Implementing a proper security model often requires going beyond controlling whether or not someone can log into a database. FileMaker Pro includes a robust set of features for controlling which users have access to what information and what they can do with that information via the accounts and privileges settings. This webinar will explore how to isolate legitimate users from sensitive operations or information within a database, how to associate privileges with authenticated accounts, and how to control specific features within a database based on a given user’s assigned privileges.

Register online today!

There are over a dozen new functions in FileMaker 12, several of which accompany significant new features such as enhanced container fields, new window styles, and a new plug-in updating methodology. Yet it doesn’t end there, as there is a pair of functions that deal with ID values, some FileMaker Go specific functions, and native access to FileMaker’s SQL engine with the ExecuteSQL function.

Container Functions

Two new categories appear in the calculation dialog: Container Functions and Mobile Functions.

New function categories

The former provides the ability to get the height and width of content in containers using GetHeight() and GetWidth() functions. This returns height and width in pixels for images. Other items in the container field, such as movies or files, return 0. In addition, we have the ability to generate a thumbnail of an image with the GetThumbnail() function.

Since FileMaker 12 now enables us to store containers in external folders, checking the validity of the stored data reveals whether this has been changed or tampered with outside of FileMaker. Using VerifyContainer() shows 0 or 1 depending on whether the files have been changed or deleted, or if there are no changes.

Mobile Functions

There are two specific mobile functions that deal with Location information: Location() and LocationValues(). Previous versions of FileMaker in mobile devices were forced to get geolocation information using JavaScript. By making this native you can get longitude and latitude from Location and store these in your database. LocationValues displays a return-delimited list containing longitude, latitude, altitude, horizontal accuracy, vertical accuracy, and age in minutes.

Both functions accept two parameters, one required and one optional. The first is the accuracy in meters, and the second is the length in seconds allowed before timeout.

Updating Plug-ins

Another new feature in FileMaker Pro 12 radically changes the method to update plug-ins. Previous versions managed this through a daunting and often complex AutoUpdate process via FileMaker Server. There is now a new Install Plug-in script step, and a function to get a return-delimited list of currently installed plug-ins: Get( InstalledFMPlugins ). This returns the plugin name, version, and current state – Enabled, Disabled, or Ignored. One thing to note is that the version is only returned if the developers entered this in the resource file (Windows) or info.plist.file (Mac), so keep this in mind when setting up this process.

ID and Tab Panel Functions

The new pair of ID functions each return a long string of alphanumeric characters, but are completely different in purpose. Get( UUID ) returns a universal unique identifier, a unique 16-byte string in the format 8-4-4-4-12, such as E10FD6CB-2CB3-471A-B4B5-3CC2509F49EE. This function lets users create unique keys, and avoids key collision when merging records from multiple tables, for example.

Meanwhile, Get( PersistentID ) captures the unique identifier of the device accessing your solution, either desktop or mobile. Whereas you still can get the account name or user name, the new string like AF376F280690001931BFED4E890FADDB shows the device ID.

Along with some new tab control script triggers there are two new functions.

• Get( TriggerCurrentTabPanel )
• Get( TriggerTargetTabPanel )

When coupled with the script triggers, navigating from tab to tab will return values via these functions. The first shows the originating tab panel (number and object name) and the second the current tab panel (number and object name). The naming might be a little confusing, as the values are activated when going to a new tab, so the “current” is actually the target. Still, with these values we have a way to track and control navigation between tab control panels.

FileMaker Server has an option for SSL certificates. The new Get( ConnectionState ) function will show the security state of the file’s current network function, such as if it uses a non-secured network or a fully verified SSL certificate.

Connection and Window-Style Functions

A new feature in FileMaker 12 is the ability to have two new window states. Previously new windows were all document windows, so if you wanted to prevent the users from closing them you needed to set up a script, pause and then start the script again, or use script triggers to validate some action prior to allowing the users to continue.

Now you can set up a floating document window and a dialog window. So, to go along with this, we have a function that returns a number as to the state of the window, which we can use to determine action based on that window. Get( WindowStyle ) will return the following:

• 0 – Window is a document window
• 1 – Window is a floating document window
• 2 – Window is a dialog window

Execute SQL Function

Finally, a function that deserves a webinar all on it’s own, and in fact FM Academy just had such a webinar: Greg Lane’s walk-through of the ExecuteSQL() function.

