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Hiding Objects in FileMaker 13

January 27, 2014 by Anders Monsen Leave a Comment

Calculation for hidden object in the Inispector

In versions of FileMaker prior to 13 developers have used creative methods to hide objects on layouts. Using conditional formatting and making the font size 300 or higher has rendered the text invisible to users given certain conditions. Hiding tab panels by making them “invisible” required more creative options, which applied only to tab control panels, and generally applied to an “all or nothing” state.

Conditionally hiding objects not only is easier in FileMaker 13, but applies to a wide range of objects, and enables greater flexibility when to hide and show objects. The new object behavior method in the Inspector applies a Boolean (true or false) condition to show objects. Although this means that the visibility state of an object can change on the fly, in order to trigger this change it needs to be prompted by a Refresh Window or Refresh Object action.

Calculation for hidden object in the Inispector

Objects hidden using this new method are identified with a new “badge” in layout mode, an icon that looks like an eye when enabled in the View menu.

Badges for conditional formatting and hidden objects

Show menu (right-click) for badges

While using an “invisible tab panel” method (see above) appears to work, it requires far more effort than the newer method. First, the prior method requires that each tab panel have the same conditional formatting. Then, each state of the panel (Active, Inactive, Hover, In Focus) must be considered. Borders must be removed. Each layout themes may have additional considerations that need to be taken into account. Inconsistencies may appear if the solution was created in 12, then opened in 13, with strange artifacts causing tab panels to display. Also, if created in FileMaker 13, occasionally the text on the table panel in layout mode appears only for the active panel, and in find mode some of the panel’s text might also appear.

Using the hidden object attribute not only works on text and tab control panels, but also other objects like portals and fields. These become completely invisible when the condition is true.

A few things to consider:

  • For tab panels this is an all-or-none deal – hiding one tab results in all tabs being hidden.
  • Table view will not hide objects – fields become visible if the user switches to this view; conditionally hiding obejcts is not intended as a new security model.
  • Scripts can still go to hidden objects, rendering the FileMaker 12 hidden tab method obsolete.
  • Individual objects can be hidden inside portals. Annoyed by icons appearing in portals where there is no data? Hide them.

The new method gives developers more control in terms of conditionally hiding or displaying text and objects on layouts. Rather than using a series of work-arounds we now have native, built-in behavior.

Filed Under: Layout Design Tagged With: Conditional formatting, FileMaker 13, Layout objects

Popover Buttons in FileMaker 13

December 4, 2013 by Darren Burgess 7 Comments

Popover button setup

FileMaker 13 brings with it many new innovative features. Building on the new design space innovations created in FileMaker 12 and a continued focus on database tools for mobile, FileMaker 13 offers a new layout object dubbed the “Popover Button”.

Example of popover button in starter solution

You may recall some months ago I wrote about pros and cons (mostly con) of using tab panels to hide and display pop-up content to assist in data entry and display.

The Popover Button

Well, now that rather kludgy technique has been rendered mostly obsolete with Popover Buttons.  A Popover Button is a new layout object that creates a pop up within which you can place layout objects. This design pattern is seen frequently in the software, web, and mobile design worlds these days, and we are glad that FileMaker is keeping up by providing a simple tool to create this effect. What’s more, Popover Buttons can be used across the FileMaker platform: they work in FileMaker Pro client, FileMaker Go, and through a browser using Web Direct.

Here are just a few ideas of how we might use this new layout object:

  • Display related or secondary data
  • Display container data in a larger format
  • Display additional button choices that don’t fit on a layout
  • Provide the user with a popup to select a record for related record creation
  • Display help text throughout a solution

Creating A Popover Object

True to FileMaker form, creating Popover Buttons is simple.  They are created from the Toolbar object that also creates buttons. You can simply click and hold to toggle between Button and Popover Button.

