Export FileMaker to Excel with custom column names

 

The need to export FileMaker data to Excel with custom column names is something most developers will encounter from time to time.  Face it, people don’t want to read obscure column names or try to figure out what they really mean when they need to change them.  Jeroen Aarts of Clickworks shares his technique:

Could you please be more specific?

Well, OK then, our solution relies on:

  • Creating an extra table and appropriate relationships to the source tables for the export
  • Field comments to specify the filemaker fields, which may include related fields
  • Indirection to get values using the GetField() function.

To be extra specific…

I refer to the attached demo file. Below you will find a download link. The demo has a Customers (CUS) and an Invoice (INV) table. It is possible to export customer or invoice data using custom column names by just populating the ExportTable with the id’s you want.

One interesting part?  Grabbing the field comments section to specify the FileMaker fields, something we learned more about recently from FullCity consulting.

One caveat: You’ll also want to know more about populating a table using a virtual list to make this work.

Finally, Kevin Frank also attacked the problem of custom Excel headers back in 2011 and, as usual, offers several options from which to choose.

FileMaker: Export to Excel with custom column names | Clickworks.

Liked Liked
Need FileMaker Development Help? Or to purchase FileMaker Software?
Contact FM Pro Gurus for help