July 19th, 2010
One of, if not, the most significant additions to the FileMaker platform on version 11 was the new charting function. Since then, bringing your data to life graphically has not only been great to incorporate into new database creations, but has also been tremendously popular to refresh existing solutions, many of which have been awaiting such an integrated function for some time!
Business users have seen significant benefit in having report data presented graphically, and through the use of a Dashboard environment have the perfect utility to maintain control of essential business parameters in real time! Regardless, of whether it is sales, stock or financial data that is of importance, having data illustrated in such a versatile way is a hugely powerful management tool and the incorporation of a management Dashboard can be the answer.
As FileMaker developers it is even more important for us to have an appreciation of our client’s key data indicators so that we can fully utilise this function to full benefit and is where our focus on partnership really does manifest itself.
So, if you happen to have a solution with dormant data waiting to be brought back to life, FileMaker Pro with integrated charting is the ideal platform.
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July 13th, 2010
I don’t need a database? I’ve got one of those! I keep all my names and addresses in it!
This is still a fairly common viewpoint, to many people a database is a receptacle for storing names and addresses … and of course, they are right.
For a small business a single FileMaker database can integrate a wide variety of problem solving solutions under one roof. Yes, contacts … but also products, event management, scheduling, work-flow, invoicing and document libraries can all be managed efficiently for any business. Really, the humble “database” can do pretty much anything!
A database can also be hosted remotely, seamlessly acting as the engine behind your website, managing subscriber lists, stock control and e-mail distribution. Primed and ready to go, a database can tackle any task.
As FileMaker database developers, though, we find that we often need to explain that a database can be so much more. Frankly, the developer community should really do a better job at describing what exactly we do and extend our markets understanding that what we actually provide is something beyond a “database”.
On the other hand if you are looking for Data management applications, bespoke software, custom solutions perhaps we could provide you with … a Database?
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June 17th, 2010
Have you had a shot of caffeine today? If you’ve run a Google search today then you definitely have, as Caffeine is the newly launched search architecture that is governing search results in Google. Google continually tweak this architecture, but this is a big one, fundamentally increasing the speed at which they index. Pre Caffeine Google may have had a week or two lag between refreshing, but now claim 50% fresher results whether the content is a news story, blog or forum post providing relevant content much sooner after it was published than was possible ever before.
These are big claims and provide, Google hope, a platform to continue dominance of the search environment for years to come. Previous nudges of the Search Snow Shaker have taken a while for search results to settle but should you be worried about your own positioning and what can you do to optimise your own performance in the new landscape. How do you react to the Big Shake up!
Caffeine is not only presenting fresher results but a wider spectrum of content too, as you will notice, videos, blogs, twitter, articles, news and images are also competing for prominence too. The focus for your website now is, more than ever before, to concentrate on your content as you must assume that your competitors are also doing. Taking no action, however, can leave your website ineffective and hand the initiative to your competition so build quality content and then build some more.
We’ll all have to work harder on our content and may need to burn the midnight oil to keep fuelling content to our websites. Anyone for an espresso, latte, cappuccino, mocha or Americano?
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March 26th, 2010
There has been a collective sigh of relief from web developers as Microsoft previewed the future release of Internet Explorer 9. At last, Microsoft’s browsing interface is set to embrace the advanced web technologies that are currently supported by the other leading browsers including Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome amongst others.
So what’s new? Well, supported HTML5 features including h.264 embedded video and audio are present and this technology is being utilised by Google in its trial HTML5 versions of YouTube. So it appears Microsoft are trying to keep up with the Jones’s in this respect. Scalable Vector Graphics [SVG] an XML derivative that is W3C compliant and allows for high quality image / animation configuration and an open source competitor of Flash is also embraced by IE, the last browser to do so.
Cascading Style Sheets [CSS] that enable simple formatting over all pages in a website, separating content from styling, will be accommodated to the level of CSS3. It appears, under the hood, that IE9 is fitted with a more robust Javascript engine that improves performance too. Interestingly, the IE9 platform will not, however, support Windows XP which may come as a surprise to many.
What does all this mean? Those in a privileged position to see demo versions [rather than preview modules] suggest that IE9 is not just quick but super quick and the fact that Microsoft is looking to enter the Web Standards family is also most welcome. Whether Microsoft been dragged kicking and screaming to this position or whether they have been strategically bidding their time to release this optimum product is open to debate. What is clear is that Microsoft will be in the mix to provide browser technology that will be competitive, particularly in the dawning of the mobile browsing age, in which all competitors are now jostling for position. Bring it on …
Test drive IE9 @ http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/Default.html
Tags: CSS3, HTML5, IE9, Microsoft
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March 12th, 2010
The good people at FileMaker have been listening and the release of the FileMaker 11 range of products just goes to prove it. There are a number of exciting new features but there are some that have been topping the TidalWave wish list for some time and here they are at last!