A Popover Button can then be added to a layout just like a regular button. Once placed, you can click on the button in layout mode – this reveals the popover – and then content can placed within it, just as you would with a tab panel.  Here is a screen shot from the Invoices starter solution provided with FileMaker 13:

Layout canvas for popover button

There is a bit more to configuring a popover. Double click the popover and a Popover Setup HUD appears with the following features:

Popover button setup

  • Calculated title bar for the popover
  • Check box to toggle display of title bar
  • Selection of one of four preferred “directions” to display the popover. Note that a popover will display in a different direction if required to by the window size.
  • On Object script triggers

Popover in Action

And here is a screen shot of the Popover Button as used in the Invoices starter solution that comes with FileMaker Go 13:

Popover button on the iPad

Popover buttons are just one of the features that enhance the user experience in FileMaker 13.  We are also looking forward to using Slide Controls (for iOS swipe gestures), iOS Keyboards for FileMaker Go data entry, and FileMaker Go native barcode scanning.

Filed Under: Layout Design Tagged With: FileMaker 13, Layout objects

FileMaker 13 Field Picker

December 3, 2013 by Anders Monsen Leave a Comment

Field picker in FileMaker 13

Field picker in FileMaker 13

FileMaker 13 introduces a new option in layout mode, which both enhances the design process and also speeds up schema changes. All this happens via the new Field Picker, a heads-up display into the fields for the current active window.

By default, when you create a new database in FileMaker 13, you now will be taken to layout mode with an empty Field Picker ready to create new fields (figure 1). This replaces the previous scenario where you were taken to table view in order to create and manage fields. The default behavior can be changed in Preferences to use Manage Database dialog to create files, but this new Field Picker actually makes it worthwhile to keep the default behavior. Or, you can select the Field Picker from the tool bar (figure 2)

Unlike the Inspector, only one instance of the Field Picker window can be opened. If you have multiple FileMaker windows open, with layouts based on different table occurrences, when you switch windows the Field Picker will update to show the fields available to the active window. You cannot drag fields to inactive windows, so there’s no chance of dragging fields to the wrong layout. Fields can be filtered by name, which is a good reason for consistent field naming.

Filtering by field name

Although you have virtually all the field options that you need, you can launch the Manage Database from the picker window. This makes the picker inactive until you close Manage Database.

It Makes A Big Difference

So much can now be accomplished in the Field Picker, that this becomes one of the coolest developer tools in the new version. Not only can you add new fields, select field options (figure 4), and change the sort order for fields, but you can drag and drop selected fields directly onto a layout. Plus, you can determine whether you want labels, and if you want these to the left or above the fields.

No more double-clicking on fields to add a label if the Specify Field dialog didn’t have this checked. You can also position fields vertically or horizontally when you drag them onto the layout. In short, you can tuck this picker to the side and work merrily away on the layout without having to bring up Manage Database unless you need to change something in the Relationships Graph or create a new table.

Field Options menu

The only puzzling aspect to the new field picker is that Filemaker, Inc. did not refresh the design of the Inspector palette (figure 5). The look and feel of the two now seems to clash, with the red/yellow/green buttons for the Inspector and its light gray color, and the simple X for the Field Picker and with a much darker (yet somewhat transparent) shading.

For developers and users, this new field picker once again improves FileMaker’s Rapid Application Development view of the database world.

Filed Under: Layout Design Tagged With: FileMaker 13, Layout objects

Creating Your First iPad Application: Layout Design

August 9, 2013 by Darren Burgess Leave a Comment

Layout design for portrait and landscape

I am deep in the middle of developing an iPad FileMaker Go application for an entertainment labor management company. Thought this would be a great time to share some of what I have learned about designing a mobile database solution.

Layout Design

In designing my iPad layouts I wanted the user to never have to scroll a form view layout. In other words, the layout would fit perfectly both in landscape and portrait mode on the device. This was accomplished by setting the width of the layout to fit the device width while in portrait mode and height of the layout to fit the device height while in landscape mode.

