Introduction / New FileMaker Pro 10 Advanced Features pt. 1
Subtitles of the Movie
Not much has changed in FileMaker Pro 10 Advanced. In fact, only a single feature launched PHP Side Assistant has been added. In fact if you use FileMaker 9 Advanced, this feature was already there. So it's really only been enhanced and if I hadn't told you about the new enhancement, you would have not even noticed. That's because the only difference between FileMaker 9 Advanced and 10 Advanced is that you are all used to launch the PHP Assistant from FileMaker Server. That's the only difference, so you really wouldn't have noticed. Just to remind you, launching the PHP Assistant is right here. Now mines dim because I don't have FileMaker Server running. But if you did, you choose it and you get into the PHP Assistant, you could go ahead and use that to create custom web pages without knowing anything about PHP. So what I'm going to do is spend the time discussing the existing features in FileMaker 10 Advanced in case you don't have it yet. If you didn't have FileMaker 9 Advanced or 8.5 Advanced or 8 Advanced or all the way back, this will help you understand why you really want it if you're a serious FileMaker Developer. So let's talk about the existing features. They're really great and if you're using FileMaker Pro 10 and you can't really get a copy of 10 Advance, it's really not gonna cause a problem. As you can see I've got FileMaker Advanced here and I'll be using this during all the tutorials. The differences between the two versions is really just ease of use, ease of development. There's a few features that you can employ in FileMaker Pro that you can in advanced but those are not very many. And what you'll find out is that it just makes development much easier. So let me convince you. The first feature is Custom Menus. This allows you to customize all the FileMaker Menu's. This is a great addition to offering the user interface through buttons as well as now through the menu's. Instead of putting a whole bunch of buttons for things that users don't use very much, hides them under Menus. What you can do is you can change the name of a Menu, change a name of a Menu Item, change the Keyboard Command or completely remove it. You can attach a script on it so it does something different rather than just go to Find Mode; it can run your script. You could completely remove this Menu or any Menu Item or you can just simply create your own Menus. You can take all these out and create your own Menus. It allows you to make a really sophisticated user interface and once you've created it in FileMaker Advanced, you can deploy it and people in FileMaker Pro 10 will still be able to see those Custom Menus. You don't have to have FileMaker Advanced to see those Custom Menus just to create them. One of my favorite features is Copying and Pasting Schema. Now this feature just makes things easier as opposed to Custom Menus, which you need FileMaker Advanced. You don't need Copy and Paste in Schema but once you see it you'll want it. It's real simple if we go into Manage Database and look at the Table Section, we can Select a Table and Copy and then Paste it. That includes all the Fields and all, everything in here. It's great, it makes things very easy cause very often you want to copy a Table and put it into another File. The same is true for Fields, now you may not think that Copying and Pasting a Field is that big but what if you have Auto Enter and Validation Options and all kinds of Specifications, you don't want to have to specify that again. It would be a very difficult task. And you'd probably, likely forget something. And the same is true for ScriptMaker. You do this through a Keyboard Command, you don't have a Copy and Paste in here, you just use your Keyboard Commands but you can Copy a whole Script and take it to another file or Open up a Script and then Copy and Paste one or more Script Steps. So Copying and Pasting Schema is really great. Then you have the Script Debugger, that's right under here, the Tools. And what happens is when you run a Script it automatically put that Script inside of this Window and you can run it step by step watching everything change as you go through very slowly. This will help you pinpoint a problem with your Script rather than running it, it goes by real fast and you go ÒWell it didn't work, I wonder why.Ó In addition to the Script Debugger it's a good idea to use the Data Viewer. The Data Viewer allows you in the current section to see all the Fields they're using the Script as well as all the variables. These Fields may not be on the Layout and certainly variables you don't want to have to try to, to make a calculation that equals one so that you can see it. So this can be very useful in seeing what data is going into those Fields. In addition, I like to use it without the Script Debugger. And this would be the watch section; it's like a scratch pad. Instead of putting your calculation directly into the Script, running the entire hundred line Script for instance, you can develop that calculation inside this Section just by hitting Plus, typing in your Formula, hitting Evaluate Now or Monitor and then walking through your records and seeing how it changes based on the Data on each record. And then once you've got it perfected, Copy and Paste in your Script and you know it's going to work. So I really love the Data Viewer, it's a great thing just as a scratch pad if you only use it for that.
Tutorial Information
| Course: | FileMaker Pro 10: Beginner |
| Author: | John Mark Osborne |
| SKU: | 33925 |
| ISBN: | 1-935320-18-1 |
| Release Date: | 2009-01-05 |
| Duration: | 15 hrs / 172 lessons |
| Work Files: |
Yes |
| Captions: | Available on CD and Online University |
| Compatibility: |
Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux QuickTime 7, Flash 8 |
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