http://jonathanstark.com/ en-us Free FileMaker Answers Mon, 07 May 2007 01:00:00 EST Downloads I recently received this request: "Do you have a script where I can take information from my database and export it to ical in the to do list? What I would like is to send a range of information to the To Do list." Mon, 07 May 2007 01:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#filemaker_to_ical_as_todos Downloads There are a ton of amazing features in TextMate, but my favorite is that it comes with bundles of code snippets that dramatically speed your development. Even better, you can make your own, which is what I did to assist my FileMaker.php work. Fri, 27 Apr 2007 01:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#filemaker_tmbundle Downloads FileMaker's drop-down calendar is very convenient for many simple data entry situations, but what if you want to allow the user to select multiple dates? Or what if you need to block out certain dates? I find that these situations come up with enough regularity that it was worth my time to put together a self-contained file that I can drop into a solution and have instant access to this sort of functionality. Wed, 18 Apr 2007 01:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#calendar_picker Articles Practical examples of organizational hierarchy and inventory data structures. (Originally written as a book chapter a little while back). Tue, 20 Mar 2006 01:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/recursive_data_structures.php Articles As it turns out, FileMaker has a rather cool API for interfacing with PHP, giving you the chance to develop rich web-based applications that interoperate with their desktop counterparts. Tue, 20 Mar 2006 01:00:00 EST http://www.phparch.com/issue.php?mid=98 Downloads I recently received an email from someone who wanted to use AppleScript to move contact records from FileMaker to Mac's Address Book application. His situation was complicated by the fact that the email and phone records were stored in separate tables, related to the person table. I whipped up a simple solution based on Apple's sample Address Book scripts. It does not send over the email and phone types. You can figure that out on your own, for extra credit ;) Sat, 20 Jan 2007 01:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#filemaker_to_address_book Downloads Here's the request that this solution addresses: Given a table of People who have 0 or more related Activities, AND given a date value defined arbitrarily by the user at runtime, build a portal that displays the single most recent prior related Activity for each person. The behavior of the interface should be such that the portal data updates without the user clicking a button after entering a new date value. See the copious (and opinionated notes) in the relationship graph for details on how it works – and why you should talk the customer out of self-destructive requests. ;) Sun, 17 Dec 2006 01:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#most_recent_prior_activity Downloads I recently received the following email: "I'm making an invoice system for a friend's hotel. There are 3 "seasons", each with a different price per person per night. I need to be able to specify a start and end date (of the client's stay) and have the database calculate how many nights where spent in each season, if the stay were to span more than... Sat, 2 Dec 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#concierge Downloads This file was created to demonstrate how to set up a manual backup script. Users are allowed to backup manually by running the Backup File script in the Scripts menu or by clicking the Backup button. The file is also backed up when the file is closed. Backup files will be saved to the directory where the FileMaker application is installed... Thu, 26 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#manual_filemaker_file_backups Downloads I got an interesting question today regarding accessing the data in a repeating field with AppleScript, which revealed to me that I had not done much work with that sort of thing. Much to my delight, exploring this topic led to me to some interesting discoveries. This file has nine AppleScripts that grab data from FileMaker fields, repeating and otherwise. See the embedded AppleScript comments for more info. Thanks to PC of Pittsburgh, PA for the inquiry - and the iTunes gift certificate! Thu, 7 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#get_values Downloads One of the files that I presented at DevCon 2006 was a proprietary customer file that I could not make available to the public. Unfortunately, that is the file everyone wanted :) To address people's curiosity, I have done what I can to create a rough version that incorporates the most important features. I will be updating this archive regularly over the next week or two, so please check back often for updates. xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#uddm_examples Downloads I presented a session at the 2006 FileMaker Developer's Conference entitled "Why Data Modeling Does't Work (And What To Do About It). Quite a few attendees requested that I post my slides and sample files, so here they are. There is a read me file enclosed in the download, so please refer to that for more information. As always, let me know if you have questions and I will do my best to post the answers here. xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#why_data_modeling_doesn_t_work Downloads About a month ago, I got so frustrated with one of the popular FileMaker file