Simple Backup 1.4 for FileMaker
Simple Backup 1.4 for FileMaker
Small improvements simplify handling
It is often the small things that simplify life or practically improve a function. We have now added such a small function to the last update of SimpleBackup.
SimpleBackup is a small FileMaker module that allows you to take snapshots of the current file in local installations. External files can also be included. The snapshots are saved in a directory of your choice, and each backup copy gets a timestamp in the filename.
In version 1.4 there was only a small change: The backup directory is shown after the backup. This function is done with the script command “OpenURL” following the pattern:
“file:/” & [BACKUP PATH]
For this to work, the use for URLs of scripts must be enabled in the security settings.
FM Developer Bundle for FileMaker developers
FM Developer Bundle for FileMaker developers
A FileMaker developer deals with a variety of topics. It’s not just about technology, but also about workflows, design and the like. These basic functions and skills are what it’s all about. The FM Developer Bundle combines various basic functions and a reliable shortcut to many other skills in one affordable bundle. This makes it much easier to launch FileMaker projects and you can immediately start working on the actual tasks of your new software.
All beginnings are easy
One of the great advantages of FileMaker is that it is very easy to get started. FileMaker is a low code development platform and as such for many people the perfect tool for custom development. I myself started out that way and am convinced of the advantages of FileMaker. It’s really easy to start new projects and get useful results in no time.
But as soon as you start developing new projects seriously, questions come up: How do I solve this? How do I solve that? Wouldn’t it make sense to have something like a starter solution which already covers recurring tasks? How you proceed with a project is not just a matter of taste. Every decision has consequences for further development. Experienced developers can judge what works and what doesn’t. You could also say: You must have made a number of mistakes to see more clearly. This is the experience that helps to better track down new projects.
So the beginning of the development is easy. But what happens next? The FM Developer Bundle is the shortcut to a proven development structure.
The next stage of development
Kursiv Software develops products for FileMaker developers. These are now available as a bundle. The FM Developer Bundle combines basic solutions for different tasks. With it, new projects can be launched much faster. The following products are included in the bundle:
- FM Starter – the starter file for new FileMaker projects
- FM Registrations – create license codes for standard applications based on FileMaker
- FM Designer – 10 themes for an easy and fast design.
After offering individual products, there is now the accumulated experience as a low-cost product bundle. Never was it easier to get started. While the individual products are carefully maintained and further developed, the FM Developer Bundle includes all the advantages. The philosophy behind it can be described as follows: “Solutions that are as simple as possible but work well, and which everyone can adapt and further develop themselves”.
The product bundle will also be the container in which we will provide further development tools in the future, which will not be available as a separate product.
Further information about the “FM Developer Bundle” can be found on the website kursiv-software.com.
FM Designer brings 10 FileMaker themes to developers
FM Designer offers FileMaker developers 10 ready-to-use themes
User interface design made easy
Kursiv has just released FM Designer. The new product offers a collection of FileMaker designs for FileMaker developers and helps to create good user interfaces with little effort.
Design is essential
Design is the link between developer and user. The design decides whether the user understands the ideas of the developer, whether he can find his way around and can use the software intuitively.
The design of user interfaces is a job in itself. The design decides about the acceptance of a software much more than many developers assume. A good user interface is easy to use. Users immediately find the functions they need and the workflow is actively supported. This is not about technical understanding, but about the characteristics of good design. It’s about layout, color schemes, interaction and many other things.
10 designs for FileMaker developers
FM Designer is a tool for developers, making it easier to create good designs. The product offers not only a collection of 10 designs (“themes”), but also specific information and examples of use. FM Designer can also be used as a tool for creating your own designs.
Creating your own designs is very complex and requires knowledge not everyone has. FM Designer speeds up and simplifies the use of themes and is also an introduction to the use of good designs.
A total of 10 designs with the same structure allow you to easily adapt designs for other customers. Once all objects on a layout have been defined using a single design, it takes only a few clicks to exchange a design. Switching designs becomes child’s play.
FM Designer makes designing FileMaker solutions faster and easier.
Features of FM Starter
FM Starter is a FileMaker file and requires a full version of FileMaker Pro 18 or later. However, designs can also be imported in older versions. To use the file and develop your own designs, Kursiv recommends FileMaker Pro 18 or higher.
- 10 Themes
- 3 separate pages per design with presentation of all objects and style sheets (catalogue)
- each design has its own color scheme
- color schemes are included as color palettes in various formats
- simple to use file
- Manual in German and English
- Videos in German and English
FM Designer and FM Starter
FM Designer can be used as a stand-alone solution, but it can also be seen as the perfect complement to FM Starter. FM Starter is a starter file for new FileMaker projects. Themes in both products are based on the same underlying concept. This means that if you’re already using FM Starter, you can easily import new designs and apply them to existing layouts with a single click. It’s a perfect extension.
