uLearnIT has scheduled FileMaker courses in Singapore and Hong Kong. The three day course is based on the FileMaker 10 Training Series - the official training curriculum from FileMaker, Inc. The course will cover 8 of the 12 modules:

• Using FileMaker Pro
• Working with Fields
• Data Modeling
• Working with Layouts
• Calculation Functions
• Scripts
• Reporting
• Security

This course will allow you to:

• Learn best practices for developing professional database solutions with FileMaker 10 products.
• Get results more quickly than using self-teaching methods.
• Work with a certified FileMaker expert who can answer your most technical questions.
• Network with others and learn what they are doing and how they accomplish it.

At the end of the course, you will receive an official FileMaker Training Series Certificate of Completion.

Who Should Attend?

You should attend this course if you want to:

• learn efficient techniques for using FileMaker Pro databases

• create your own FileMaker Pro databases

• maintain or extend existing FileMaker Pro databases

• gain a better understanding of how FileMaker Pro databases work

Course Materials

Each participant must have a copy of the FileMaker 10 Training Series materials. uLearnIT is offering special pricing on the book and CD. FileMaker Technical Network members are eligible for a 50% discount on one copy of the FileMaker Training Series materials.

Training rooms are equipped with a PC for each participant and a centre monitor or data projector for instructor demonstrations.

Course Details

Singapore 22-24 July

• Cliftons Singapore, 7 Temasek Boulevard, #15-03 Suntec Tower One, Singapore

• SG$1,490 per person (Special Offer: when you book three places, the third person is half price)

Hong Kong 27-29 July

• Cliftons Central, Level 33, 9 Queens Road, Central, HONG KONG

• HK$7,950 per person (Special Offer: when you book three places, the third person is half price)

About Your Trainer

David Head is a FileMaker Authorised Trainer and has presented at the FileMaker Developer Conference and many FileMaker Business Alliance (FBA) seminars. David began using FileMaker in 1989. He has developed a diverse range of databases in all versions of FileMaker Pro. He is a FileMaker Certified Developer in versions 7, 8, 9 and 10.

David's extensive experience with and in depth knowledge of FileMaker Pro, and his excellent teaching skills, will allow you to get the most from your training.

Book Now

To book your place in the course, either email us directly (using the link at the top right of the home page) or go to the online booking page.

uLearnIT is proud to announce that David Head is a FileMaker 10 Certified Developer. This certification demonstrates his technical expertise with the FileMaker 10 product line and is the only credential sponsored by FileMaker, Inc.

And you can become a FileMaker Certified Developer too. Find all the details at the FileMaker website. Here are the steps to become a Certified Developer:

1. Start developing in FileMaker 10 now - There is no substitute for direct hands-on experience with FileMaker products.
2. Get training - uLearnIT is a FileMaker Authorised Trainer and offers courses based on the modules of the FileMaker Training Series - the most comprehensive training available for FileMaker products. Training is recommended but not a prerequisite for certification.
3. Study FileMaker resources - Get the FileMaker Training Series, self-paced training materials that include 12 modules of in-depth FileMaker development topics. This series includes a 700+ page manual along with a a CD of demo files, exercises and videos to enhance your learning experience.
4. Join the FileMaker Technical Network - get access to technical briefs and resources only available to members. Also get 50% off your copy of the FileMaker Training Series.
5. Review product manuals for FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Pro Advanced, FileMaker Server, FileMaker Server Advanced
6. Explore the in-product Help section found by clicking on the "Help" menu item in each product.
7. Search the FileMaker Knowledge Base
8. Take the Exam: "Developer Essentials for FileMaker 10" - The exam consists of 62 multiple-choice questions and takes approximately 2 hours to complete. Certification tests are offered in over 5,000 Prometric testing locations worldwide. The exam costs AU$208 in Australia.

uLearnIT is offering a Developer Certification Preparation training day for developers wanting to become a FileMaker 10 Certified Developer. You can read about the course on this page. We will be running this course in Christchurch, New Zealand on June 10, and in Sydney on July 9. Please email us directly for enrolments.

This tip is featured on the Australian Macworld podcast (Series 2, Episode 2). After some feedback, we have recorded video to accompany the audio in the podcast.

You can view the video here.

Please email us to let us know what you think. If you have questions about FileMaker you would like answered, email us and we could feature the answer here or in the Australian Macworld podcast.