This is a function that previous required plugins. There are some limitations compared to the plug-in functionality, because ExecuteSQL() only permits use of the SELECT statement. This means no ability to update, insert, delete, drop, or replace via SQL. Yet, having this as a new tool in FileMaker creates great opportunity. The function is formatted as follows:

ExecuteSQL( sqlQuery ; fieldSeparator ; rowSeparator { ; argument … } )

The sqlQuery is the SELECT statement, placed inside double quotes, such as “select first_name from contacts”. The fieldSeparator and rowSeparator default to a comma and return when you use “” for the parameters. You can use other separators such as tab, pipe, etc.

The optional arguments parameter lets you use a record’s field value as a parameter, useful when querying the context of individual records. I’ve previously blogged about ExecuteSQL (insert link). Learning this function will give you a great new tool in your FileMaker development.

Watch the recording of the webinar below for more coverage of these functions.

<iframe width=”640″ height=”390″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/jMWaILE-Rws” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>

Because of popular demand, 3 sessions are being added, following the original 12 Days of FileMaker 12. Registration information is included below. These new sessions will all be at 2pm EST:

• Tuesday, May 22: Window Styles Windows
• Thursday, May 24: Server Performance
• Tuesday, May 29: Accessibility Section 508

This week features:
TUESDAY, May 15, 2pm EDT
Webinar 11: Script Trigger Enhancements. Using Script triggers has become common place in the FileMaker development world –  and with the new enhancements in FileMaker 12, we will have even more power.  We’ll be taking a look at a FileMaker Pro Advanced-only update in the script debugger for globally enabling/disabling triggers, as well as new indicators, and new triggers.

Sameer Khan is the presenter. He 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 8 years. His students say that he is an interesting person and a knowledgeable teacher.  Follow Sameer on Twitter @ dcfilemaker and read his blog posts.

THURSDAY, May 17, 2pm EDT
Webinar 12: Moving to FileMaker 12. You really want to start taking advantage of all the great new features in FileMaker 12 but you don’t know where to start?  Join FM Academy for a great session about deploying FileMaker even if your environment already has an older version of FileMaker. Topics Include: Test your existing solution with FileMaker 12, How to Convert your existing solution to FileMaker 12, Back up your data and settings from your current version of FileMaker, Uninstall the older version of FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Server, Create a custom installer so users do not need to enter license information with each install, How to deploy FileMaker server and connect it to your existing Web Server, Manage existing plugins with the new FileMaker 12.

Tim Neudecker is the presenter. He is a leading software engineer who has over 20 years’ experience as a professional FileMaker developer. He spent over 10 years as an in-house developer for companies such as Macy’s/Bloomingdales and AGA. In 2003 he joined Kyo Logic as co-founder and CTO. He has presented four times to the FileMaker Developer Conference on topics including security, system performance and developer tools. Tim has published articles in FileMaker advisor on system integration and performance tuning. In 2003 he was honored with a FileMaker Excellence Award for his contributions to the developer community.

Free registration for the complete series schedule is available immediately. Once you register for the series, you will receive email reminders for each session. The only thing you need to attend is a computer, iOS or Android device and a WiFi connection.

About FM Academy
FM Academy is a consortium of seven FileMaker Business Alliance Platinum companies. Our goal is to educate FileMaker users and developers, encourage best practices, and foster adoption of the FileMaker platform. The members of FM Academy are 360Works, Anvil Dataworks, Fiddlehead Software, IT Solutions, KyoLogic, MightyData and Skeleton Key.

TUESDAY, May 8, 2pm EDT
Webinar 9: New Calculation Functions. FileMaker 12 adds a dozen new functions, including the much anticipated ExecuteSQL, some Location functions for iOS devices, new ID functions, a set that accompany the new container method, and others. Functions are part of the building blocks of FileMaker calculations. Many of the new enhancements in FileMaker 12 may require scripting changes, or open possibilities for information and action based on what these functions provide. While the ExecuteSQL may draw a great deal of attention from developers, we need to be aware of these other functions, their purpose, and how to integrate them into our solutions.

