Menu
FileMaker is a relational database program developed by Apple subsidiary FileMaker Inc. It provides functions like dragging elements into layouts, screens, forms for modifying databases. It was evolved from being a DOS application and today used on OS X, macOS, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, iOS. Standard FileMaker menu items are dimmed if users don’t have privileges to perform the menu command. Menus are not dimmed if you attach a script to the menu item. That being said, I wonder if you aren't encountering dimming because of the menus being based on an existing command which they don't have access to.
Voiceover Once you have a custom app on your device, you can have access to the different menus. And these are set up in a similar fashion to what you would expect in either the FileMaker Pro or Pro Advanced desktop versions or when you're accessing a solution on FileMaker WebDirect. In either case, a lot of it's driven out of the menu bar, that's kind of like the file menu in the upper left hand corner. If you don't see it, then you wanna do a three finger swipe down on the whole solution, which then you'll see this arrow in the upper left hand corner. And when I select that arrow, I'll be able to see all the different options that I have available to me.The menu bar contains similar commands to the file menu in FileMaker Pro, and you can see this here in the upper left hand corner. The iPhone menu bar has all the same options and the WebDirect bar does as well. So, giving you a brief tour, you can get to the launch center from the menu bar, and then you can go back to the solution that you're in.
You can see the solution highlighted in blue. And back to the menu bar, you can access help or even close the file, or you notice that you have the save or send as options, so when you click on that, what I can do is I can save a copy of the database, I can hit continue if I want to, and I can select the destination or use the share sheet down here, like, for example, if I say send to, I can save this to, in this case, my iCloud drive.Or I can pick other locations that are supported with share sheets as well, and eventually just hit export to this location. But if I cancel that, you'll also see that we have a save, send as snapshot link. Now, a snapshot link is the same type of thing, if you're familiar with this on FileMaker Pro. It's a file that you can share with other users that contains the name of your database, the server where it's hosted, the layout that you're on, even the found set, so a bunch of environmental information about the session that you're in.And so what I can do is I can be on this database, let's say it's hosted on a server, and I have one record showing, I can then save and send a snapshot link and I can go and say I wanna save it via message, via mail, or I can move it over to one of these other share sheet supported applications as well.
So this is a good way to say, hey, I'm in the database. I'm looking at these found set of records. I wanna share with you what I'm looking at. You can save a snapshot link. It's the same thing that you can do on the desktop with FileMaker Pro.
You have printing options, which we'll cover in more detail later in this course, and even exporting, so you can take data that's in your system and you can export it out, you can change the name if you want.It will, by default, take on the file name. You can pick these different supported formats for exporting your files, which are similar to the FileMaker Pro desktop export formats. After you pick your format, you can choose the fields that you wanna export. So, here are all the different fields that are available to me. I can select the ones I want. And I can even have some group by options, which are triggered by the sort order, same thing in FileMaker Go.
And when I'm done, I can choose whether to use the layout formatting, so that means, like, for example, if I have a number field formatted as currency, I can export it out formatted as currency or I can just export it out how it's stored, which would just be raw data.I hit continue and, same kind of thing as you've seen in the last couple of options, I can choose my share sheet to either share it using message, mail, or any of these other supported apps, or I can use the send to option on the share sheet to send it to another file sharing application if I want to. And then there's some navigation options that you have.
You can actually get from any layout to another layout by just hitting the layout options and navigate that way. Now, best practice is really that you're creating buttons and navigation scripts throughout your custom app so that your users never have to go to the menu bar to navigate the layouts.It's the same kind of principle that applies on FileMaker on the desktop. So, that's why a lot of users will hide the toolbar completely so users don't have access to the menu bar. But if you want to navigate, or if you're doing some development and you want to navigate, you just go to the layout option and choose which layout you're looking for. If you don't see the layout here, that means that you have to go into FileMaker Pro, open up the file, and go into manage layouts and make sure that you've selected that it's visible in the layout list. And those of course could be conditional based on the account and privilege that your user is assigned to as well.Same thing with scripts, it's not customary that you can allow users to run scripts from this dialogue. They're usually associated with buttons or triggers.
But if you need to, that's where you're find them. And then other settings, user name is what gets logged in some cases if the programmer set it up that way.
You can see who's logging in, using the device, and this is where that who part of it is solved. This is the user name.
And then you can see which versions you're working with. So, it's very similar experience to what you're used to on FileMaker Go.
It's the exact same experience that maybe you have seen already in FileMaker Go on the phone, iPod Touch, or even FileMaker WebDirect in the browser. Are you already familiar with FileMaker Pro and the basics of database design? It's time to get started with FileMaker Go, the free app that allows you to run your FileMaker custom apps on iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad. In this course, FileMaker expert Cris Ippolite shows how to make your way around FileMaker Go, design FileMaker apps for deployment on Go, work with data, and create new layouts that are optimized for mobile. He also shows how to communicate with other installed apps, and trigger actions based on the proximity to other hardware with Apple's iBeacon technology. Once you have learned the basics of FileMaker Go, you'll have the tools to take your work mobile—anywhere iOS devices can travel.