FileMaker 17 Add-on Tables Explained

FileMaker 17 Add-on Tables

Add-on tables are a brand new feature in FileMaker 17, a feature that lets beginner developers (and yes, it will save time for advanced developers, too) easily add a related table to a solution.  Add-on tables will save a lot of time and frustration for beginning to intermediate users by adding the table, fields and the relationships automatically, and all by simple drawing a portal on a layout.  Watch Dawn Heady, of Soliant Consulting, in this helpful video to see how to add an add-on table:

There are eleven types of tables offered in this new feature:

  1. Action Items
  2. Addresses
  3. Attachments
  4. Companies
  5. Email Addresses
  6. General Info
  7. Inventory Transactions (I hope they asked Danial Shanahan for help here)
  8. Notes
  9. People (this option actually adds new layouts)
  10. Phone Numbers
  11. Topics

When you add the Add-On option in a new portal, FileMaker automatically sizes the portals, adds the proper fields (in theme) and any card layouts or other necessary schema, as well as all the necessary scripting.  Very impressive.

Add-on Tables Interface window

But I don’t have a Primary Key

Marc Larochelle, of Productive Computing, offers a deeper look, including how to connect to the new table with its own naming conventions to your table and your naming conventions:

Check out FileMaker’s page for more tech specs, but not for the best instructions on how to use.

Looking for no video but an in-depth discussion?  Check out Skeleton Key’s offering.

Looking for a little less in-depth and another video?  Check out DB Services.

That’s About It

The new Add-On Table feature is a positive thing–it saves development time and reduces the associated errors that occur in even the most mundane development tasks.


I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.

~ Michael Jordan

 

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