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FileMaker Go in the Wild

October 28, 2013 by Darren Burgess 1 Comment

iPads in a charging station

This just in: Our intrepid team of MightyData mobile iPad solution hunters has successfully observed a FileMaker Go mobile database grazing among the sports apparel production machines of long-time MightyData customer and unparalleled sports apparel manufacturer, Lettermen Sports. Our camera traps were ideally placed to observe a spectacular herd of no less than 18 iPads roaming the shop floor, stationed at embroidering machines, screen printing presses and collecting data at multiple work stations.

iPads in a charging station

The behavior of this mobile solution is simply astounding. The native indigenous employees were observed interacting with the beasts, using them to clock in and out of dozens of individual garments of sports apparel orders.  Data was observed streaming to the FileMaker Server, where tribal leader Amy Schumacher was observed running a report summarizing the profitability of individual orders, machines, departments and employees. Rumor has it that this comprehensive and dynamic report is run from a single FileMaker layout and will provide Lettermen with comprehensive productivity and profitability metrics heretofore impossible to obtain.

Embroidery machine with iPad terminal

Customer Feedback

Despite the risks associated with close proximity to the wildly thrashing embroidery machines, we were able to get a brief interview with Schumacher and her chief Production Floor Game Reserve Guide, Eric Milner.  According to Schumacher:

Wow. We are all just so excited to start using this. Well, except for the folks that are afraid of the iPads – they’re not so excited. But everyone else can’t wait to begin working and interacting with this spectacular population of mobile devices and its accompanying FileMaker Go application!

Mr Milner added:

Hey Man. This new mobile beast thing is awesome. But there seems to be a small infestation of software bugs inhabiting the FileMaker Go app-beast. Like it seems that the first contact login procedure for accessing the database is all goofy. The indigenous employees can’t see their orders on the iPad.

Hard Work Pays Off

Emboldened by the excitement of the safari guides at Lettermen, seasoned programmer and MightyData’s Maestro of Metamorphosis, Darren Burgess, was seen in the early dawn hours rapidly eliminating over 10 of these bugs. Preliminary reports from the production reserve have shown that the natives have embraced their new relationship with the wild iPads, helping them to create nearly 300 time clock records in just 2 days.

The MightyData team, in partnership with the Lettermen safari leaders, is excited to see the results of this spectacular FileMaker Go Mobile Application ecosystem. The result of months of planning, preparation and development, this new mobile application promises to deliver high-value results in a dynamic and busy manufacturing environment. Lettermen is looking forward to coming to a dramatically new understanding of its production costs and profits.

Thank you Eric, Amy and Lettermen Sports for embracing new technology in such a creative way, and trusting MightyData to deliver.  Great database software comes from partnership with customers committed to the challenging process of planning, designing and developing solutions. Now, that is what is really spectacular.

Filed Under: MightyData Culture Tagged With: Case study, FileMaker Go, Productivity

Server-Side Scripting Improves Performance by 99%

June 20, 2013 by Darren Burgess 7 Comments

Target

MightyData developed an order management system for Lettermen Sports several years ago.  Lettermen Sports is one of the premier sports apparel production companies in Minnesota with locations in Blaine and Plymouth and a large production facility where it completes nearly 300 orders per week for sports apparel screen printing, lettering and shipping.

The primary purpose of its FileMaker application is to manage the flow of orders through its production facility. A core facet of the solution is its interface with the SQL-based point-of-sale program, CounterPoint. The FileMaker solution was developed by MightyData to import orders and order detail from CounterPoint.

Performance of the import/update process began to lag behind the increasingly fast pace of the business as the record counts in some of the FileMaker tables grew to over 300,000. With the update process taking an average of 23 minutes, the in-house FileMaker server performance was being compromised by the load. Employee productivity was reduced by having to wait for orders to be imported, and by the performance hit to the FileMaker server.

Lettermen Sports’ management approached MightyData to re-design the order import process to accomplish the following:

  • Reduce the time required to import and update orders from CounterPoint to the FileMaker order management system
  • Automate the import process
  • Eliminate the up-to-24-hour delay for new and updated CounterPoint orders to be created/updated in the FileMaker database

Technology

MightyData’s technical team arrived at a solution to redesign the import/update process to more closely match the current needs of the business. The original import/update process involved importing data from the point-of-sale solution using FileMaker’s import script step to update matching records and create new records that were unmatched. Import subscripts were then used to import data from across the CounterPoint solution so that data required for shop floor production was available in the FileMaker database. This approach was very effective at ensuring that all data was successfully imported as the solution would import across all orders and line item detail each time the update was run.

