2020 and Beyond: Navigating Claris Transformations & Innovations Post-Pandemic

Mary Hodges, Senior Application Developer and Training Director at DB Services, in exploring high-level Claris updates, including advancements in the Claris product suite, integration tools, UI enhancements, server developments, and upcoming features. We also take a look at the latest features and techniques, from Claris Connect Custom Connectors to transaction script steps, as well as some hidden treasures that developers will appreciate.

Indiana FileMaker Developers Group
http://indianafilemaker.org/
http://www.meetup.com/FileMaker-Indiana/

FileMaker Meetup brought to you by DB Services
https://dbservices.com

2. 2020 and Beyond:
Navigating Claris
Transformations &
Innovations
Post-Pandemic

3. Presenter
●Welcome back to DB Meetups
●Where we were Jan 2020
●High Level Claris Developments
●You May Have Missed…
●Join Us Next Time
Agenda
Mary Hodges
Senior Developer and
Training Director

4. DB Services
Our Mission
To make organizations more efficient and
effective through digital transformations while
offering superior service and exceptional
expertise.
Who We Are
DB Services is a Claris Platinum Partner and
FileMaker Growth Partner of the Year for 7
consecutive years. We’ve worked with hundreds
of clients large and small to develop efficient,
low-code custom apps.

5. Join Us
Find us on MeetUp, Facebook, Youtube, and on
our website, indianafilemaker.org
Indiana FM Developer Group
Indiana FileMaker Developers Group (IFDG) is a
forum for FileMaker users and developers to
come together to share ideas and help each
other. DB Services has been the proud host of
IDFG since 2012.

6. Overview
Kevin Hammond
CEO

8. ●We know and love FileMaker
○FileMaker Pro
○FileMaker Go
○FileMaker Server
○FileMaker Cloud
●Claris Connect
●Claris Studio
Claris Product Suite 2020 - 2024

9. Integration Tools
via Claris Connect
●Claris Connect launched 2020
●Free Tier offered in 2023
●Claris Connect Custom Connectors
2023

10. Web Tools via
Claris Studio
●Claris Studio launches 2022
●Free Tier for Claris Studio with active
FileMaker 2023 license

11. Release and Development Cycle
●Claris FileMaker has become more agile, beginning iterative releases in 2020
●RoadMap announced 2023:
●community.claris.com/en/s/claris-products-roadmap
●Backlog posted 2024:
●community.claris.com/en/s/backlog

12. Looking Ahead
●More integration/functionality between
Claris products
●FileMaker PSR (Performance, Scalability,
Reliability) improvements
●Native FileMaker tools to leverage new
technologies for data processing:
○AI tools
○OCR (Optical Character Recognition)

13. Goodies

14. Before We Start
●Would you say you are…

○On the cutting edge
○Familiar with some of the new stuff
○I adopt new features once I have a good sample file
○I haven’t updated since FileMaker 16
○…FileMaker who?

15. (Not So) Hidden
Treasures
●Hero features that cut through
work-arounds
●“You can do that now?”
●Let’s highlight some of our favorite,
most anticipated, or hidden gem new
features you may have missed….

16. Perform Script On Server With Callback
Client
Script
Script
on
Server
With
Callback
Callback
Script
On
Client
User
Action
User
Continues
Their
Work…
Hey that thing
is done!

17. Perform Script On Server With Callback
●Originated in FileMaker 20.1
●Runs a callback script on FileMaker client after the server script
completes
●Now we have a way to notify the user that their PSOS script is
complete, without having to run PSOS [ Wait for completion: On]
●Show a dialog with message from Get ( ScriptResult )
●Give user the option to retrieve a file generated on server, without
having to email it from server script
●Note: Avoid putting “required” behavior in callback script, because
the user may disconnect before the callback runs.

