If you’re running PHP 5.3 or greater there are several methods in the FileMaker API that are deprecated, that is, they won’t be supported in future versions of PHP. While it’s good to know that your solution may have some trouble down the road right now it’s a bit of an annoyance to see all of the deprecated warnings. It also makes debugging a touch difficult.

The good news is you can turn all of the deprecated messages and still be able to see the rest of the errors that you will need for debugging. In the head of your document (or in a file that’s included in every script) add these lines of code:

This little snippet should hide the deprecated messages and still give you the notices and errors that you need to build and debug your site.

<?php error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_DEPRECATED) ?>

First, get Transmit from Panic. I think it’s the BEST available FTP app as it’s interface rocks, it’s simple to use, and offers the features I need. I love how it can sync folder navigation between my local folders and the server folders. I also love being able to right click one or many files to get a list of URLs to those files. There are many more features too. You can find Transmit on the Mac App Store.

Once you install Transmit, it will automatically add a few Automator Actions. The one we want to use is the Synchronize. To set it up, open Automator which will be in your Applications folder. When it opens, choose to create a new Workflow. Then use the Actions filter to find Synchronize and drag to the steps on the right. Then find the Quit Application and drag it over under the Synchronize step.

Finally, enter the:

• FTP address for your server.
• Your username.
• Your password.
• Change the Sync Direction to Download!
• If you tick Delete Orphaned Destination Items, it will remove all files not on the server. We leave this unchecked because Foxtail Technology stores the backups in folders with the timestamp in the folder name. Since each backed up file’s folder name is unique, we can store daily backups of our databases!

The ‘What’s New’ list included the following items. Looking at the list, you can definitely see the focus on adding what is needed to increase productivity and what enterprise customers need.

• Adds support for FileMaker Charts (compatible with FileMaker Pro 11).
• Records and saves signatures to the database file.
• Adds support for printing.
• Improves rendering, display, and printing of PDFs.
• Sends notification to user when there is a record lock conflict.
• Adds ability to open hidden files.
• Resolves compatibility issues when running on iPad.

Bugs Fixed

This is a great update for everyone and seems to fix some bugs too. Just yesterday I took a photo into a container on iPad 2 and FileMaker Go locked up. I’m happy to say that it worked great this morning. I was able to take five photos including the bottom of my cereal bowl…

There is one major annoyance that hasn’t be resolved yet. If you are using FileMaker Go database that has a password jump to another app and then come back to FileMaker Go, you have to keep entering your username and password. I’ve even set my username under settings and if that would autofill, I’d be pleased.

Signature Capture

This feature is my favorite! As many of you know, we released an open source solution so folks could capture signatures and even draw images. While this makes our solution somewhat redundant, I’m very happy to have signature capture built into FileMaker Go: http://campsoftware.com/products/qc-signature-capture/  Our solution was also included in the FileMaker eNews: http://campsoftware.com/2011/02/campsoftwares-signature-capture-in-filemaker-enews-issue-5/

Using the new signature capture is easy. Just tap on a container field and a popup window will appear allowing you to choose to insert a photo from your library, capture a signature, or take a photo. When you choose to capture the signature, a full screen window will appear where you can draw anywhere. The signature screen seems to always be landscape, even if the iPad was held in portrait mode beforehand.

Tapping accept will store the signature as a png with transparency, perfect for super imposing on documents. Once the image is in the container, you can tap the container to replace it with the same three options or you can either open or email the signature. Opening the signature doesn’t do much as the black signature appears on a black background. Tapping a second time will cause the Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete options appear at the top of the container.

I asked FileMaker if there were any options to remove the signature line so folks could draw pictures and also if an image could be placed in the background for annotations. They said not at this time, but that could be something that could be added later. I didn’t think to ask about changing the pen color…

Printing

Printing is huge and this will be the most used new feature from this release. If you don’t have an AirPrint printer, you will want the AirPrint Activator: http://netputing.com/airprintactivator as it will allow your Mac to share your printers so you can print from your iPhone or iPad.

