your iPad/iPhone falls asleep or your WiFi connection gets dodgy. This great new feature can become a problem if your solution sends the user to a layout from which there is no return. Obviously the first step as […]

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FileMaker Go 14, FileMaker Server 14, Reconnect to Server
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Flipping in FileMaker

June 2, 2015 by Douglas Alder 6 Comments


Rotating Images or PDFs in Containers with Applescript (Mac) In my previous blog post I talked about automating scanner documents into FileMaker container fields using AppleScript. This was based on a customer request. Logging in to that system recently, I noticed that it was fairly common for staff members to scan documents in upside down. […]

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FileMaker Pro 13
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Automating Webcam Photo Capture within FileMaker (Windows)

May 25, 2015 by Douglas Alder Comments Off on Automating Webcam Photo Capture within FileMaker (Windows)


OK folks, here is a hack for you. The Challenge: Capturing images from a web cam into FileMaker on Windows. I was able to achieve this previously on a Mac using AppleScript, but there is no similar easy inter-application scripting language on Windows. FileMaker Go on mobile has the ability to grab photos right from […]

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FileMaker Pro 12, FileMaker Pro Techniques, FileMaker Server 13
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Window Management in FileMaker Pro – Preventing Extra Windows from Opening

May 19, 2015 by Douglas Alder Comments Off on Window Management in FileMaker Pro – Preventing Extra Windows from Opening


My first version of the system was rejected by the customers because it kept opening extra windows, confusing the users. So I set about writing a fairly modular script that I could reuse to test if a window was already open and if so, simply select it, rather than opening another new window. This seemed to make the users much happier. I share it with you and my future self here.

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FileMaker Pro 13
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Create Folders from FileMaker Pro Using AppleScript on a Macintosh

May 14, 2015 by Douglas Alder 11 Comments


Someone on one of the Facebook FileMaker Group pages recently asked for a simple method, using AppleScript of creating a folder on the Desktop. FileMaker Pro can generate a variety of file formats, including Text, PDF and Excel, and it is possible to script the names of these files. It is also possible to script […]

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AppleScript, FileMaker 11, FileMaker Pro 12, FileMaker Pro 13, FileMaker Pro Advanced 12, FileMaker Pro Advanced 13, FileMaker Pro Techniques

FileMaker 14 – Resources

May 12, 2015 by Douglas Alder 2 Comments


Well it is finally shipping. After glimpses under NDA and slips (it showed up on Amazon early), FileMaker 14 platform is now shipping. New versions of FileMaker Go, FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Pro Advanced and FileMaker Server are available for trial and download. I didn’t have time this round to do a full writeup on what […]

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FileMaker Pro 12

The End is Near – a Minor Datacalypse is Coming

April 23, 2015 by Douglas Alder Comments Off on The End is Near – a Minor Datacalypse is Coming


I have written before about the need to stay current with FileMaker Pro, operating systems and hardware. I recently received an email from a reader who asked: Between me and a colleague we built a large database with all the bells and whistles back in the days of FM 5.5 and yes, we fell behind or […]

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FileMaker Pro 13
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Speedy Document Scanning Directly into FileMaker Pro 13

April 14, 2015 by Douglas Alder 7 Comments


A Macintosh computer, FileMaker Pro 13, a Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i, Automator, Applescript, a Folder Action and FileMaker’s URL Scheme make a paperless solution for legal waivers a reality.

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FileMaker Pro 13, FileMaker Pro Advanced 13, Scanners
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