FileMaker, Inc. has today announced the new FileMaker Training Series updated for FileMaker 10. The training series provides the building blocks necessary for developers who plan to become FileMaker 10 Certified Developers. The certification examination will be available from June 2009.

uLearnIT is proud to announce that David Head has updated his status as a FileMaker Authorised Trainer for the new FileMaker Training Series for FileMaker 10. As a FileMaker Authorised Trainer, David has undergone training with FileMaker, Inc. in the USA to deliver the FileMaker Training Series programs and has extensive knowledge of FileMaker best practices and solutions.

uLearnIT offers a three courses based on the official FileMaker Inc., training curriculum - the FileMaker Training Series. Check the course schedule for locations, dates and costs. Book online early to avoid missing out on your place.

That is the question! If you are designing a FileMaker Pro database, do you show the status toolbar?

In versions when it was the status area on the left of screen (prior to the radical new design in FileMaker Pro 10), "YES" was a common answer. Even stronger were answers like "yes, hide it and LOCK it".

But now that the functionality of the (new) status toolbar in FileMaker Pro 10 has been introduced, do we need to re-evaluate? I would think so. The status toolbar has some useful tools that can save us a lot of time in development. Why re-invent the wheel? And some features like the Exit Preview button cannot be reproduced in the design. In combination with the new script triggers, we now have far more control when the status toolbar shows, is hidden or gets locked.

FileMaker Pro 10 has a layout trigger called OnModeEnter. This will trigger a script after a mode (not Layout mode) has been entered. We can therefore trigger a script for any layout when the user switches to Browse, Find or Preview mode. This script can be used to control the state of the status toolbar.

So what would this script look like?

The script will control the status toolbar in each of the three modes - Browse, Layout and Preview. The function Get (WindowMode) returns 0 for Browse, 1 for Find and 2 for Preview mode.

The status toolbar has three states that we would like to be able to use - Show, Hide, Hide and Lock (you can also "show and lock" but we will not be using that state). We will use the letters S, H and L to represent each of the three states.

The script will require a three letter parameter which is one code letter for each mode in order - Browse, Find and Layout. So if the parameter was "LHS", this would lock the status toolbar in Browse mode, hide (but not lock) in Find and show in Preview.

The first step of the script will determine the action to be taken according to the current window mode. It sets this action as a script variable using:

Set Variable [$action;
Value:Middle(Get(ScriptParameter); Get(WindowMode)+1; 1)]

The value is calculated from the script parameter. The expression extracts the nth character of script parameter by (mode + 1). For example, for Find mode, (mode + 1) = 2, and we extract the second character from the script parameter.

The next part of the script sets the status toolbar state according to the value of $action.

If [$action = "S"]
  Show/Hide Status Area [Show]
ElseIf [$action = "H"]
  Show/Hide Status Area [Hide]
ElseIf [$action = "L"]
  Show/Hide Status Area [Lock; Hide]
Else
  Custom Dialog ["Error"; "Invalid script parameter or action"]
EndIf

Note the last Else step. This is used to trap errors where an invalid script parameter or $action result is found. This would be discovered during testing and is not something a normal user would see.

So now we have a script. All we have to do is to attach it to a layout using an OnModeEnter trigger and specify a three-letter code for the script parameter. And then you have control over the state of the status toolbar in three modes for that layout.

If you implement this technique, be careful to consider what happens in conjunction with other scripting. For example, when you script a move to a layout what would your script expect the state of the status toolbar to be? It may have been changed by the OnModeEnter script. Just make sure you test!

FileMaker Pro provides a very understated black mark at the left of the current record when in list view. To make the current record more obvious, we can highlight the background with a colour.

We can script the process of identifying the current record ID in a global field. In the sample file, we created a global number field called current record ID in the Data table. In fact, it can be created in any table of your file and used across all tables.

We created a text object on the layout by simply typing a space character. Then the text object was resized to that required to completely cover the body part in the layout. So that we can see it, we set the fill to a light grey colour.

Conditional formatting was applied to the text object. We set two conditions. The formulae used are:

   1

   Data::current record ID = Get ( RecordID )

The first expression (simply the number 1) is always true. It sets the fill colour to white. So why do you see it as grey in Layout mode? Because conditional formatting is not evaluated in Layout mode.

Stop! You may want to re-read that last sentence - it is very useful information.

The second expression is true when the value in the global field matches the RecordID of the record. The fill colour for this overrides the first condition when the expression is true.

