Brilliant Scoops

Curated Technology News with a focus on FileMaker and WordPress

Easily View Microsoft Office Files in FileMaker

Unlike images, video files, audio files, and PDF files, we cannot directly view [Microsoft Office] file formats within container fields. Developers tend to resort to exporting the files to disk and auto-opening them locally on the users machine. This however requires that the user have a copy of Microsoft Word, Office, or PowerPoint installed in order to view the file they wish to see. This is not always the case.
In this article we’re going to show how you can add Excel, Word or PowerPoint document viewing to any existing FileMaker solution in about 10 minutes, the setup couldn’t be simpler!

All About the Web Viewer

The FileMaker Web Viewer object is as powerful as it is exasperating. There’s a lot to know when using it. Many people have a lot of knowledge about the object. There’s countless blog posts, example files, and even answers here in the forums with nuggets of information.

Is WooCommerce the Right Choice to Power Your e-Commerce Business?

WooCommerce is the most flexible open source e-commerce option that comes with a powerful CMS (Content Management System) built in. No other platform – licensed, SAAS, or open source has the community, backing, or momentum WooCommerce does. Backed by Automattic, WooCommerce is the de facto WordPress e-commerce platform.

Integrating FileMaker and Gmail Part 1 – Sending HTML Emails

This is the first in a series of articles on using the Gmail API from FileMaker. We’ll provide free example files for each post and these examples will all use the native Insert From URL script step so there won’t be any plug-ins required.

Scraping Tables – Pulling Data Tables from Web Pages into FileMaker Pro

The ski hill also published their data to a web page. In an ideal world, this data would also be posted to a publicly available JSON file and FileMaker could easily parse that data into records. Unfortunately, many organizations are not there yet, in terms of sharing their data easily. It is in situations like this, that a parsing routine can come in handy.

Integrating FileMaker and Gmail Part 2 – Sending Attachments

This is the second in a series of articles on using the Gmail API from FileMaker. The first article has some background on this approach as well as instructions for authenticating to the Gmail API and sending HTML emails. Please review that article here if you haven’t already. Additionally, there’s a great post by dbservices on integrating Gmail with FileMaker that lead to these articles and should be checked out as well.

MetaBiz – CRM and E-Commerce software solution

MetaBiz is a FileMaker based multi-platform CRM & E-commerce software solution that handles several aspects of Workflow & Inventory Management. For more info: https://www.metasyssoftware.com/meta-biz

Integrating FileMaker and Gmail Part 3 – Email Threads

This is the third and final post in a series on using the Gmail API from FileMaker. Please review the previous articles, if you haven’t already, particularly the first one which covers setting your app up with Google and authentication. There’s also a great article by Brendan McBride from dbservices that covers importing emails from an inbox into FileMaker. This article can be seen as the first in the series as it leads directly to the ones we’ve done here.

The FileMaker Web Viewer Bridge

In all the work I’ve done so far with JavaScript and FileMaker, I’ve followed one setup. The JavaScript libraries, functions, the CSS, and the HTML are all stored in FileMaker fields. These fields’ contents are calculated together into a single calc field, and this is the field a web viewer uses as its source. For much of the work I’ve done, this method is sufficient. I can display a date picker or a data tables list of actual data from the custom app using this method. It worked.

FMPUG-MN Meeting January 2019 – LiveCode FM

Our January meeting of the FileMaker Pro User Group in Minnesota welcomed Kevin Miller the CEO and Founder of LiveCode from Scotland live and in person on one of the coldest days we’ve had in a while.

Noteworthy – FileMaker Notes

Ahhh… the ubiquitous notes field. Seems simple, right? In a way it is. Just slap down a field and resize it to show more data. Add a scroll bar and you’re done. The problems occur when you are trying to locate an important note, print a report or perform a find. Data can be strewn all about a text field that allows free form entry and supports up to ten million characters. Imagine hundreds of different users trying to follow the exact same format for data entry. Pandemonium! This article will discuss two major techniques for storing notes along with subtle tweaks to help make organization better.

LaTeX Demo-FileMaker Demo-FileMaker Videos

You can create great reports and documents from a FileMaker Layout. Sometimes, you need something more advanced… so you might use MS Word.
But sometimes you need something more advanced than that!
LaTeX is an open source, advanced typesetting capability, favored by Scientist, Researchers, or people who need advanced typesetting capabilities. Here is an overview and demo file for using LaTeX.

iOS Shortcuts to the FileMaker Data API

Shortcuts, on iOS, are a new way to automate tasks by mixing together apps, content on your iOS device and web APIs into custom workflows. Now, via the FileMaker Data API, you can use shortcuts as a way to interact with your FileMaker solutions.

10 Most Common Questions about HIPAA

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability) is a set of regulations that are legally required for security in any healthcare-related organization that deals with ePHI (electronic Personal Health Information). As we frequently work with organizations who are utilizing FileMaker and WordPress, we’ve come across the following common HIPAA questions.

PCI Compliance in Your FileMaker or WordPress Web Solution

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of security standards designed to ensure that all companies that accept, process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment.

Back and Forward

I’ve always been intrigued with how to mimic a web browser’s back and forward buttons… as have many other developers. While I don’t usually include them in a professional solution, I do find the exercise of creating an airtight historical navigation solution challenging. I prefer well designed navigation over history buttons. Therefore, I present this article as a brain teaser and not necessarily as a recommended solution. But, I’ll let you make the decision. I’ll go into why I don’t think history navigation works, as well as the best ways to overcome shortcomings so you can make an educated decision for yourself.

FileMaker Multi-Column Portal Challenge

A colleague recently posed this challenge: is it possible to show two columns in a portal, such that the first row displays records 1 and 2, the second row displays records 3 and 4, etc.? With FileMaker, the answer is usually “Yes!”