With the massive capacity and flexibility to manage data that FileMaker provides the fact that results have not been easily represented in a native graphical format has been the final piece of the jigsaw for many solutions. Extending reports and enhancing dashboards with Pie, Bar, Line and Area charts brings a new dimension to essential business reports in FileMaker solutions.
Other features that streamline the production process for developers are the introduction of Layout Folders, Object Badges and the new Inspector tool which brings together the various field configuration tools under one roof and will provide real time savings in the development of solutions. Though it is still early days, the Portal Filtering function will ultimately simplify the creation of portals, reduce the number of complex table occurrences and streamline relationship graphs. These are new features are very welcome!
So too are features that benefit the end user as well as the developer including Quick Find that allows the user to search much as you would in web browser. Submit a word or phrase into the search box to look across all fields on the layout. The creation of quick reports replicating a spreadsheet format to produce on the fly reporting and an enhanced Layout / Report Assistant make customised reports via the step-by-step interface even easier for the end user.
There are other features and benefits that will become clearer as we delve deeper under the hood. On first inspection FileMaker have really delivered with this release and should be commended. In the meantime it’s time to re-evaluate that Wish List and see what we can add to FileMaker 12!
Tags: FileMaker 11, FileMaker Charts, Layout Folders
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February 17th, 2010
Buzz, Google’s new social networking application launched to gain a share of the market currently dominated by Facebook and Twitter, has forced its creators to apologise following privacy concerns. The admission that “tens of millions” of users were “rightfully upset” and an appreciation that “We know we need to improve things” illustrates the level of seriousness that Google is applying to these concerns. In short they were “very, very sorry”.
It appears that the primary concern of users was that Buzz automatically created a ready-made network of friends based upon frequently used e-mail addresses, which unless changed within the settings area would become public. This could have serious implications for businesses, journalists and individuals having an illicit affair.
The impact of negative publicity has resulted in Google throwing massive resources to resolve issues and to try to regain trust in what is their product. “We realize that we didn’t get things quite right – we’re working extremely hard to fix this,” said Todd Jackson, Buzz Product Manager. Clearly a setback, Google are not likely to be deterred.
The current Social Networking environment is growing at an incredible rate and businesses are beginning to appreciate the importance of networking with clients via such applications as Facebook, Twitter and now Buzz. Google knows it must not lose ground in the race for dominance and has the benefit of being able to provide its own application within its existing product portfolio, which is highly integrated. The race is still in its early stages but we’ll be following developments and will keep you updated.
If you have any questions regarding social networking, Facebook, Twitter or Buzz, please do not hesitate to contact Team TidalWave.
Tags: google buzz, social networking, Todd Jackson
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February 11th, 2010
So picture the scenario, you have a date that you need to input into a date field in Filemaker via PHP. Filemaker keeps returning a validation error even when the date that you’re inputting is in the correct format of mm/dd/yyyy.
When you input a date into Filemaker via php Filemaker requires the date format to be strictly ‘m/d/y’. The odd thing was that I was outputting this format from my Java calendar, strange. So what I did was to use strtotime to convert the text string of the date to a Unix timestamp, essentially displaying the number of seconds since January 1st 1970, then use date($format, $timestamp) to convert that Unix timestamp into the correct date string of ‘mm/dd/yyyy’.
Example:
$startDate = ’2010-02-23′;
$endDate = ’2010-02-28′;
$startDateTimestamp = strtotime( $startDate );
$endDateTimestamp = strtotime( $endDate );
$formatstartdate = date( ‘n/j/Y’, $startDateTimestamp );
$formatenddate = date( ‘n/j/Y’, $endDateTimestamp );
$newHolidayCmd = $ourTestDB->newAddCommand(‘PHP Holiday’);
$newHolidayCmd -> setField(‘Start Date’, $formatstartdate );
$newHolidayCmd -> setField(‘End Date’, $formatenddate );
$newHoliday = $newHolidayCmd -> execute();
Tags: date, filemaker, PHP, strtotime
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May 31st, 2009
Based on Software: DocuPlanner v3
Customer: Generator Creative
Technology and Performance
DocuPlanner version 3 thoughts lie in moving away from its native application frontend into a sleek web browser interface. This would allow DocuPlanner access from any computer, worldwide, whilst not requiring the application software of FileMaker Pro. On the flip, future technology, ‘cloud computing’ from Microsoft will allow application software to be streamed through browser technology, thus allowing this same level of access. The questions lie in development costs, selling margins and user experiences. Below are the pros and cons of each interface and our conclusion.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: DocuPlanner, filemaker, Generator Creative, interface design
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