As the business rules evolved, however, the update process became more complex. Combined with high record counts, a new approach was required.

The new design was based on only working with new and changed records in the CounterPoint system. In so doing, the number of order records that the scripts were required to process was reduced dramatically, to just 3 or 4 at a time. Conveniently enough, CounterPoint provides an order creation and update timestamp which is updated any time an order or its line-item detail is changed. This allowed for a complete overhaul of the scripting process that simultaneously accomplished all three of the customer’s goals. Furthermore, all script execution was moved to the server, allowing staff to focus on order production and not on managing the update process.

Transformation

This project is an excellent an example of how value is driven by the interface of a customer’s need with great technical planning and execution in a spirit of partnership with the customer to get the job done well. The new solution reduced the update execution from an average of 23.4 minutes to just 2.5 seconds – a 99.8% performance gain. While technically impressive, the real value comes from production staff getting new orders and updates no longer than 30 minutes after they are recorded in the point-of-sale system. If even that is too long, the update can be run manually in a few seconds, giving the team immediate access to new order data.

As an added bonus, MightyData also gets to work with some really good people at Lettermen Sports. They help us help them. And that partnership makes all the difference.

Filed Under: Scripting Tagged With: Case study, Performance, Server-side scripting

Heavy Duty Database Overhaul

October 1, 2012 by Kirk Bowman

Mustang CAT

Mustang CAT is the southeast Texas authorized sales, parts and service dealer for Caterpillar construction equipment and engines. Carl Fromén, International Sales, required a heavy-duty database to handle all quotes, sales orders, inventory purchase worksheets, invoices, and customer bills of sale. Even though he was looking for a new cost-efficient solution to his overly used and outdated Excel spreadsheet database, he knew the value of a good return on investment. Carl turned to MightyData to handle the database overhaul and transformation.

Technology

First order of business was to create a smart comprehensive database system that would replace the company’s current mix of Excel and Word documents. The newly designed database automatically tracks customer information, generates instant quotes, tracks product inventory, keeps detailed records of purchase sales… all in one, seamless, user-friendly format. Because the database was so well received by Carl and the rest of Mustang CAT, they wanted to take the initial transformation further by adding more technology enhancements than originally planned.

I was so pleased with the ease and efficient nature of the new database created by MightyData that we wanted even more bells and whistles, Carl explains.

One of the first bells was to merge multiple PDFs into a single quotation PDF. Then, to match required sales order formatting, display only 4-line items per page with the necessary header and footer totals on each page. Our mighty team utilized various methods and techniques to meet line item specifics.

Transformation

The speed of data entry has dramatically improved not to mention the increased flexibility to enter an infinite amount of data.

Most of all, we’ve reduced the number of errors based on duplicate entry among different forms, like sales orders and invoices, says Carl.

“In the end, MightyData was able to take our extensive knowledge of advanced methods and techniques and utilize them to provide a cost-effective solution that brought value to the sales process of Mustang CAT.”

That’s heavy-duty lifting, indeed.

Filed Under: Success Stories Tagged With: Case study

Brilliance On Display

April 1, 2012 by Kirk Bowman

Diamond Display Group

Diamond Display Group

If you have a product you want to display, you turn to this gem of a designer. From corrugated to permanent, Diamond Display creates them all, big and small. Because of its high volume of business and fast-paced working environment, Diamond Display needed to streamline data entry, project management, and scheduling. It had been using several limited applications including Basecamp, Excel and Word to capture data. Tina Sweat, owner of Diamond Display, had enough and wanted more efficiency fast, so she looked to MightyData to provide an effective FileMaker solution.

Technology

MightyData went a step further and delivered a two-part solution to help make Tina’s and her team’s job a whole lot easier, not-to-mention faster. MightyData utilized the brilliance of FileMaker to create a fully customized project management and scheduling system. In less than 6 months, the two-part system was up and running. From customer information and project details to timelines and tasks, the newly built database could handle it all. “This advanced technology keeps our projects centralized, secure, and easily accessible by authorized team members,” says Tina Sweat.

No more time-consuming manual work…that’s refreshing when we have to create schedules on the fly.

Transformation

With a more streamlined, all-encompassing data capturing system, Diamond Display can focus on its customers without being bogged down by all the minutia and logistics that can get in the way of the brilliant work it does.

MightyData understood our business needs and most definitely exceeded my expectations.