Anders Monsen is the presenter. He is the Architect of Integration for MightyData, an FBA Platinum Member. A FileMaker Pro 9-11 Certified Developer and Authorized Trainer, he has spoken at FileMaker’s DevCon in 2010 and 2011, and authored an article on FileMaker and PHP for FileMaker Advisor.

THURSDAY, May 10, 2pm EDT
Webinar 10: ExecuteSQL Function. FileMaker 12’s new ExecuteSQL function opens up the power and flexibility of the SQL query language to any FileMaker calculation. This webinar will present techniques for using the ExecuteSQL function within calculations to gather and manipulate data for reports, charts, dashboards, and more. We’ll use a variety of built-in and custom functions to slice and dice data in any context. We’ll also cover the basics of the SQL SELECT statement so anyone can get started quickly.

Greg Lane is the presenter. He is VP of Application Development at Skeleton Key, a FileMaker Business Alliance Platinum level member in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a FileMaker 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 certified developer and has enjoyed solving problems with FileMaker for more than 20 years. Greg has authored articles for FileMaker Advisor Magazine and has contributed to books, white papers, and other FileMaker-related publications. He is looking forward to speaking about FileMaker and SQL again at the 2012 FileMaker Developer Conference.

Free registration for the complete series schedule is available immediately. Once you register for the series, you will receive email reminders for each session. The only thing you need to attend is a computer, iOS or Android device and a WiFi connection.

About FM Academy
FM Academy is a consortium of seven FileMaker Business Alliance Platinum companies. Our goal is to educate FileMaker users and developers, encourage best practices, and foster adoption of the FileMaker platform. The members of FM Academy are 360Works, Anvil Dataworks, Fiddlehead Software, IT Solutions, KyoLogic, MightyData and Skeleton Key.

TUESDAY, May 1, 2pm EDT
Webinar 7: Design Surface Behavior Changes. As files are converted to the new version of FileMaker, we will notice changes to the layout appearance.  Objects will use the default themes of a layout, or that rounded or gradient themes options are already applied.  In the webinar we will look at the new applied theme control, default themes, and the new assistance tools.

Sameer Khan is the presenter. He 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 8 years. His students say that he is an interesting person and a knowledgeable teacher. Follow Sameer on Twitter @dcfilemaker and read his blog posts.

THURSDAY, May 3, 2pm EDT
Webinar 8: Server File Management. Changes in FileMaker Server 12’s Backup scheme and the new ability to store Container data externally offer significant improvements in data protection, performance and data delivery to the user. In this session we’ll explore how Progressive Backups work.  We’ll also discuss changes in the way Container data is delivered to the user through http streams.  We’ll see how all of this operates at the client level when building databases and navigating them as a user. Topics include full backup functionality changes (or, what are hard links anyway?), understanding, configuring and restoring from progressive backups, understanding and implementing external container data storage, how streaming and buffering works, how to configure your container field for external storage, and an explanation of secure vs. open storage.

Colin Keefe is the presenter. He holds an MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art.  He built his first FileMaker database in the front office of a woodshop in 1994, and subsequently spent time in a Silicon Alley startup before beginning fulltime FileMaker development in 1998, first at Englishcomp and then as an independent developer. Colin has been with IT Solutions Consulting since 2005, where he is currently a Project Manager in the Application Development department.  He holds FileMaker certifications for Versions 7 through 11, is a FileMaker Authorized Trainer, has presented at DevCon, conducted roundtable sessions at PauseOnError, and written for FileMaker Advisor Magazine.  He’s also been the coordinator for the Philadelphia FileMaker User Group since 2008.

Free registration for the complete series schedule is available immediately. Once you register for the series, you will receive email reminders for each session. The only thing you need to attend is a computer, iOS or Android device and a WiFi connection.

About FM Academy
FM Academy is a consortium of seven FileMaker Business Alliance Platinum companies. Our goal is to educate FileMaker users and developers, encourage best practices, and foster adoption of the FileMaker platform. The members of FM Academy are 360Works, Anvil Dataworks, Fiddlehead Software, IT Solutions, KyoLogic, MightyData and Skeleton Key.