Layout design for portrait and landscape

So, I set the right margin to 768 and the total layout height (header + body + footer) to 686. In the case of this application, I am hiding and locking the status toolbar that shows at the bottom of the iPad screen, giving me a bit more room for screen display. (To force the Inspector to display the layout width and right margin location, click anywhere on blank layout space.)

In hindsight, I would not have designed this layout with a header and footer. They are not really serving a purpose with respect to functionality or design, other than that I can apply gradient fill independently in those layout parts.

Tab Panels

My next goal was to provide additional data display and functionality while the user was in landscape mode. I originally learned about this technique at the 2012 DevCon. To accomplish this, I placed the additional elements in the right margin, with the left edge of these elements at 768. The width of these elements is 256, bringing the total width to 1024, a perfect fit in landscape. The effect of this on the iPad display is that the elements in the margin will hide in portrait and display in landscape. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

  • Field in Right Margin – A field in the right margin will display in landscape mode, but cannot be interacted with unless it is touching the right margin. You can’t use the Go To Object or Go To Field script steps to get there either; it generates an error.
  • Grouped Objects – If objects are grouped, and the grouped object is touching the right margin, only the objects in the group that are touching the margin will display. See the screen shot below. The upper right icons (search, create, view) were originally a grouping of native FileMaker objects. What I found was that only the rectangle object would display in landscape; the icons would not appear. The simple solution to this was to take a screen shot of grouped objects and use the resulting PNG graphic file instead.
    Tab panels for iPad landscape mode
  • Tab Panels – The right margin area is made up of nested tab panels, allowing for additional data display and functionality. The main tab panel has 3 tabs, with the width of each tab set to 86. This puts the tab panels behind the icons in the graphic. I couldn’t use buttons here – remember they will not display unless they are touching the right margin. So I used a tab panel instead to simulate the buttons and provide the user with a visual indication (the small triangles) to indicate where they are. I also provided a second tab panel in the middle main tab panel that has 3 tabs, each providing a different kind of related record creation user interface.

And here is another hint to consider when overlaying objects on a tab panel, if you don’t want the object “stuck” to the panel: place the object first, then slide the panel to the object. This results in the object being independent of the panel. Don’t move that object though without first moving the tab panel to the side. Move the object, then the put the tab panel back. If you move the object first, it will get stuck to the panel.

So there you have it. With a bit of patience and trickery, you can create FileMaker Go mobile database applications that mimic some of the user interface behaviors that iOS users have come to expect. Stay tuned for Part 2 where I continue with some of my findings related to iPad field behavior, mobile database syncing, and more.

Filed Under: Layout Design Tagged With: FileMaker Go, Layout objects

FileMaker Go: Field Interaction Behavior

April 18, 2013 by Darren Burgess 5 Comments

Native behavior in FileMaker Go

Thought I would share a quick tip that I learned while working on a mobile database application for a customer.

Naturally there are many user interface behavioral differences between the desktop and mobile versions of FileMaker. This one involves the display of a field when the field has focus. Here are two screen shots of the same layout as displayed in FileMaker desktop vs. Go.

Text Field With Focus

Note, that when the field has focus in Go, it mysteriously expands.

Native behavior in FileMaker Go

There may be a legitimate purpose for this behavior, however it may also break the design of the layout on the mobile device. It also represents a departure from normally expected UI behavior on a mobile device. In my work with mobile FileMaker applications, I strive to have the database behave as closely as possible to what users normally expect from iOS apps.

A Simple Fix

Fortunately there is a simple fix for this. Simply apply a vertical scroll bar to the field using the layout inspector (data tab – “Include vertical scroll bar”). Then set the line characteristics for the field to “None”, to prevent the vertical scroll bar from displaying. Now, in FileMaker Go, the field no longer expands when it has focus.

Field with scroll bar enabled

Do you have any other simple FileMaker Go tips that help in development?  If so, share them in the comments!