“In our line of work, it was quite a display of brilliance, indeed,” remarks Tina Sweat.

No doubt our diamond in the rough.

Filed Under: Success Stories Tagged With: Case study

Going Beyond Meeting Expectations

December 1, 2011 by Kirk Bowman

Achieva International

Achieva International

There’s one unifying word to describe the dedicated, detail-focused meeting planners from Achieva International. Buttoned-up. The only problem was that they were getting all tied up in the logistics of their currently flawed FileMaker system, which was causing unnecessary overhead. They needed a more efficient, fully-integrated system to manage all of the complex details that comes with meeting and event planning.

“FileMaker told us there were better ways to manage our data,” says Shannon Hopkins, Vice President and Managing Partner. “That’s why we turned to MightyData, so we could focus on our business without wasting time making structural and logistical changes.”

Technology

Without hesitation, it was time to remove much of the manual work being done by the Achieva team members and build a system that could virtually multi-task on its own, handling multiple differing scenarios. What’s more, MightyData was able to connect their Web registration with FileMaker so that less data entry was required. The newly implemented web-based solution allows instant access from any location here and abroad. Achieva now reaps the flexibility implemented on all levels of data entry, reporting, Web connectivity, and accessibility.

Transformation

“The interface is clean, the functionality is all there, and the reporting is more robust than ever before, plus it requires little overhead,” notes Shannon. In the end, we transformed Achieva’s focus from the time-consuming logistics of running a business to spending time growing the business and providing excellent customer service, knowing that MightyData is always there to support them.

That’s going beyond meeting expectations.

Filed Under: Success Stories Tagged With: Case study

Pump Up The Power

November 1, 2011 by Kirk Bowman

Sunbelt Power Controls

Sunbelt Power Controls

Sunbelt Power Controls is a leading manufacturer of custom electrical motor controls for industrial-sized sump pumps that you would find in metropolitan high rises, office buildings, and parking garages. It’s no small wonder that their product SKU catalog features hundreds of different options and sizes. So when a customer calls for a specific price quote, there’s no time to spare, or you jeopardize the sale.

Giving price quotes is the single most important process I perform in my company, said Rich Kreekon, Sunbelt’s owner.

“It’s the beginning of our business. If it’s not done properly, it can cost us an order, loss of money on an order, or even the greater loss of a good customer.” Sunbelt was ready to pump up the power of its pricing system through intuitive technology that would bring significant returns.

Technology

A transformation was not only in order for Sunbelt and its sustainable business, but also its outdated data management and pricing process. You see, in the old days, Rich used an Excel spreadsheet to help him build price quotes. Plus, he was the only person in the company able to generate an accurate quote. The process was long, tedious, and very inflexible. Just the macros alone became cumbersome and time consuming and the burden was being felt company wide. “My customers either fax or call us with their specific requests, and generally expect a complete response within 24 hours or less. Many customers want a price while I’m still talking to them on the phone. Since these controls cost thousands of dollars, a small mistake can be very expensive,” Rich explains.

All that has changed since MightyData designed a FileMaker database to handle Sunbelt’s quotation process. FileMaker Pro is a relational database application designed to help manage and share information in the real world. It’s a fast and easy software system for creating databases that are completely cross-platform on Macintosh and Windows.

Transformation

The new pricing system is fast, simple, and easy to use. But here’s the kicker: anyone at Sunbelt can quickly generate quotes from this powerful database—all you need is 15 minutes of training. “With my new FileMaker Pro quotation program, I’m able to construct quotations almost as fast as the customer can talk,” Rich attests.

With a few exceptions, I can email the quote to the customer as we’re exchanging goodbyes.

“It has greatly relieved my stress factor in the workplace,” Rich further explains. “It has cut down on errors, and created an environment where we’re able to and want to produce quotations as quickly as possible.” Since Sunbelt began using the FileMaker quotation system, Rich reports that Sunbelt’s response time to a customer’s quote request has increased by 100 percent, and accuracy has improved from 80 percent to more than 95 percent.

Now that’s how you pump up the power, not the paperwork.

Filed Under: Success Stories Tagged With: Case study

A New Personnel Record

October 1, 2011 by Kirk Bowman

JCPenney

JCPenney

As America’s shopping destination for discovering great styles at compelling prices, JCPenney expects nothing short of being the top retailer and standout employer in the U.S. To uphold quality standards, the senior management team mandated that every JCPenney employee have a personal profile going into the company’s annual management review meeting. This two-page comprehensive profile documents an employee’s performance, areas for improvement and growth, job training needs, salary history, and advancement assessment. With more than 500 employees, this was no small feat.