management plugins, that I decided to write a simple replacement with AppleScript. The fact of the matter was, I just needed to do a few common operations, for instance: check for the existence of files, folders, and mounted disks; delete, move, and rename files and folders; select files and folders... you get the idea. So, I wrote the AppleScripts, and then embedded them in scripts in a FileMaker file called AppleScript.fp7... xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#fmp_aps_functions Downloads This AppleScript takes a file and moves it to another location. If you like, you can specify a new name for the file in the target path, which will cause the file to be renamed during the move. Folders in the target path will be created if necessary. Files may be moved across volumes, but the volumes must be mounted, of course. The script takes two "parameters", the SourceFilePath and the TargetFilePath... xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#move_file Downloads This is just an example of a suggested user interface design regarding dynamic value lists. As you probably already know, adding a value list to a field is a big help for data entry. It becomes even more powerful when the values are based on records in the database, which makes them dynamic. One of the limitations of dynamic values lists, however, is that you can not opt to allow that user to create a new value via the value list itself, because that would involve creating a new record in the table that underlies the list. I think this example file demonstrates a pretty good alternative. If you agree, disagree or have a better example, please let me know. xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#dynamic_value_list_with_create Downloads Don't you wish Address Book on Mac OS X supported CSV as an export format? If you have Gmail, you probably do. Gmail supports importing contact lists, but only from CSV files. So I wrote this quickie little AppleScript that solves the problem. There is no error checking, so if you have commas in your contact names or email addresses, shame on you ;) xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#export_email_addresses Downloads I got to thinking about my Cross Platform iCal to FileMaker 8 example file and it occurred to me that I could rewrite it in PHP using almost the exact same logic. So, I just couldn't help myself and wrote it up. As with the FileMaker example, it just pulls basic event information, but that is typically all I am looking for. If you want something more sophisticated, check out PHP iCalendar. This version has a couple of really big advantages over the FMP version, but my fave is that you can point it at .ics files that are available online. In other words, if you can subscribe to the calendar, you can parse it into records. This file just displays the results as a table, but if you know some PHP you should be able to easily modify the output code to write to a database. xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#php_ical_parser Downloads I got an email the other day from someone who wanted a Windows version of my iCal to FileMaker solution. I found this strange at first because iCal is a Mac-only application, but the person explained that they were looking to import .ics files directly. This was a fun challenge which I believed I solved pretty well with this file. It has been tested on both Mac and Window and seems to work, but please let me know if you have trouble with it. There is a calendar file included for your testing pleasure. Have fun! xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#ical_to_fmp_xplat Downloads I recently received the following question via email: "Hi Jonathan - Just did a Google search for FileMaker to iCal and found your site, just great! I downloaded the FileMaker to iCal Event database but see that it is only good in FileMaker 5/6. Do you have an update for FM 7/8? This would be a perfect solution for me, but I know absolutely nothing about AppleScript." I have been meaning to update the FileMaker 5/6 version of this file for FileMaker 7/8 anyway, so I am happy to oblige. The differences between Applescripting the different versions are fairly significant and it is tough to find tutorials online. I hope y'all find this helpful. Let me know if you have any trouble - I didn't really test it very much :-] xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#fmp8_to_ical Downloads I recently received the following question via email: "I have a database of employees - a record for each one. The record includes a department number and a position. I have a layout that sorts by department, and within that department, by position. I have summary fields that report subtotals of positions within department and employees within department. I want to add fields reporting the percent that each subtotal represents of the whole staff. I can't figure out how to do this. Are you able to tell me how?" The trick is to create a calculation field that evaluates to the same value for every record, and then point a "fraction of total" suummary field at the calc. Check out this file for more info. xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#fraction_of_total Downloads Have you ever wanted to take your FileMaker solution and generate a list of every relationship that has cascading delete turned on? Yeah, me too. Or maybe you want to compare all of the scripts in two versions of the same solution to determine if any of them have been changed. There are excellent third party tools that solve these kinds problems, but sometimes