FileMaker News

• FileMaker at eBay Live in Boston
• FM::NEXUS announces Inspector 1.7
• FmPro Script Diff 1.0 is now available
• Productive Computing, Inc. announces Core² CRM
• SuperContainer now available from 360Works
• Special Offers: Free ebook—Free FileMaker Server 8 with Training

ApertureToFileMaker plug-in

When your business is images!

Now Aperture users can easily export images and metadata into FileMaker Pro, giving you the database power you need to manage your projects and business processes.

Edit your images in Aperture and, with the free new ApertureToFileMaker plug-in, simply export the images and metadata into FileMaker Pro. Now your images and metadata can be integrated in FileMaker with the projects and processes you need to run your whole business.

You will streamline your workflow and spend more time on what you do best: photography.

Learn More »

Listen to the Podcast: Mac Geek Gab #103: All About FileMaker

Dave, an uber FileMaker geek, chats with Ryan Rosenberg and Kevin Mallon of FileMaker about some of the geekier things that can be done with the FileMaker, but don't require you to be a geek to do them

Listen now »

FileMaker Web Seminars: 2007 Developer Conference sessions Previewed in special Web Seminar

The 2007 FileMaker Developer Conference is the 12th annual gathering of FileMaker enthusiasts from around the world. It’s the one place where FileMaker developers, designers, partners, and customers come together to share professional expertise and practical advice.

See a preview of two popular sessions for this year's show. Richard Carlton of RC Consulting shows you how to Get a Grip on Charting. Jeff Hough from Sitecraft reveals the power of Reusable Script Design. Both sessions will be featured in full at the show.

Watch Get a Grip on Charting now»
Watch Resusable Script Design now»

Support Corner

Need a question answered?
FileMaker Customer Support is dedicated to providing our customers with the best service possible. Either find your answer online via the FileMaker Knowledge Base, or call us.

Tips and tricks

Discover Universal Error Capture
Learn a technique that shows you errors while your FileMaker Pro solution treats the users more gently.
By Stuart Gripman, Advisor Basics of FileMaker Pro technical editor

Many FileMaker Pro databases are created for use by folks who have no database programming background. Among developers, it's common practice to shield the user from FileMaker Pro's general error messages and display custom error messages that give context to problem. You can do so by turning Error Capture on. But if you have to make this change in every single script, you may start to feel like a broken record.

Here's a little background: You can set the script step "Set Error Capture" to on or off. By default it's always off. When you turn it on, FileMaker Pro won't display most error messages while a script is running. Say your script assembles a report by finding a set of records and printing them from a particular layout. If there are no records that match your scripted find, the user will see the message, "No records match this set of find requests." I know you understand that, but I can guarantee you that message will fluster most new users. Using error capture and error handling, you can suppress that message and replace it with something more appropriate, such as "No complaints were filed this month."

OK, so error capture is good if you're the user. You, the developer, on the other hand, really needs to see those error messages when programming. How can you serve both needs without going insane from repetitive programming? Simple! You use a Developer Mode script. In this example, you'll define a global number field called "zg_DevMode." Then you'll create a Dev Mode script that checks "zg_DevMode." When you set it to zero, developer mode is off and error capture is turned on. When you set it to 1, developer mode is on and error capture is off.

#This script checks the zg_devMode value and toggles Error Capture and User Abort accordingly.
If [ Demo::zg_devMode = 0 ]
#Dev Mode is OFF
Set Error Capture [ On ]
Allow User Abort [ Off ]
Else
#Dev Mode is ON
Set Error Capture [ Off ]
Allow User Abort [ On ]
End If

Now you can simply start your scripts with a call to your Dev Mode script -- Perform Script [ "001 Toggle Dev Mode" ] -- and be certain you're seeing the errors while your FileMaker Pro solution treats the users more gently.