The script we used is very simple. It is called Record highlighter and has a single step:

Set Field [Data::current record ID; Get ( RecordID )

This places the RecordID of the current record into the global field.

Finally, we set the layout script trigger, OnRecordLoad, to run the script.

So the effect is that when a record loads* in the list, its recordID is set as the value of the global field. Since the second conditional formatting formula evaluates to true, the text object in the background of that record changes colour and highlights the record.

* A record loads when the user clicks on the record, navigates to it with the book in the status toolbar, uses the Go to Record command or uses a scripted process to switch records. Records also load when a new window is opened, a record is created or deleted, or when a Find result is returned.

A sample file of this technique is now available for download at:

http://www.ulearnit.com.au/samples/rec_hilite_list.zip

Finally, for the purists, there are some other niceties in the sample file. For example, the background text object doing the current record highlighting is anchored left and right. This means that it auto-resizes with the window. try making the window wider to see the effect. There are also hidden 'developer' notes only seen in Layout mode. Look at the conditional formatting of those text objects. It is a simple condition - true!

FileMaker Pro 10 introduces a whole new raft of script triggers. While we have had some script triggers since the beginning (such as clicking an object defined as a button), the new triggers provide greater control over the user interface. It will take some time for developers to find out how best to implement these new tools and to see exactly what they can and can't be used for.

This entry is about script triggers on tab controls. Since the introduction of tab controls in FileMaker Pro 8, developers have wanted to be able to trigger a script when the user clicks a tab. Now it can be done.

To demonstrate this technique, we have prepared three free videos for you. Watch them all or watch just the ones you need. We hope you get some benefit from this new FileMaker Pro 10 technique.

Introductory presentation: (1.9MB, 3 min) watch this to see an overview of this technique

Detailed demonstration: (8.9MB, 14 min) watch this to see, in detail, how to implement this technique

Expert demonstration: (2.4MB, 4 min) watch this shorter demonstration of how to implement this technique

With the release of FileMaker Pro 10 on January 5, uLearnIT is proud to present a new one day course - Power of Ten. This course introduces all the new features in FileMaker Pro 10. Attend this course to see how the new features work through a selection of practical applications. This course will help you to quickly understand how to use new techniques and immediately apply them to your existing solutions. You will benefit from exposure to a diverse range of tips and techniques.

The Power of Ten course is scheduled in Sydney and Melbourne. Other locations will be offered on request.

Update: The Power of Ten course has been scheduled in Auckland on Thursday, March 12. Book online now!

It's 2009 and here's a late Christmas present - FileMaker Pro 10.

There are lots of new features to play with. In this quick post, we will look at three new features in FileMaker Pro.

Perhaps the main feature of this version will be script triggers. Yes, now there are many more events that can trigger a script. Now a script can run when the user exits a field, goes to a layout, types a character, and many more. There will be a lot of things written about the use (and abuse) of script triggers in the next few months. Developers will need to be careful with all that new power.

The newly designed status toolbar gives the user easier access to more features. It has been moved to the top of the FileMaker Pro window. It contains a number of new default buttons and it is user customisable. Nice job.

And now you can send email directly from FileMaker Pro. This is a big change. In previous versions, FileMaker Pro required an email client to actually send the email. To send directly, you needed a plug-in. No more.

Stay tuned for more posts about the wonderful new FileMaker Pro 10 and FileMaker 10 Server.

Next year's FileMaker Developer Conference, to be held in San Francisco for the first time, is now open for early registration.

FileMaker Inc. has announced a special "early early bird" rate of $1195 valid until 31 January 2009. The rate will increase to $1295 until June 26. Thereafter, registration will be $1495.

The 2009 FileMaker Developer Conference will be held at the Hilton San Francisco on O'Farrell Street, August 13-16th. This is a change from previous years with this conference running Thursday to Sunday. The location is also a major departure with all previous conferences being held in resort style complexes. The Hilton San Francisco is in downtown San Francisco and close to all major attractions such as Union Square, Fisherman's Wharf and the world famous cable cars.

From the FileMaker Inc. press release:

"This year's conference will offer a wide variety of in-depth workshops and seminars led by FileMaker experts, a multi-vendor product showcase featuring FileMaker third-party solutions and products, under-the-hood sessions, meetings with FileMaker engineers, product managers, and technical support team members, and many other social and networking events."

Get more information at the FileMaker web site.