Previously, developers used plugins to expose the SQL underpinnings of FileMaker. Now, a portion of SQL has become native to FileMaker. This portion is limited to the “Select” statement. Those same plugins remain viable options for developers who seek to insert, update, or delete records.

The programming language SQL (Structured Query Language, see Wikipedia entry) centers on the query, or Select statement, to pull data from one or more tables. For developers new to SQL there are several books or internet resources available, yet the most concise and immediately useful tool is probably FileMaker’s own ODBC and JDBC guide.

The SELECT Statement
Starting with the most elemental of queries, and breaking down the Select query into multiple lines helps us visualize the different components of the query. We can then add more pieces as we master each section. We start with selecting a field from a table.

SELECT some_field_name
FROM some_table_name

It’s important to note that this statement selects the field name, not the value in the field. So if we said, “select Department from Contacts” we would get a list of all the departments in every record from the Contact table. You can also include mathematical operations or modify strings in the query. To count values you can use count(*) or count(field_name) for all records in the first instance, or only records that contain a value in the field_name.

The WHERE Clause
The Select statement works well in its basic fashion, but what we’re really after is the Where clause, combined with the ability to interact with multiple tables in one query. Rather than building complex relationships in the graph to accomplish the same result, we’re now able to solve this through SQL.

When FileMaker Pro 11 introduced portal filtering we were able to simplify our graph and remove several Table Occurrences, and now with ExecuteSQL the graph can focus more on pure relationships, as this function is context independent. We can query table occurrences from anywhere in FileMaker, without having to navigate to specific layouts or rely on additional table occurrence groups.

The next step along the SQL path is adding the Where clause and additional tables.

SELECT some_field_name
FROM some_table_name
WHERE a_condition_applies

The condition serves to limit the Select statement, as without it you would select all the records in the table. So, a simple Select statement with a Where clause would look like “select Department from Contacts where City = ‘Dallas’”.

ExecuteSQL Syntax
The way the ExecuteSQL function behaves plays a key role in writing SQL statements. According to the calculation dialog, the syntax is:

ExecuteSQL( sqlQuery ; fieldSeparator ; rowSeparator { ; arguments… } )

The sqlQuery is the query string – the select statement. Since this is text, we write this inside double quotes. The fieldSeparator and rowSeparator default to comma and return, so unless we need the result to appear in a different format we can simply use double quotes. The arguments is optional, but will be discussed further below. In this query we can count all the records in the state of Texas, using single quotes for the literal value of TX.

ExecuteSQL( "select count(*) from Contacts where State = 'TX'"; ""; "" )

Pages 55-57 of the ODBC guide list several reserved words. A few of these words might appear in your solutions as field names, such as “order” or “size”, or “First” and “Last” instead of FirstName or LastName (or NameFirst and NameLast). These words will need to be escaped in queries. In addition, field names with spaces also need to be escaped.

ExecuteSQL( "select \"Order\" from Orders where \"Product Name\" = 'FileMaker'" ;"";"")

Unlike MySQL, for example, the ExecuteSQL function will show just ? in the result if there is an error in your query, with no hint as to what caused the error.

Using the Arguments Parameter
The arguments option allows the use of multiple arguments in the sqlQuery string. These arguments use the question mark as a placeholder, and are then listed in order in the argument section.

ExecuteSQL( "
select count(*)
from Books
where zkf_authorID = ?
and  datePublished < ? ;
""; ""; Author::zkp_AuthorID ; Get( CurrentDate ) – 365)

Rather than using conditions outside the current record (i.e. State = ‘TX’), here we input values from a specific record, to see which books were published within a year for the author of the current book record.

The FROM Clause
The ability to consider multiple tables falls under the From clause, but also in this action we must point back to the fields in the Select clause. These fields can be prefixed with the table name or alias. Adding an alias is useful as it reduces clutter in the query. With a table called Customers we can change this to from Customers C, and prefix the field as C.NameFirst in the Select statement. To query across multiple tables we “join” these with an equal sign (=), which will include only matching rows in the results.

SELECT C.NameFirst, C.NameLast, O.DateOrdered
FROM Customers C, Orders O
WHERE C.custID = O.custIDf

Wrapping Up
The new ExecuteSQL function opens up a multitude of possibilities. In scripting you can build queries across tables, populating variables for use in virtual list techniques. In charting you can gather data for dashboards in the same way, without having to jump to various different layouts and loop through records to summarize them. For tooltips you can provide information specific to the current record that looks across related tables. All this can be accomplished without adding a single new table occurrence.

