ExecuteSQL using the Found Set?!?…Yes!…well maybe not.

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I spent some time this weekend doing some old fashioned FileMaker hacking that I’ve always enjoyed (viva La WorkAround Pro).  Definitely inspired by Todd Geist’s very cool hyper-list stuff, but he had also reminded me of the problem of ExecuteSQL on the found set, and I’ve heard this as a common feature request.  My big take away from Todd’s comments was that the found set is a uniquely powerful thing, so if it could somehow be incorporated into FMSQL, then that would certainly be a potentially powerful tool.  Let me say right now that I did get this to work, but the results are such that it’s really not a practical solution except in maybe some edge cases.  I can proudly say that it is neither as fast (edge exception) or as well-abstracted as hyper-list, however…

When I was in Woodworking school we were given a demo on creating an initial flat edge using a table saw.  It was an elaborate jig set up, safety was a bit questionable and took a little practice to get right.  Some of us were scratching our heads as the joiner is a dedicated machine for doing just this task.  We would all have access to joiners and they work about 10 times better that this elaborate table saw “hack.”   Continue reading →

Fan Mail Friday

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Well, that’s what happens when you post things to the wrong blog! =)

Internally we try to publish our favorite comments form the last week’s support cases every Friday–“fan mail friday”–just to let everyone know what their teammates have been up to.

We *usually* post this privately: sorry for the interruption. “Happy Friday” everyone.

– John

FileMaker Sync Case Study: IT Solutions

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The developers at IT Solutions just completed a great FileMaker Go project for the Center for Disabilities Studies at the University of Delaware.Untitled

The solution facilitates in-person evaluations of 100 public schools across the state and replaces a paper system that delayed feedback and analysis of this important information.

I can’t express how much FileMaker Go and the app developed by IT Solutions has positively impacted our project. We’re now able to complete evaluations in less time, and provide much more meaningful reports.

–   Debby Boyer, Services Director, Center for Disabilities Studies

IT Solutions is a Platinum Level member of the FileMaker Business Alliance and they chose GoZync to power the offline synchronization this app required. The solution uses GoZync to gather data entered in the field back into the main system where processing begins while volunteers are still out interviewing schools.

ITS1

ITS2Andrea Leadbeater at IT Solutions put together a great write up of the solution and the benefits it provides to the Center…

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GoZync Customer Solution: RigMan

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Beautiful screen shot sent to us by Don Blaylock of Noble Casings; from a solution inspecting work on oil rigs…

rigman

…Don says:

I appreciate all your help. The syncing is working awesome! GoZync was central to the success of this and future products!!!

Glad to hear it Don; and thanks for the sexy screen shot: love the dimmed “1” and “2”.

FileMaker Sync: what we’ve learned making mobile apps

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Overview.

We’ve been syncing FileMaker Go solutions since June of 2011 and it now seems like a good time to reflect on what we’ve learned helping folks make mobile apps as well getting the apps they already have debugged, sped up, and syncing.

This article will talk about some of the things we think are most important–and maybe counter intuitive–when planning a distributed app.

Because that’s the big shift for most of us: we’ve been making networked apps, and now that we’re mobile we’re making distributed systems. This is often much more of a shift in perspective tham the constraints of the mobile interface itself.

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SQL Subqueries in FileMaker

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I’ve had some small pre-FileMaker experience with SQL and had it in my head that subqueries work in the FROM clause.  They do in MySQL etc, so I was frustrated when I couldn’t get that to work in FileMaker’s SQL as it’s really needed in some cases.

In a current project we have a case where there is a relationship from Contacts to Loans and we wanted to see the total Loan amount from the Contact context.  However, Contacts can be associated with a Loan using multiple roles, and we only want to have the Loan amount counted once for the Contact, otherwise the total will seem inflated.  To further complicate this, the Portal is filtered, and we want to see the filtering reflected in the total.  This, I thought was a job for SQL…

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FileMaker Barcodes without Plugins

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Had a chance to catch up with Angelo Luchi at Pause On Error and was very impressed with what he has planned for Foxtail Labs. “Labs” is a suite of hosted APIs that let FileMaker developers employ techniques that previously required plugins. The first lab involves using URLs to generate bar codes: vey useful for apps on FileMaker Go where plugins won’t run, but also makes sense on Pro for folks who don’t want to install or update plugins.

This was part of a big theme at Pause: leveraging FileMaker Server to do things you can’t do on Go. I think this could be a great way to take advantage of third party tech, and I know Micah Woods from Scodigo (makers of Smart Pill) is looking into this as well.

You can learn more about “labs” and download the new barcode solution here: labs.foxtailtech.com