Printing is easy. First tap the Gear icon in the top right corner and then choose Print. Then you can choose to print the Current Record or Found Set as well as the Print Range, Paper Size, Orientation, Scale, and Print to PDF! The number of Paper Sizes are simply outstanding, but there isn’t a way to add custom sizes. That might not be a big deal since there are a ridiculous number of paper sizes included. Below, we tapped on PDF and then View, but you could also Email or Save the PDF. Saving the PDF places it in the FileMaker Go ‘Files on Device’ storage area. Once you view a PDF, you can tap the outgoing action button and open it in other apps or print it. We printed the PDF show below and the quality was nice. The printout was center and aligned to the top of the paper.

Charting

We didn’t try Charting on our own yet, but we did see it demoed. It works just like it does on FileMaker Pro. In fact, if someone updates data in FileMaker Pro, the chart will automatically update just like normal fields do. Charting will be fantastic for executive dashboards. Also, if you ever tried to do charting from SQL databases, combining FileMakers ESS feature (that allows FileMaker to access SQL tables just as if it was a regular table) along with Charting will be simply amazing.

All and all, upgrading is a no brainer! If you aren’t using FileMaker Go, now you have more reasons to start using it… Download http://bit.ly/FileMakerGoiPad or http://bit.ly/FileMakerGoiPhone

In the third issue, we discuss using FileMaker to assist with each phase of selling Real Estate.Click on the Article to Zoom in. Consider Subscribing. Download the free iPad app and download one free issue.

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Yesterday, Gerard Beutler asked me about it, so I tweeted about it. With in minutes Bob Patin emailed a fantastic AppleScript where you pass a path to a file which then opens Preview, types command-P, types enter, then quits Preview. Then Fabrice Nordmann suggested using the FileMaker ‘Send Event’ for Windows Script Step to make it work on Windows.

With the great tips, I modified Bob’s example file into the example below. I did change the AppleScript so that it didn’t quit Preview, but rather close the front most window with the idea that there could be other Preview windows open and I didn’t want to disrupt any other open files.

Below you can see the example file. While this example works well for PDFs, it could work with other document formats, but you should test and please add a post below with your findings! As you can see we have three PDFs, each in a container and a Print button. When you press the button, it runs the script. That’s it!

Normally, we don’t store documents in containers as the can quickly bloat the size of the FileMaker database. We LOVE using SuperContainer to solve that problem as the files are simply stored in a folder that SuperContainer manages. If we were to use the Print Container File solution in a production database, we would export the SuperContainer to the FileMaker Temporary folder directly or to a container and then to the FileMaker Temporary folder.

Download Print Container File

Below you look over the script. We tried to comment it to explain each step.

Gerard found that the FileMaker ‘Send Event’ for Mac Script Step would also print the documents, but we found that it would not work a second time if Preview was still open. Quitting Preview after printing would work, but simply closing the front most window seemed to be the nice thing to do.  :)

In the second issue, we discuss methods to use your database on iPads and iPhones. Imagine dropping an Excel file on to FileMaker Pro and then having the data on your iPad in minutes!

Click on the Article to Zoom in. Consider Subscribing.

If clicking the link doesn’t work, right click and choose ‘Download Linked File’.

• Corn Walker – Beyond AB.m4b
• Cris Ippolite – ProjectTracker.m4b
• Darren Terry – Shaking the Dependency Tree.m4b
• David Graham – Data Modeling our Open Source CRM.m4b
• Ian Jempson – Modular Scripting.m4b
• Jason Young – Whats Faster in FMGO.m4b
• John Sindelar – FMGo Deployment Options.m4b
• Kevin Ayers – Name Value Pairs.m4b
• Martha Zink – James Bond Layouts.m4b
• Matt Petrowsky – Hacking the Heck out of Layout Mode.m4b
• Oreste Schiavone – CheckList Manifesto.m4b
• Peter Vinogradov – Single Developer Life Hacks Removed per Peter V.

You might also want the audio files from PauseOnError Portland 2010.

In the first issue, we discuss several ways FileMaker can be accessed.

Click on the Article to Zoom in. Consider Subscribing.