18. Layout Calculations

19. Layout Calculations
●Originated in FileMaker 20.2.1
●A way to display the result of a calculation on a layout without:
○Defining a new field
○Setting (and updating) a global merge variable
○Using a button bar
●Note: These are essentially text strings wrapped in Evaluate, and
cannot be re-used in other contexts like a field or global variable.
The references do not show up in a DDR:

20. ConvertFromFileMakerPath /
ConvertToFileMakerPath

21. ConvertFromFileMakerPath /
ConvertToFileMakerPath
●Originated in FileMaker 19.0
●Relief from If/Case/Substitute statements to handle filepaths
●Convert FM path to/from:
○POSIX (Unix-like) ie macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Linux
○WinPath (Windows)
○URLPath (Web) ie Rest APIs and Insert From URL script step

22. GetLiveText

23. GetLiveText
●Originated in FileMaker 19.5.1
●Initial offering of OCR functionality
●Function that returns text from an image in a container field, using
language-specific text-recognition algorithm
●Like any text-recognition technology, this is imperfect, but…
●Now we have a built-in function without needing a plug-in or
external (probably paid) service.
●Note: This is Apple-device-only, so Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

24. Transaction Script Steps
●Originated in FileMaker 19.6.1
●Pretty major stuff!
●What is a Transaction?
○All-or-Nothing Result
○Great for batch updates
○Update a parent and all of its related records (ie Invoice and
Line Items) at once

25. Transaction Script Steps:
●Like Loop/End Loop, transaction steps
have an open and close:
●Open Transaction and Commit
Transaction
●Like Exit Loop If, there is a conditional
escape within the transaction:
●Revert Transaction
●Record Changes are not saved until
commit transaction

26. Transaction Script Steps
●We could write transactional functionality before, but…
●New steps make this process simpler.
●Some functionality is available with new script steps that could NOT
be done with other methods.
●Note: New Transaction Steps may not be performant for complex or
high volume transactions. But they are much simpler to set up than
traditional transaction scripting, so use the technique that meets
your needs.

27. Old Way
●Must stay on current window
●Must stay on current record
●Commit script step will end
transaction
●Explicitly Handle Every Error
●Modify one record at a time
with Set Field or looping over
a Portal
New Way
●Must stay on current window
●Can change records, change
layouts, perform finds
●Batch update records
●Auto-Revert on Errors*
●Cannot have more than one
transaction open at once per
session

28. Old Way
●Set Field, Set Field By Name
●Duplicate Record (portal row)
●Delete Portal Row
●Insert Steps*
New Way
●Set Field, Set Field By Name
●New Record
●Duplicate Record
●Delete Record
●Delete Portal Row
●Import Records
●Replace Field Contents
●Relookup Field Contents
●And more!

29. OnWindowTransaction Trigger
●Originated in FileMaker 20.1
●This is a File options script trigger— the same everywhere
●Automatically performs a script after Commit Transaction*
●Automatically creates a JSON object as script parameter with:
○File Name, Base Table Name, Operation, Record ID and
○“onWindowTransaction” field from the Base Table, or
○Specified field
●More modular logging events
●Note: Field Name option is a hard-coded string, so it should be the
same in every table.

30. OnWindowTransaction Trigger
Replace
Field
Contents
Triggered Script Parameter

31. It Adds Up: Server Enhancements
●A whoooooole bunch of (little) new Server tools and features.
●More adjustable settings, more command line tools.
●Not much on their own, but in total a much more complete
product for server administrators.
●Focus on PSR: ongoing improvements to caching, memory
use, and overall optimization.
●Review release notes in full:
help.claris.com/en/server-release-notes/content/index.html

32. Share

33. Join Us Next Time
Topic related to FileMaker and AI
July 11, 6 PM Eastern
Website
Want to know more about something
from today?

Have a request for a future topic?

Let us know!
[email protected]
Email Address
dbservices.com

34. Thank you!

35. FileMaker Server
Prioritizes Linux
●First Linux offering for FM Server 19 in
2020
●Linux Ubuntu replaces Linux CentOS in
2021 releases
●Claris development team is favoring
the Linux platform for new and
enhanced Server functionality.