FM Developer Bundle
FM Designer can be purchased as a stand-alone product or as part of the new FM Developer Bundle. The FM Developer Bundle is a complete solution for new FileMaker projects and includes:
- FM Starter, the starter file for new FileMaker projects
- FM Registrations, which allows you to generate your own activation codes for Filemaker solutions
- FM Designer, with 10 ready-to-use themes.
These three products can be used individually, but unfold their greatest potential when used together. The FM Developer Bundle can be used for an unlimited time. Updates are included for one year. It is then possible to receive updates for another year at a reduced price.
FileMaker 19 and add-ons
FileMaker 19 and add-ons
Will the new add-ons in FileMaker 19 replace the concept of FileMaker modules?
FileMaker 19 has just been released and among the many exciting new features there are so-called add-ons. You can now save all settings, objects, tables, relations, scripts from a FileMaker layout as add-ons. Thus stored “FileMaker parts” can be integrated as an add-on in new FileMaker files. They are parts, which can be integrated into layouts and files by simple drag and drop.
These new add-ons are promising approaches, allowing you to quickly and easily save functions or small applications separately and integrate them into other files easily. In the near future, many add-ons are expected to be made by Claris and external developers who will then easily find their way into the FileMaker community as ready-to-use building blocks.
Does this development mean the end of the FileMaker module concept? In practice, I think that will be the case. However, the concept of FileMaker Modules also provides insight into a very tidy and clear way of programming. FileMaker developers will continue to benefit from the concept of FileMaker Modules.
The innovations in FileMaker are promising and groundbreaking for working with FileMaker. We live in exciting times.
Corona Virus: We continue our work
Corona virus: We continue our work
The effects of the highly infectious corona virus are enormous. We too are affected by it. But we use the time to develop new products. For support requests we can also help remotely.
The necessary restrictions resulting from the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus are evident everywhere. Since yesterday, all schools in Switzerland are closed. Since yesterday evening most shops have been closed and many employees are working from their home offices. The impact on the economy is enormous. This lockdown affects us as well. Everyone is improvising. The important thing is that we take the situation seriously and adapt to the new conditions for work.
It seems important not to lose our heads, but to work actively on internal business processes. FileMaker developers can work from anywhere and deliver good solutions to their customers. We do the same when we use these days to complete new products.
We wish all our readers courage and confidence!
Karsten Risseeuw
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FM Starter: How to sign up as a developer
FM Starter: How to sign up as a developer
Login with your FileMaker developer account
FM Starter uses the standard FileMaker security mechanisms. So there is a separate account for each user. This also applies to the developer. However, developers and users log in differently. All information about this can be found in the delivery, in the manual, and also here on this page.
Developers log in differently than regular users
Here is the difference:
- Regular users open the file with a double click and then get the login via the user management of FM Starter
- Developers bypass user management and must use FileMaker’s default login.
Why is this different? Regular users are managed internally in a table that is synchronized with FileMaker accounts. As a developer, you don’t want to show your credentials publicly to administrators. That’s why developer access is not built into the default flow (so it doesn’t appear in the table).
Therefore, as a developer, you have to consciously log in with your own account. FileMaker provides a standard procedure whereby you can start a file with any account. It works like this:
- Mac: Press the ALT key before opening the file.
- Windows: Press the Shift key before opening the file.
The animation below shows how this looks on Windows. On Mac it is similar.
Where are my access data?
The default credentials of both logins are part of the delivery. Please check the delivery.
FM Starter 2.1 with german manual
FM Starter 2.1 with german manual
The latest version of FM Starter contains several bugfixes and small improvements. As an extensive innovation there is now also a German manual included. This should make it easier for German-speaking developers to explore the possibilities of the FileMaker Starter solution.
Version 2.1
The following improvements have been implemented:
- German manual
- User accounts: The email address is correctly editable again.
- Global navigation: Assignment of user groups now also works correctly for indented menu items
- Global navigation and scripts: Workaround for FileMaker file names with extra dot in name (scripts didn’t work)
- Various small improvements
All adjustments are documented in the ToDo module.
Download
The manual is available on fmstarter.com:
The manual is also part of the download of the starter file. Customers will find it in their account:
FM Starter is sold inclusive one year with free updates.
What is FM Starter?
FM Starter is a startup file for new FileMaker projects. Standard features like dynamic navigation, user management and many more are included. With FM Starter new projects can be realized much easier and faster. FM Starter is a product of Kursiv Software.