Here’s the premise: your back is against the wall and you are fighting your way through the pressure of your lengthy to-do list. And, the PHONE WON’T STOP RINGING. How do you stay focused and not let the phone calls throw you out of the ring?

I have a few suggestions on how to handle these types of interruptions:

1. Don’t answer it. Seriously. Turn off the ringer and let it go to voice mail. If it is important, they will leave a message. And, at least half the time, when you return the call, the issue will have resolved itself.
   
2. Schedule several times during your day to listen to and return voice mails. If your business is primarily phone driven (as opposed to email or texts), you might need to do this hourly, but most people can get away with 3 times a day. Try at the beginning of your day, before or after lunch and then about 4pm – just enough time to return calls before people leave for the day.
3. Do not call people back if they didn’t leave a detailed message. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not suggesting that you ignore them. But, if you get a call from a customer that says, “It’s John at X Studios. Call me at 555-5555″ – you have no idea if he’s going to be a 2 hour phone call with emergency action items following or if he’s just calling to ask a quick question.
4. If you return a call and get someone’s voice mail, leave a message. “Sounds like we are playing phone tag. Email is a lot faster way to reach me.” That not only helps solve this instance, but it also communicates to them how much better service they are going to get in the future if they email you. (As a side note, see my prior blog that includes how to leave a proper message.)
5. You can also choose to respond to a voice mail via email, “Hey- I got your message, but right now I’m swamped. Anything I can do to quickly help you via email?”
6. If you do answer it, don’t immediately start in troubleshooting the problem or discussing the issue. Schedule a time to talk to the person where you both have a window and can focus. “It is really good to hear from you, but right now I’m up against a deadline. Could we talk tomorrow at 3pm?”

Whether you are returning a call, or have violated #1 and answered the phone, have some responses prepared to get off of the phone if something is taking longer than you expected it would. Here are some ideas:

1. “I am sorry to interrupt your train of thought, but I have a call in 10 minutes, so we might have to hit some highlights and follow up in email on the other issues.”
2. “I’d love to continue this conversation, but I’ve got a deadline bearing down on me. Could we talk on Friday at 2pm after I’ve delivered the project?”
3. “I’m happy to answer those questions and get you where you need to be. I can shoot you a proposal for discovery on those items by end of day.”

Of course, the biggest challenge is when there is a true emergency and you have to stop and handle something immediately. The goal there is to TRULY understand whether or not it is urgent. If it truly is, try to handle the urgent part of the request and then schedule the remaining issues. For example, if someone’s database has crashed, recover their last backup. If they can continue to work from there, set aside time to address the causes a little later. That way, you get you and your customer back to work fairly immediately, but everyone is satisfied that the cause of the issue will be investigated when there is more time.

The biggest thing to remember is that if someone is expecting to get your services immediately and for free, they likely are not appreciative of your skill set. If you weren’t really great at what you did, you WOULD be sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring. But, when you’re a rock star… you’re usually jammin’ and can’t get to the phone right now.

Many thanks to Lisette Wilson, our Champion of Transformation, and her Pavlovian response to the ringing phone, for suggesting this topic.

The good news is that this new version brings some dramatic new features that will surely drive value and make the challenges of upgrading your database environment well worth the effort and investment. Here is our take on the perennial top 10 list.

THE TOP 12 REASONS FOR UPGRADING TO FILEMAKER 12
(with a few caveats…)

12. Charting Enhancements
FileMaker Charting has been enhanced with the addition of 5 new charting types and an improved user interface. Creating dynamic charts of your FileMaker data is now easier than ever.

11. FileMaker Go 12 is FREE
We think it was a great move by FileMaker to offer its mobile solution for free in the Apple iTunes Store. Customers and developers can now more easily test and deploy mobile database solutions.

10. Window Styles
This is a feature added to the New Window script step.  Developers can now specify Advanced Styles when executing this script step which allows some control over window behavior.  Windows can be specified as a document, floating document or modal dialog and window controls (close, minimize, maximize, zoom, resize) can be turned on or off.  We like this feature as it captures window control features that formerly had to be scripted.