The Marketing and Communications departments had recently merged, and each department was handling its personnel profiles with a different system. In addition, there was an environment clash between Mac and PC users. It was clearly time for us to step in and establish a new personnel record that everyone could be proud of and rally behind.

The Technology

How do you produce a flawless 1000-page personnel directory and have it ready in time for the annual management meeting? Simple. You create an incredibly intuitive database that can automate tasks system-wide. MightyData designed a FileMaker database that enabled Human Resources to easily input, update, send or print employee data whenever necessary.

Mac and PC users were both able to utilize this new database. Plus we embedded coding to ensure safe and secure access for authorized users only. What’s more, we developed a few additional FileMaker applications including employee absence and appraisal programs that allowed swift online data entry and modifications.

The Transformation

In the end, the transformation was simply remarkable. All employee records were ready on time, and a complete book of personal profiles was sent to senior management for their approval.

We’re actually looking forward to doing the book next year…the process was so smooth, says Rosemary.

“We were recently told that we needed to ship our Personnel Profile records to our Salt Lake City office by the end of the quarter. Now that we have all the employee information in our database, we’re no longer nervous about sending these files.” A tremendous amount of time was saved. It’s no wonder that Rosemary and the fine folks at JCPenney were impressed.

Compared to our labor-intensive struggles in the past, it’s like night and day!

For us, it’s not only an example of how we can turn your heavy lifting information requirements into light work, but also the ability to create new personnel records for your business.

Filed Under: Success Stories Tagged With: Case study

FileMaker Music Survey

September 27, 2011 by Matt Navarre 4 Comments

Chart by skill level

Within the FileMaker community, there seem to be several subcultures. Music, photography, woodworking, and knitting just to name a few. At DevCon, we used to have a jam session that was generally packed with too many people wanting to play and sing. We had to impose limits such as only play for 3 songs, and then hand off the guitar or drum kit to the next person in line.

As a musician, I wondered if there was a link between music and FileMaker development – perhaps they are both forms of creative expression, or linked to skill in logic and math? Is there a correlation between expertise in the two fields? How many developers are also musicians?

The Survey: Musician or Not

Matt Navarre and Alexis Allen, both musicians and developers, devised a short survey to hopefully answer some of these questions. Alexis was a little skeptical, since she knows lots of musicians who aren’t terribly good with computers. Matt was more confident, having been at those jam sessions, waiting in line to play guitar.

In a 3 week period, we got 95 responses to the survey, which is a pretty small sample size, and hopefully enough to draw some conclusions. 80% of people surveyed reported being musicians. I suspect that number is skewed, since this was called the ‘FileMaker music survey’, and was more likely to attract a musician.

  • Music Skill – Of the musicians, 92% claim to be intermediate or expert level, and the other 8% identify as beginners. This shows that the musicians in the community tend strongly to be accomplished.
  • Developer Skill – Of non-musicians, 42% claim to be Intermediate developers, and 32% claim to be experts. Of musicians, 38% claim to be Intermediate or above, and 65% claim to be experts.

Chart by skill level

That means musicians are twice as likely to be database experts. This strong correlation is perhaps the most surprising data in this survey. We are making no claims of causation here, but we sure wonder what causes expertise in databases.

Of those with undergraduate or graduate music degrees, 72% claim to be experts. This seems to indicate the that more expertise you have as a musician, the more likely you are to also be an expert with FileMaker. This is strong evidence that there is indeed a link, and that musical training (and not merely talent or skill) somehow influences your ability to excel in FileMaker development.

Link Between Music and FileMaker

One of the questions we asked was whether you perceive a link between expertise in music and FileMaker. 58% of the non musicians reported zero link, and only one person reported a significant link. 18% of the musicians reported zero link, and 30% reported a significant link. The remaining 52% reported a small to moderate link. This seems to indicate that if you are both a musician and developer you’re far more likely to perceive a link. What would the nature of this link be? Does it make it easier to learn the “language” of FileMaker? We didn’t ask, but it’s an interesting question too.

Chart by music interest

Perhaps the link is not directly in the music skill, but in the ‘learning how to learn.’ To become a musician, you need to develop a skill set and understanding of a symbolic language, learn new pieces measure by measure while continuing to understand and perfect pieces as a whole. These skills may translate well in learning database development.

