Making Software, Texting and FileMaker, Moving FileMaker Code

You can make software if you choose to

Seth Godin with a great post on the virtues of making software:

You can make software if you choose to.

Not just the expected version of software that runs on a computer, but the metaphorical idea of rules and algorithms designed to solve problems and connect people…

Apple started as a hardware company with the Apple II. Soon in, they realized that while hardware is required, it’s software that changes the world.

For years, the Mac was merely a container for Mac software. It was the software that enabled the work we created, it was software that shifted our relationship with computers and ultimately each other.

Software, or in the case of FileMaker development, software solutions (Apps is the current fad name), is what makes the hardware worth having.  Godin rants on Apple to make his point, and, like most, doesn’t get that Apple owns FileMaker.  And that FileMaker makes hardware more usable for business, government and non profits.  Godin’s point is valid, nevertheless:

If you can, make software. And bring enough value (through efficiency, power and connection) to the marketplace of your choosing that it will have trouble being productive or happy without you.

Excellent advice.


Texting and FileMaker

Andrew Duncan shows how to send and receive texts from FileMaker, including Emoji support:

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Emoji reply had made it all the way back from their phone to fmSMS via the SMS Gateway and the PHP page that is used to convert the incoming reply into a FileMaker record without me having to do anything to handle the Unicode characters – it just worked! I decided to do a bit more research into this to see how different SMS Gateways handled Emoji characters as a way of testing their Unicode support (there are now hundreds of Emoji characters encoded in the Unicode standards).

If you aren’t familiar with fmSMS, here’s a short video showing how it works:

Read it all.

fmSMS and Emoji Support


Moving FileMaker Code

Todd Geist details his process for moving code from one file to another. Here are the first four steps:

  1. Custom Functions –  Copy and Paste or Import
  2. Tables – Copy and Paste or Import
  3. Graph – Manual Fix. Make sure relationships and names are setup correctly
  4. Adjust Fields –  Any fields that needed relationships will be need to be adjusted. One way to do this is to delete all the fields and re-copy and paste the fields from the old file to the new.  That will break relationships, but those might be easier to fix than all of the broken calcs.

It’s not easy and it’s not fun, but sometimes it is necessary.  Check out the whole list at the link.

Source: Checklist For Moving FileMaker Code – Geist Interactive


Efficiency is intelligent laziness.

Anonymous

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