9.  Layout Themes
40 stunning new layout themes can be instantly applied to a layout to update its look and feel.  This new feature allows developers to quickly create attractive layouts without having to build from scratch.  Caveat – 12′s new themes are not a panacea for layout design and modification.  Themes cannot be applied across multiple layouts at once, nor can they be applied to layouts from a converted solution.  We believe the best practice in working with themes when starting a new solution will be to use themes to create a default form and list view and then copy those layouts to create the rest of the solution.

8.  Layout Guides
Users of Adobe InDesign will absolutely love this feature.   In layout mode, alignment guides appear when moving and resizing objects to indicate their relative alignment to other objects. Now, creating pixel-perfect layouts will be faster and more effortless.  Of course, we still have the position elements in the inspector to assist in creating precisely designed layouts.

7.  New Layout Design Elements
We believe that if you are going to be spending a lot of time in your workday looking at an application, it ought to look really good.  FileMaker 12′s new design elements go a long way to making that possible.  Now developers can create layout objects with a customizable corner radius; gradients with multiple colors and direction; and buttons that change appearance by behavior (normal, in focus, hover, pressed).

6.  Server 12 is 64-bit
Re-built on the 64-bit architecture, FileMaker Server can now use more RAM (up to a terabyte) and can be configured to use half of the available RAM for cache. Now, FileMaker Server can take full advantage of current high-speed server technology, delivering better performance to FileMaker and FileMaker Go clients.

5.  Incremental Backups on FileMaker Server
Not only will your database perform better on FileMaker 12, your data will be more secure with adoption of more robust backup system. FileMaker Server 12 and Server 12 Advanced now allow incremental backups that allow for more frequent backups with far less impact on user experience during the backup process.

4.  Enhanced Container Fields
FileMaker 12′s enhanced container fields now include drag-and-drop support, audio and video recording, and media streaming (in conduction with FileMaker Server).  We are especially excited about the new external storage features of container fields.  All container field media can now be externally stored in a server directory managed by FileMaker server.

3. FileMaker Go Enhancements
FileMaker Go 12 brings new features making your mobile solution more versatile and powerful:  users can now record video and audio directly into container fields and export data.  New location functions now allow developers to rapidly create location-aware mobile database applications.

2.  ExecuteSQL Function
Now, FileMaker 12 can query data internally using the ExecuteSQL calculation function.  This function is context independent, so data can be queried regardless of what layout/table occurrence you are in.  In previous versions, developers had to create many additional table occurrences on the relationship graph and create hidden utility windows in order to leverage certain functionality in the database.  With the ExecuteSQL function data can be queried (even from unrelated tables) anywhere there is a calculation dialog.  FileMaker solutions will be cleaner, more efficient and faster to develop.  Caveat – just SQL Select statements are possible for now.  Developers who require Update and Delete SQL statements will continue to use SQL plugins.

1.  File Conversion
Simply put, converting your FileMaker 7 – 11 solution is as simple as opening your old files with FileMaker 12. The FileMaker conversion engine does the rest, and from our experience testing, there are few issues to be concerned about.

Questions? We are excited to help new and current customers migrate to the new version of FileMaker. Contact us today to learn more about how you can take advantage of the new features.

The first and most important new feature is that FileMaker Go 12 is now free. This is truly a game changer. Anyone with an iOS device can now give it a test drive. FileMaker Go 11 is still available as a paid app so there is more incentive to move to FileMaker 12.

Several features in FileMaker 12 make it easier to design screens for the iOS. There are sixteen starter solutions, each with layouts for iPhone and iPad. Four of these are installed by default with FileMaker Go 12: Assets, Contacts, Content Managements and Tasks. FileMaker Pro 12  has screen stencils with the specific dimensions of the iPhone and iPad in portrait and landscape mode.

There are 40 new layout themes, five specifically designed for iOS: Cool Gray Touch, Onyx Touch, Ocean Touch, River Touch and Wave Touch. They have larger fonts and objects ideal for touch screen devices.