they don't do exactly what I want. So, I cooked up this file which uses XSL to convert FileMaker's DDR XML grammar into the FMPXMLRESULT grammar, which can then be easily imported. This file uses a smidge of AppleScript, so you Windows dudes and dudettes will have to make a minor change for it to work. xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#process_ddr Downloads The other day, I had two intersecting sets of numbers and I needed to convert them to disjoint sets by removing the common values from each. This is an increasingly common situation in my FileMaker programming, so I figured I would work up an example file to get my head around it. This file also showcases an excellent method for passing multiple distinct lists of values into a script as a parameter. I had been struggling for days to find an elegant way to handle this when I ran into Kieran MacMillan, who figured it out in about 10 minutes (thanks KMac!). xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#disjoint_values Downloads If you have been using FileMaker Server version 8.1, you may have come across an annoying indexing bug. For example, finding no records when performing a find for a value that you know is a particular field. The good news is that the bug has been fixed in version 8.2. The bad news is that upgrading the server version does not fix indexes that have gotten messed up, it just prevents them from getting messed up in the future. Once you have the server upgraded, you can go through and reindex all of your indexed fields one by one. If you have lots of files and indexed fields, this would be tedious and prone to error. In a break with tradition, FileMaker, Inc. suggests... xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#recover_multiple_files Downloads Recently, I built a file manager with FileMaker Pro 8 and AppleScript. I had a hard time finding reference materials on the topic, so I decided to post my findings for other poor souls who have to wrestle with this. The workflow is this: user receives a file from a customer and copies it to their local hard drive. To make the file available to other users, they click an "Import" button in FileMaker that runs an AppleScript. Since the files are usually too large to be stored directly in FileMaker, the AppleScript duplicates the file to a shared file server. Then, a reference to the file is stored in FileMaker. I hope you find it useful. xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#filemaker_dam Downloads Ginko is my proof-of-concept file for non-standard application development techniques with FileMaker. It includes fun stuff like custom menus, hierarchical portals, window-specific globals, etc... Most importantly, it is an implementation of something I refer to as a User Defined Data Model (UDDM), which is to say, the data model is defined by the user over time, rather than by the developer up front... xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#ginko Downloads I get quite a few questions about related value lists in relation to the ALWAYS Rules of Squidding. I put together this little demo file to help people grok how related value lists work with Squids. I hope you will find it helpful. xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#related_value_lists Downloads In April 2005, I wrote an article for FileMaker Advisor Magazine called "Add Power and Flexibility to FileMaker Solutions with a Single Table Join". It covers a useful technique for handling variable complexity in database systems. A lot of people dug the idea and wanted to see a demo file, so here it is. xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#single_table_join Downloads I have been getting a lot of interest in FileMaker/iCal integration, so here is a nifty little tool that sucks the events out of your iCal and dumps them into FileMaker. It was written for FileMaker Pro 8, so if you are still on previous version you will need to upgrade. If you are using FileMaker Pro Advanced, you might need to edit the AppleScript to look for that application... xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#ical_to_fmp Downloads In August 2005, I received an email regarding my Single Table Join article and how one might adapt it to an inventory management system. Although it could be done, I am not sure that a pure SJT model is quite appropriate for the situation because of the complex and highly specialized nature of typical inventory data relationships. My feeling is that it makes sense to use an STJ when you need to define the roles of objects in a relationship. Typically, an inventory system only cares about one type of relationship between two inventory items. Namely, that Item A is a component of Item B. That being the case, I created a demo file that covers the basics of the recursive many-to-many inventory relationships. xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#inventory_example Downloads In July 2005, I received an email asking a very common question: "How the heck do I name my [FileMaker] table occurrences so that they make sense?" My response to this dilemma is to break the graph into little "Squids" (zoom way out in the graph in the demo file to see why I picked that name)... xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#squids Downloads In June 2005, I received an email requesting an AppleScript that took data from FileMaker Pro 5.5 and moved it into iCal. Here is an example FileMaker file with an embedded AppleScript that does just that. xxx, 00 xxx 2006 00:00:00 EST http://jonathanstark.com/downloads.php#fmp6_to_ical