Tab controls have added a wealth of options to FileMaker developers looking to better organize and present data to their clients. The only limitation is that the tabs could only be placed on the top of the tab controls isn’t always ideal. FileMaker 9 provides a much more powerful and interesting way of controlling your tabs.
Advanced Techniques
Not of the faint of heart, these posts talk about advanced (and oh-so-cool) FileMaker Pro tips and techniques.
FileMaker Dictionary Functions
Since many people were impressed with my named parameters article, I decided to write up another post about the dictionary functions. Actually in all fairness I think three people actually liked it. Vincenzo Menanno, Chris Wack and Sam Barnum this post’s for you!
Importing Records to a Backup – Brute Force
Your FileMaker Server loses power. All your files have crashed. What do you do now? The safest practice is to go to a backup. Sure, this sounds like a daunting task, but it is surprisingly manageable. The best part is that you won’t lose any sleep worrying about how long your baling wire and bubble gum files will last.
Limiting Checkbox and Radio Button Choices
Did you know that if you shift-click on a field formatted as radio buttons, you can select more than one choice? Even if *you* don’t know this, chances are some day some *user* will figure it out. Yuck. Here’s a short-but-sweet technique to deal with the problem. And you’ll see how to apply the same concept to do some cool stuff.
Dealing with Damaged FileMaker Files
One of the most asked questions about FileMaker is how to deal with damaged files. There is a glut of choices when attacking this problem and there doesn’t seem to be one single answer. Compact, Optimize or Recover… Maybe `Save as Clone` which one works and why? Hopefully, this will answer a lot of your questions.
Stored Calculations and FileMaker Plug-ins
FileMaker Server does some funny things when you create a stored calculation that uses a plug-in. In fact, odds are you received everyone’s favorite invalid character, the `?`. This article explains why this occurs and gives some solutions for this rather pesky problem.
Automate FileMaker Plug-in Deployment with AutoUpdate
Back in the late 19th century, when FileMaker Server 5.5 was released, one of its stellar new features was *AutoUpdate*. FileMaker Server can automatically install plug-ins on the connecting FileMaker Pro clients as needed. This is very cool, but there are a few gotchas, which are explained here.
Custom Page Numbers in PDFs and Printed Reports
[1]:/wp/filemaker-9-tip-6-append-to-pdf/
In [FileMaker 9 Tip #6][1] we explained how to use the new Append to PDF feature in FileMaker 9. With it, you can build up a PDF file over many steps in a script, to produce a much more complex and data-rich PDF than was ever possible before. One of our readers, Norman Foster, asked a very sensible question:
>This Append looks great but can it paginate across the entire set of PDF files. I want the page numbers in footers or headers, and I want them to be sequential. -Norman Foster
The Append to PDF Feature doesn’t do this automatically, but with a little calculation magic, it can be done.
Deleting Duplicate Records in FileMaker
Duplicate data always seems to creep it’s way into your system no matter how hard you try. Unfortunately, in FileMaker there is no easy way to deal with junk. Or is there?
Passing Multiple Parameters to Scripts – Advanced
Wouldn’t it be nice if whenever you need a parameter you could just ask for it by name? Lets say that you have a create order script and you want to pass the script the name, street and zip code of the customer. If you were stuck with just the regular old FileMaker functions there ain’t no way that’s happening. But after you are done with this post, you will be able to get the name of your customer with the simple function: `GetParameter( “customerName” )`.