This is a proof of concept. I had an acquaintance whose FileMaker system was receiving PDFs from an external source, which would land in a container field. The problem was, the source was sending them zipped, so instead of filename.pdf he’d get a zip archive, filename.pdf.zip. He was having a hard time finding a reliable […]
FileMaker has a built-in GetThumbnail() function to resize and convert image formats for images stored in container fields. However, there are scattered reports that this isn’t always reliable (like at https://www.reddit.com/r/filemaker/comments/1et224c/strange_container_bug/ and https://community.claris.com/en/s/question/0D53w00005ZIw34CAD/getthumbnail-on-filemaker-go-not-working-with-png-files-when-fm-file-is-hosted. So I used a javascript demo I found (at https://dev.to/ninofiliu/lets-write-an-image-converter-in-20-lines-of-htmljs-bng) to create a webviewer-powered function that uses pure javascript to resize and […]
A redditor asked, “If I enter a client that already exists in my database into a new record, how can I have it automatically fill in the company name from that client?” Simply put: you can use a self-join to look up information from the same table, just like you could use a relatiomship (a […]
SHORT ANSWER: Try moving the file ‘ServerCustom.pem’ from the “C:\Program Files\FileMaker\FileMaker Server\CStore” directory to the desktop, and then try starting the FileMaker Server. If it works, you’ll need to download and install a new SSL certificate, but other than that you should be fine. If it still doesn’t work, put it back into “C:\Program Files\FileMaker\FileMaker […]
Note: This technique should be considered “almost always working”, not “always working” as previously (and wishfully) billed. Sorry, as FileMaker and desktop OSes have changed, this file, which relies on several technologies from several different sources working together, has proven to be not always reliable. I would not try to use it in any solution […]
Due to FileMaker version 16’s new warnings about connecting to servers without SSL, after upgrading, some opener files simply don’t open files from FileMaker Server over the network like they did under previous versions of FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Advanced. The symptom: Many users use “opener” files, local files saved on their hard drives, to open FileMaker databases […]
This hidden feature of FileMaker has been documented elsewhere, but there’s a little quirk that isn’t always mentioned. You can capture a screenshot of your current layout in FileMaker by going into Preview mode, and selecting “Copy” from the “Edit” menu. This places a screenshot of the Preview on the clipboard. However, if you script this, […]
TL;DR: A corrupt record can cause sporadic performance problems in FileMaker databases, especially when accessing them remotely. I encountered an interesting error recently. A client database on which I am working remotely suddenly took much longer to open than it used to – increasing from about 20 seconds to fully open to about 4 minutes. The database […]
FileMaker’s web viewer has opened up vast new possibilities in user interface design within FM. As of FileMaker version 13, the Base64Encode function allows images stored in container fields to be displayed within web viewers and used in any way that a normal image file can be used by HTML, CSS, and javascript. Let’s say […]
There is a discussion on Soliant’s blog of using the Char function and unicode Byte Order Marks to sort dynamically-generated value lists into a custom order. One of the comments was from a user that had a problem getting this technique to work in FileMaker Pro 11 with numeric fields. Here is an FM11 demo […]
