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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Tag Archives: FileMaker Pro 11
Automating Webcam Photo Capture within FileMaker (Windows)
May 25, 2015 
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Window Management in FileMaker Pro – Preventing Extra Windows from Opening
May 19, 2015 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.
Continue reading The End is Near – a Minor Datacalypse is Coming
April 23, 2015 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 […]
Continue reading How to Maintain a Connection to FileMaker Server on a Dynamic IP Address with DynDNS Updater
July 7, 2014 Comments Off on How to Maintain a Connection to FileMaker Server on a Dynamic IP Address with DynDNS Updater
Overview Once you have your FileMaker Server setup and accessible remotely, I recommend setting up Dyn.com Remote Access service. Their tagline is “Access your device or files using a unique hostname, instead of a confusing (and ever-changing) IP address.” The reason you may need a service like this is because in many cases your Internet provider doesn’t […]
Continue reading Auto Close a FileMaker Pro Database After a Set Interval Using an OnTimer Script Step
March 12, 2014 4 Comments
Databases can contain sensitive data. Sometimes you have a database you only open occasionally, but you don’t want to forget and leave the data file open on your computer. There are other solutions to this, including locking your computer screen after a set interval, but if you find that procedure overkill and just want to […]
Continue reading Record and Field Locking Strategies
February 14, 2014 4 Comments
I was recently asked by a client about how to set up a record locking system. The idea of record locking is that when some event happens a record becomes no longer editable, preserving the contents from change. I have used two different strategies for record locking before and they are both useful, depending upon […]
Continue reading Mapping Directions from FileMaker Pro with Google Maps
February 3, 2014 3 Comments
Ever wish you could generate a Google Map pin map from your FileMaker database of things like: a sales route a customer list a distribution list? Not a complex Cluster Map of large numbers of addresses, as I have detailed in another blog post, but a simple reusable script to display small groups of locations as […]
Continue reading Dialing Phone Numbers using SkypeOut from FileMaker Pro
September 3, 2013 11 Comments
A while back, I found a technique to launch Skype and using the SkypeOut URI scheme, dial a number in Skype. I tested the ability recently and was surprised to see that the technique seems to be broken. Back in 2006 Skype announced on their blog that a FileMaker plug-in had been created by Premium […]
Continue reading MailChimp Integration with FileMaker Pro – Part 5 of 4 – Importing Mailing Lists
August 13, 2013 2 Comments
A reader asked recently about getting a MailChimp list into FileMaker Pro. The work that I did on the MailChimp integration demo was based on a project that I did a customer who wanted to start syncing an existing FileMaker data set with MailChimp, so we were starting with the data in FileMaker. It was […]
Continue reading How to Automate Webcam Photo Capture Within Filemaker Pro (Mac)
September 10, 2012 7 Comments
2018-08-16 Update Reader Tim Fox from Miami pointed out that this demo file wasn’t working any more. I have updated it to FM12 format and edited the Automator routine a bit to make it a little faster and smoother running. If you have already attempted to use this and are re-downloading the file, please delete […]
Continue reading UTF, WTF! Writing HTML and JSON from FileMaker
September 5, 2012 9 Comments
Recently, I was working on a Timeline creation database. A FileMaker Pro database is used to store the events that will be displayed on the timeline. When the data has been entered, the database is designed to export two files, one an HTML file for the main page display and the second a JSON file […]
Continue reading Simple Static Map Overlays in FileMaker Pro
July 2, 2012 7 Comments
This is an idea I had about creating static map overlays in FileMaker Pro. The gist of it is to create a base graphic map using a program like Photoshop and then add a number of transparent overlays to the map. Save the base map and overlay layers as transparent PNG files and import them […]
Continue reading URLs in PDFs – Yet another reason to shorten URLs in FileMaker
January 25, 2011 9 Comments
Long URLs in FileMaker If you have a long URL in FileMaker, it is no problem. You could just have a button to open the URL from a text field. However, if you export the same URL to a PDF to circulate the information to others who don’t use FileMaker, you can hit problems. The […]
Continue reading Paradise by the Dashboard Light – Bouncing around in FileMaker, building Charts
October 21, 2010 9 Comments
FileMaker Pro 11’s new Charting ability, is a great addition to its feature set. It can however, be a little confusing how best to grab the numbers to use in the label and data (X and Y axis) series of a graph. I set out to build a ‘management dashboard’ layout for one of my […]
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