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Home | Computers & Technology | Databases Filemaker is a cross platform relational database developed by Filemaker Inc . and is here since mid 1980.Since then FileMaker has had Plus, II and eventually Pro suffixes to identify the product.In September 2005 FileMaker Server 8 and FileMaker Server 8 Advanced was released that supports all the new features of FileMaker Pro 8 and a mix of FileMaker Pro 7 and FileMaker Pro 8 clients. FileMaker pro 8.5 has been shortly announced. Definition of database from the filemaker point of view The help file of filemaker defines it as "A database is a collection of information, or data, that you can organize, update, sort, search through, and print as needed. Your own address book or filing cabinet is an example of a simple database. With the address book and filing cabinet, you store similar pieces of information organized for easy retrieval." Brush Up A table contains one or more records. Each record contains fields and fields are used to store, display data you enter into the record. An Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) is basically a in graphical shorthand of database relationships. The Three Primary Types of Relationships are: One-to-One Relationship Many-to-One Relationship Many-to-Many Relationship Relational database are created by defining a relationship between two fields, called match fields. These fields may be in separate table or they can be in the same table (a self-join). About layouts FileMaker Pro layouts allow us to organize our information for viewing, printing, reporting, finding, and entering data. Layouts only display the data. There are six types of layouts and one view that can be created with the New Layout/Report assistant. 1. Standard form, 2.columnar list/reports,3.labels,4.envelopes,5.vertical labels, 6.blank layouts, 7.table views. Every Layout in a FileMaker database is linked to a table occurrence from the Relationships Graph. Many layouts can be linked to a particular table occurrence, but each layout must be tied to one, and only one, table occurrence. In FileMaker Pro there are three views of each layout: form, list and table. About modes So we have four modes to work with at our disposal 1. Browse mode: This is the most commonly used mode and is used to enter, delete, and modify existing records. Data entry job is done in this mode. 2. Find mode:In this mode you basically search for particular records that match a set of criteria. The subset of your records thus found is called the found set. 3. Layout mode: Here we determine how information is presented on your screen or in printed reports, labels, and forms. 4. Preview mode: In this mode we can view how the data looks before it is printed out. Functions & Scripts Filemaker has set of some potential functions and scripting language waiting to be taken advantage of. The set of functions include 1. Aggregate Function,2.Date Function,3.Design Function,4.External Function, 5.Financialfunction,6.GetFunction,7.LogicalFunction,8.NumberFunction,9.Repeation Function,10.Summary Function,11.Text Function,12.Text Function,13.Text Formatting Function,14.Time Function,15.Time Stamp Function,16.Trigonometric Function. The Script steps categories include: 1.Control Script Steps,2.Navigation script steps,3.Editing script steps,4.Fields script steps,5.Record script steps,6.Found set script steps,7.Windows script steps,8.Files script steps,9.Account script steps,10.spelling script steps,11.Open Menu Item script steps,12.Miscellaneous Script steps. Handy Tips The key to building a good database is a good design. The points given below is to warn you about major pitfalls and advise you of basic design concepts that will help you start out on the right foot. Follow which ever naming convention you like but it must be followed throughout. A piece of advice is never ever use spaces in your field names. Punctuation is out too. You may however use the underscore character, “_”. For every table you create, the first field in that table should always be a unique ID field. The best and only completely reliable way to do this is to create a number field that is auto-enter, serial number, incremented by one, cannot override.Four housekeeping fields namely creation date, modification date, creation time, modification time are needed and you must not forget to include them. These are autoenter, non-modifiable, date and time fields. Global fields store the information in one place only, but treat it as though it were a field in every record. When saving a clone of a file, the data in global fields is NOT saved with the clone. The global fields are saved empty. Global fields will not retain their values after shutdown. Do use global fields to store static information or graphic objects that will never change and will be the same for every record, such as a company logo that will appear on each layout. While designing layout always pick two colors for use on all your layouts. Make them muted, not bold colors, and make them complementary.Make judicious use of graphics. Always lock out the objects so that the user or you may not accidentally delete out things. Also you should hide the status area. Never use single step buttons. Always rely on scripts even when it is a single line script step. Make judicious use of script steps like the Allow user abort (off), Set Error capture (on), Freeze Window etc. Using plug-ins is also not a very good idea. Plug-ins are written by every level of Programmer and that too by two Men Company. Free Plug-ins is also risky to use because they may be associated with price tag at any point of time or they may become unavailable at any point of time. The project may crash if it heavily depends on the plug-ins.So avoid using it and if possible try to write a script for that or do without it if possible. Similarly cute and clever tips are always available but are not are not always reliable. The tricks are workable but may not be practical. Guidelines Plan your database in pen and paper. Prepare a requirement analysis document. Build a detailed ER Diagram. Plan the navigation beforehand. Design your layout. Write Scripts. Always keep a backup copy. Test your project thoroughly. Ask as many questions to the client as you can. Keep in touch with the client regularly. Prepared By: Manjushree Das. (www.mindfiresolutions.com) Article Source: http://www.articlewheel.com
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