Favorite Composers

We asked questions about several artists and composers. This was to determine what genres of music people prefer, and we also inserted a few obscure artists as trick questions to determine the depth of knowledge in some genres. For example, Heinz Holliger (an amazing classical oboe player) was unknown by 84% of all people taking survey. Of those that do know (and like) him, all were musicians.

Chart by composer

The runaway winners that were liked or loved were The Eagles at 81%, and Igor Stravinsky at 74%. That last one really surprised me.

The most disliked by far was Kenny G at 60% dislike (but 26% who like that no-talent clown that started winning grammys. Oh wait, that’s Michael Bolton.) Overall when you include the ‘Like’ and ‘Dislike’ though, it evened out a bit.

We asked people what career they had before FileMaker, and there was certainly no consensus here. Less than 10% worked in a music related field. A career in an IT relate field seemed to be the most common, at about 18%. The list included doctors, lawyers, students, and a wide array of other fields. It made for very interesting reading.

Our science-style (yet completely unscientific) survey didn’t address a couple of things it would be really cool to know. Is the rate of musicianship higher in FileMaker developers than tech generally? What is the nature of the links people see between their musical training and their FileMaker activities?

Still, the fact that expert musicians were more likely to report expert FileMaker skills does seem to support a correlation. So, all those hours your mom made you practice the piano weren’t a waste after all, and if you’re a struggling musician, maybe you should think about a career in FileMaker to help pay the bills.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Case study, Guest post

Just A Click Away

August 1, 2011 by Kirk Bowman

Clovis Municipal Schools

Clovis Municipal Schools

How do you monitor and keep track of over 1,800 Special Education students as they move from one grade to another? Well, for many years, manual log sheets were the answer to help Clovis teachers keep tabs on each student that moves through a school system of more than 8,000 students – grades K through 12. Now add a staff of over 90 Special Education teachers who offer programs ranging from preschool services to enriched learning, and you have the potential for a major educator logjam. A macro software program was needed for the Special Education department—specifically designed to allow teachers quick and easy access to every student’s educational record, with the ability to share information in one, simple click.

Technology

Armed with many special education opportunities, MightyData was asked to harness the power of the Web to help take the Special Education department to the next level – centralized documentation of Individual Education Plans (IEPs) for each student that is easily accessible to all teachers wherever they may be on or off campus. Utilizing our ideology of technology to transform, we developed a web-based IEP system that allows instant access to each individual report, and all its associated documentation, consolidated within one software program, and customizable to user preference. To top it off, the system is password-secured and SSL encrypted to ensure confidentiality.

Transformation

Since it is on the Web, our Special Education staff can access IEPs from anywhere and can even work at home if they must, , notes Assistive Technologist Susan Riden,

Moving and sharing detailed information securely throughout the system has never been easier. Clovis teachers no longer have to deal with big bulky folders for each student and then have to ensure that those documents are transferred correctly from point A to point B as the student moves through the system. “Our solution allows us to move a student’s records from one teacher to another or from one ancillary person to another with just a click,” Susan explains.

“The information is stored on a central server – not on an individual computer – and it not only allows the Special Education Director to look at the information without having to pull files, it also allows individual staff members to share information.” A MySQL database, containing approximately 90,000 individual records, combines to make the system work.

As Clovis Special Education students move forward, so will their education thanks to MightyData.

Filed Under: Success Stories Tagged With: Case study

SyncDek: An Alternative for Audit Logging

July 14, 2011 by Kirk Bowman Leave a Comment

Three windows to view SyncDek under-the-hood

Auditing logging is a common request from customers—the ability to track database activity including adding, editing, and deleting records, who changed it and when. In some types of businesses, like medical and financial, the law requires it. Generally, there are two approaches to audit logging in FileMaker, either native functionality or a third-party tool.

WorldSync has two products that provide audit log functionality. FMDataGuard is a client-side (FileMaker Pro) plug-in that can log database activity using function calls in various calculation windows in FileMaker Pro (security, validation, etc.). SyncDek is a separate server application that communicates with FileMaker Server Advanced via JDBC to log database activity.

While FMDataGuard works well in typical situations, there are some performance considerations in high transaction and network environments. The reason is all the effort to log database activity happens client-side and must travel over the network in a multi-user environment. SyncDek provides a solution to performance issues because it moves a significant amount of the effort to log database activity to the server.

Case Study

Earlier this year we developed a new medical research database for one of the top cardiothoracic surgeons in the United States. Since the database contains “identifying” patient information, it must log database activity. We decided to implement FMDataGuard to meet these HIPAA requirements.