FileMaker 12 themes

Multitasking has significantly improved in FileMaker Go 12. In earlier versions, FileMaker Go had to terminate when it was sent to the background. Now it goes into a suspended state, which means it will resume much faster when it comes back to the foreground. The fmreauthenticate extended privilege gives you more control over when a user has to re-login after the app goes into the background.

FileMaker Go 12 includes support for exporting records directly in the iOS. You can create tab-delimited, CSV, DBF, HTML and Excel (XLSX) files to email or open directly on the device. It can also read and write Snapshot Link files. Snapshots allow you to save a state of the database (current layout, found set, record, sort order) and share with another user who also has access.

Charting functionality has been enhanced in FileMaker 12. This is great for creating management dashboards for mobile solutions. In addition to bar, line and pie charts, FileMaker 12 now has  Scatter, Stacked Bar, Positive/Negative, and Bubble charts.

Container fields have been improved across the entire FileMaker 12 product line. FileMaker Go 12 can access remote container data managed by FileMaker Server. It can view streaming and interactive content like video and PDF files. Interaction with content on the iPhone/iPad includes access to the camera and photo library, recording audio, capturing a signature and viewing multiple file types (PDF, Excel, etc.).

FileMaker Go 12 container menu

FileMaker Go 12 includes two new calculation functions to work with location information on iOS devices. Location ( accuracy { ; timeout } ) will return the latitude and longitude for the device. LocationValues ( accuracy { ; timeout } ) will return latitude, longitude, altitude, accuracy and age of the data. Note, these functions only work with iOS devices.

Other calculations (some old, some new) for working with iOS solutions include:

• Get ( SystemPlatform ) – Returns the operating system for the device
• Get ( ApplicationVersion ) – Returns the version of FileMaker Go (iPad or iPhone/iPod Touch)
• Get ( PersistentID ) – Returns a unique identifier for the computer or  device
• Get ( ConnectionState ) – Returns whether FileMaker Server is using a secure connection (SSL)
• Get ( UUID ) – Returns a universally unique identifier useful for primary keys

These are just some of the features I covered in the 12 Days of FileMaker 12 webinar on FileMaker Go 12. If you missed it, you can watch the recording below. There were several questions asked during the webinar that I did not have a chance to answer. Watch for a follow-up post once we retrieve the questions from vendor.

FileMaker Go 12 Enhancements video

TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2pm EDT
Webinar 5: Quick Table View. Table View might just be one of the least appreciated features in the FileMaker Pro product line. True, it hardly changed in versions 7 through 9, and the changes in 10 were welcome, but fairly simple. All that changed in 11 with the addition of two bold new features which allow a developer to quickly create a table 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. Join our presenter as he demonstrates the practical uses of Table View and showcases changes to it in FileMaker 12.

Mark Richman is the presenter. He 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 is 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’s Conference or evangelizing about how to get the best performance out of your FileMaker Pro application..

THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2pm EDT
Webinar 6: Container Field Enhancements. FileMaker Pro 12 brings a new storage method for container fields. This webinar will introduce both users and developers to the new storage method from a practical usage point of view as well as from a technical point of view. Topics Include: The new file-> manage -> container menu option, thumbnail generation, storage tab updates including secure storage, remote container data transfer, inspection options, insert file script step, converting older databases to use the new storage methods.

Tim Neudecker is the presenter. He is a leading software engineer who has over 20 years’ experience as a professional FileMaker developer. He spent over 10 years as an in-house developer for companies such as Macy’s/Bloomingdales and AGA. In 2003 he joined Kyo Logic as co-founder and CTO. He has presented four times to the FileMaker Developer Conference on topics including security, system performance and developer tools. Tim has published articles in FileMaker advisor on system integration and performance tuning. In 2003 he was honored with a FileMaker Excellence Award for his contributions to the developer community.

Free registration for the complete series schedule is available immediately. Once you register for the series, you will receive email reminders for each session. The only thing you need to attend is a computer, iOS or Android device and a WiFi connection.

About FM Academy
FM Academy is a consortium of seven FileMaker Business Alliance Platinum companies. Our goal is to educate FileMaker users and developers, encourage best practices, and foster adoption of the FileMaker platform. The members of FM Academy are 360Works, Anvil Dataworks, Fiddlehead Software, IT Solutions, KyoLogic, MightyData and Skeleton Key.