Filed Under: Layout Design Tagged With: FileMaker Go, Layout objects

Using Tab Panels for Interface Popups

February 22, 2013 by Darren Burgess 6 Comments

FileMaker 12 includes significant changes to tab panel objects that make using pop-up overlays far easier to implement. Now, tab panels are “less sticky” and can be moved freely around a layout without the risk of inadvertently picking up objects that were not intended to be contained in the tab panel. Our colleague Daniel Wood over at Digital Fusion offered an excellent detailed description of this new behavior in his blog post Cool things to do with Tab Controls in FileMaker 12.

In particular, I was intrigued with the idea of using invisible tab panels to provide pop-up data entry overlays on FileMaker user screens. Here is an example from a customer database that uses an overlay to display a portal that allows users to select a Contact record and add it to a list of related contacts in a Company record:

Step 1: User clicks the ‘+’ button to expose the data entry UI in a invisible tab panel

Step 2: User selects a contact records from a filtered portal.

Using this design pattern offers some really excellent advantages both for the developer and end user:

  • No new layout is required to provide a pop-up window
  • Space is saved on the current layout
  • User is provided a data entry UI, visually aligned to its purpose
  • Opacity features of the object give the interface a clean, modern look
  • The interface is intuitive and easy to understand

Of course, no pro/con article would be complete without the ‘con’ side. And in particular, this technique can have the effect of increasing the maintenance burden on the layouts where it is used. As stated previously, FileMaker 12’s improved tab panels can be freely moved around a layout and they will not ‘grab’ objects from the layout. The reverse, however, is not the case. That is, if an object that is within the borders of a tab panel, but not part of the tab panel, is moved – even one pixel – it will become part of the tab panel and from then on move with it. These screen shots illustrate the point:

The Title field in this screen shot is behind the tab panel, but is not a part of the panel. The panel can be moved and the Title field will stay put.

The Title field has lost its independence from the tab panel by moving the Title field 1 pixel.

Further complicating layout maintenance is the fact that objects behind the tab panel are difficult to access without first moving the tab panel. Any modification of the Title field, for example, would require the developer to first move the tab panel, make changes to the field and then move the tab panel back. This adds an additional layer of inconvenience to layout maintenance. And it requires the developer to remember to put the tab panel back in place before shipping an upgrade to the solution!

It is of course possible to access the field under the tab panel without moving the tab panel. This is accomplished by holding down the command key (OS X) or control key (Windows) while in layout mode and using the mouse to drag a rectangle around the object until it is fully enclosed. This method of layout object selection selects only objects fully enclosed within the rectangle and can be used to precisely select single objects on complex layouts.

Given this additional maintenance burden, I would conclude that hidden tab panels used as interface overlays should be used carefully and sparingly. Developers should consider the complexity of the layout, knowing that multiple objects around and behind the tab panel will increase difficulty in maintaining the layout. In these cases, a dialog window may be the best choice for providing this type of data entry interface to the user. That said, simple layouts may be a perfect match for this technique and effective use can enhance the appearance and usability of a layout.

Special thanks to MightyData customer Younger Partners for granting permission to use images from its database.

Filed Under: Layout Design Tagged With: FileMaker 12, Layout objects

12 Days of FileMaker 12: Accessibility

May 25, 2012 by Susan Fennema Leave a Comment

In this session from the 12 Days of FileMaker 12, we explore new accessibility features that make it much easier for the blind and visually impaired to use FileMaker Pro. Our FileMaker solutions often show us how to use them. New tools in FileMaker Pro 12 allow developers to make your applications “show” blind and visually impaired users how to use them through screen readers.

Accessibility in FileMaker Pro

Whether you’re using FileMaker Pro to build an application for a school, business or distribution, you need to leverage the screen reading services built into today’s modern operating systems. Topics include an overview of accessibility technology, how to add accessibility text to layout objects in FileMaker Pro 12, general guidelines for writing accessibility hints and how to test accessibility text in FileMaker Pro 12.