The database was deployed in a Citrix environment with FileMaker Server. During beta testing, the users reported slow performance that we determined was due to the overhead for FMDataGuard. Per the recommendation from Jason Erickson at WorldSync, we implemented SyncDek to replace FMDataGuard and the performance issues were resolved.

SyncDek Approaches

SyncDek is primarily known for database replication (syncing). However, it has additional functionality including backup recovery and audit logging. SyncDek offers a couple of different approaches to audit logging. The “PubFlag” method queries the status of the PubFlag field in each table to determine the activity to log. The advantage of the PubFlag method is that it is compatible with FileMaker Go (iPhone/iPad) and server-side scripting with FileMaker Server.

The “Live Posting” method uses the SyncDek plug-in (not the same as FMDataGuard) to push a request to log activity to the SyncDek server. The advantage of Live Posting is the auditing of activity can be near real-time. Live Posting also supports logging views, which the PubFlag method does not.

In our case we opted for the PubFlag method for logging adds, edits and deletes to move as much of the effort to the server as possible. Since logging views was also a requirement for this customer, we used Live Posting although the client-side impact to log views is light except for large found sets.

Digging Deeper

To gain a better understanding of what’s happening under the hood, I created a contact database with 5,000 records and implemented each method in turn. SyncDek uses a “temp” table in FileMaker to store requests to log database activity. It also stores the audit log in FileMaker (although it is could be a SQL table).

I opened the contact database from FileMaker Server and created three windows—one for the data entry layout, one for the temp table, and one for the audit log table. By creating, editing and deleting records in the data entry window, I was able to see SyncDek processing records in the temp table and creating records in the audit log table. If you implement SyncDek, I strongly recommend using this practice to see how SyncDek works.

Three windows to view SyncDek under-the-hood

To log deletes using the PubFlag method, WorldSync recommends using a custom menu to override the Delete Record and Delete All Records commands. The custom menu calls a script to change the value in the PubFlag field to “4” to mark the record for deletion. SyncDek then performs the delete and stores it in the audit log.

To log views using the Live Posting method, the Sync_LogView function is added to the limited View privilege for each table under Security. If you have three windows open, you will see SyncDek post a record to the “temp” table for the view. Then during the next cycle, SyncDek will track the view in the audit log table and delete the record from the “temp” table. Of course, this requires the SyncDek_TCP plug-in to be installed with FileMaker Pro.

Alternate Techniques

Once I had an understanding of how SyncDek works, I started experimenting with some alternate techniques. When the user performs a Find and SyncDek is logging views, it creates a View record in the “temp” table for every record in the found set. For founds sets of a few hundred records or more, this can have a negative impact on performance. My challenge was to determine a way to log a view for only the first record in the found set immediately after performing a Find.

My first idea was to use a custom menu, the same technique as logging deletes with the PubFlag method. This would override the default behavior of the Previous and Next commands in the Go To Record submenu. Unfortunately, the Previous and Next commands are not available in Custom Menus. Specifically, I wanted to use the “Based on existing command” option so logging would occur even if the user clicked the  “Go to previous/next record” buttons in the FileMaker toolbar. (Request to FMI: Please provide the ability to override all commands and subcommands in the standard FileMaker menus via Custom Menus.)

For my second attempt, I tried to create a limited View calculation to check a condition and decide whether to call the Sync_LogView function. I tried several variations including setting a global variable via a script or conditional formatting, and using the Get ( WindowMode ) function. Unfortunately, the order of execution in the limited View calculation does not return a consistent result. If there were a way around this limitation, there are several possibilities to implement this technique.

Example of a limited View calculation

For my third attempt, I setup an OnRecordLoad trigger to run a script with the Sync_LogView function. It works! The downside is the script trigger must be setup separately for each individual layout. Also, since it is implemented at the interface layer (layout) instead of the data layer (security), it may not meet the requirements in some regulatory situations.

On the upside, the script for the OnRecordLoad trigger, can be modified to work natively with FileMaker (without a plug-in). This replaces the Sync_LogView function by creating a record directly in the “temp” table. (I got this idea while watching activity in the temp and audit tables in the three-window scenario.)

Script to log "views" natively with SyncDek

Conclusion

Audit logging is one of three core features available with SyncDek. If you are already using the backup/recovery or syncing functionality, it is a no-brainer to use the audit logging, if you need it. If you are using FMDataGuard or another product/technique, SyncDek provides an alternative to address performance issues on the client-side.

Filed Under: Scripting Tagged With: Case study, Integration, Plugin

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