New login procedure for FM Starter 2
New login procedure for FM Starter 2
New in FM Starter 2.08
Kursiv just enhanced the user management solution as integrated with FM Starter 2. Accounts with expiring passwords are now supported directly. The login procedure has been enhanced.
Two-phase login procedure
The most prominent enhancement in this release is a two-phase login procedure. When landing on the login page, the user enters the user name (or: email) first. It is then verified if there is a user with this identifier. Next the password field is presented, just as in many other websites and apps. The password is checked upon as well and the final login is done, access is granted, settings are read and the user is forwarded to the proper landing page of the solution. This is all done by the module “UAC UserAccounts”, which is part of FM Starter. The module has been upgraded for FM Starter 2.08.
Expiring account passwords
Expiring passwords are now supported by the module. User must choose a new password at their next sign-in. To enable this feature, some modifications and enhancements had to be made to the login procedure.
Until now the data from the user table had been used. Both user name and password were checked against the entries in the user table. This part needed to be enhanced.
By including the option of expiring passwords, we also improved overall security and privacy for data. When a user signs in and defines a new password, this new password is not saved back into the user table. Only the user knows his password and FileMaker manages the account details internally. User passwords are now 100% private.
By improving the security this way, the combination of a user name + user password could no longer be searched for in the user table. The module UAC UserAccounts had to be upgraded.
New login page
The login page has been completely revamped and now supports a multi-phased login procedure. To implement this functionality on a single page, a slide object has been used with 3 slides:
- Email/User name
- Password + Login
- New password + proceed to 2.
When verifying if the email (user name) is available as an active account in the system, it also checks on the type of account to prepare the proper login scenario. This is something the user does not see, and which is coming from the UAC UserAccounts module. When the settings of the account reveal an expiring password, the user has to create a new password.
A transparent slide object is used to show all these options on a single page. The module redirects the user to the proper slide of the object.
Are there additional adjustments?
The basics of this upgrade are simple: A single field has been added to one of the tables, the content of two scripts must be replaced and the login page has changes as mentioned above.
If you want to upgrade an older solution with these enhancements, please check the ToDo-window in FM Starter 2.08 where all the changes are listed.
The next video shows the enhancements.
FM Starter 2 now available
New version: FM Starter 2
The starting point or new FileMaker projects is now available in version 2
Italic has just launched the new version FM Starter 2. The start file for new FileMaker projects has already integrated all the basic functions so that new projects can be implemented more easily and quickly.
What’s new in FM Starter 2?
The most important innovation is a simplification of all functions. “The most difficult task is to simplify functions and modules,” says developer Karsten Risseeuw. «The central modules for navigation, user administration and for multilingual text labels have been completely redeveloped. But there are also some new modules, such as a module for multilingual help texts or a to-do list for the developer. Very important: Compared to the previous version, several modules have been left out. The focus is now on more functionality for the developer, less on functions for end users. “
The whole user interface has been optimized and is now much more accessible. A standard theme is included for the design, which has been further improved for version 2.
Work more productively
FM Starter is neither an address management nor an ERP software. FM Starter is what every developer needs again and again, but preferably not reprogrammed every time. FM Starter combines everything that is needed to start a new project in one file: globally usable navigation, user administration, project structure and much more.
The best part is that everything is already coordinated. For example, the entire solution is multilingual from the start – which also applies to user management and navigation and every element on every page.
This startup file doesn’t do your job, but it does make it a lot easier. New projects can be launched in no time. Configuring instead of programming is the motto. All settings of the file are clearly arranged in a dedicated developer dashboard. Maintenance scripts make it easy to clean up settings. Almost all functions were developed as modules and are therefore both easy to understand in terms of structure and functional in solving tasks.
More products for FileMaker developers
Kursiv Software has significantly lowered the price of FM starters. This corresponds to the new strategy of offering various complementary products that individually fulfill clearly defined tasks but which can also be used together. Smaller units, therefore, several.
In addition to FM Starter, that is already the case today FM registrations , which can be used to generate license codes for FileMaker applications. This makes it very easy to activate your own standard solutions. FM Starter has already integrated a decoding module for FM registration codes. As a result, FM Starter and FM Registrations go very well together.
Further products are already in preparation. The goal is to provide a selection of good tools for committed FileMaker developers, with which development times can be drastically reduced.
Further information
There is a free upgrade for licenses from 2018 and 2019. All buyers have already received a download for this. There are no other discounts.
FM Starter 2 is a product from Kursiv Software in St. Gallen (Switzerland). On the website fmstarter.com there is more information. The product can be purchased via kursiv-software.com .