About Chad Sager

Chad Sager’s formal education was in the fine arts in Milwaukee where he received his BFA as a painting major. He moved back to his hometown of Houston to work at an art gallery and practice as an artist. His interest in technology took shape using FileMaker Pro to build an inventory and invoicing application for the gallery. A grant from the Dallas Museum of Art led him to Philadelphia (in a roundabout way), where he began working for IT Solutions in 2006.

Chad has developed applications in multiple technologies, including iOS, SQL Server and .NET, and of course FileMaker Pro; where he has built and supported one of the largest FileMaker applications at IT Solutions over the last three years. Among Chad’s accomplishments since joining IT Solutions, a Platinum level member of the FileMaker Business Alliance, are certifications in FileMaker versions 8 through 11, and SQL Server 2008 Developer.

Filed Under: Layout Design Tagged With: 12 Days of FileMaker 12, FileMaker 12, Layout objects, Video

12 Days of FileMaker 12: Design Surface Changes

April 30, 2012 by Susan Fennema Leave a Comment

When files are open in a new version of FileMaker, there are changes to the layout appearance. Objects will use the default themes of a layout, or round or gradient themes styles appear.

Design Surface Changes in FileMaker Pro

In this session from the 12 Days of FileMaker 12, we look at the new applied theme control, default themes, and the new assistance tools.

About Sameer Khan

Sameer Khan is a FileMaker 9-11 Certified Developer and Authorized Trainer employed by Anvil Dataworks, a development firm outside of Washington DC. He has been working with FileMaker for over eight years. His students say that he is an interesting person and a knowledgeable teacher.

Filed Under: Layout Design Tagged With: 12 Days of FileMaker 12, FileMaker 12, Layout objects, Video

12 Days of FileMaker 12: Quick Table View

April 23, 2012 by Susan Fennema Leave a Comment

Table View might just be one of the least appreciated features in the FileMaker Pro product line. True, it has hardly changed in versions 7 through 9, and the changes in 10 were welcome but fairly simple.

Table View in FileMaker Pro

All that changed in 11 with the addition of two bold new features that allow a developer to create a table quickly and perform summary analyses, all without ever leaving the comfort of browse mode. FileMaker 12 brings welcome refinements to this important family of features and makes Table View a tool worthy of a fresh look.

In this session from the 12 Days of FileMaker 12, we explore practical uses of Table View and showcase changes to it.

About Mark Richman

Mark Richman is the CEO and founder of Skeleton Key, a FileMaker Business Alliance Platinum level member based in St. Louis, Missouri. He leads a team of Certified Developers and an IT consulting division in providing multi-platform development and technology consulting for customers in a broad array of markets.  He is certified in FileMaker versions 8 through 11 and an Authorized FileMaker Trainer.

When Mark isn’t running his company or wrestling with his four sons, you can find him writing TechNet articles for FileMaker Inc.; speaking at the FileMaker Developer Conference; or evangelizing about how to get the best performance out of your FileMaker application.

Filed Under: Layout Design Tagged With: 12 Days of FileMaker 12, FileMaker 12, Layout objects, Video

12 Days of FileMaker 12: Layout Mode Enhancements

April 16, 2012 by Susan Fennema Leave a Comment

FileMaker 12 provides powerful new features to align, position and manage objects on your layouts.In this session from the 12 Days of FileMaker 12, see how these powerful new features will help you design more consistent and graphically pleasing application.

Layout Enhancements in FileMaker Pro

This video walks through a review of the new features and how they can be used to balance your layout designs and improve workflow.

About John Mathewson

John Mathewson is President and co-founder of KyoLogic a custom software development firm in Westport, Connecticut.  He is an organizational design expert and works to create systems that improve productivity and increase business intelligence. Since 1986, John has developed database applications in Visual FoxPro, MySQL and FileMaker Pro. He is a certified FileMaker 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 developer.

Filed Under: Layout Design Tagged With: 12 Days of FileMaker 12, FileMaker 12, Layout objects, Video

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