1. Interested in learning more about FileMaker Go? Join us for a free webinar.

    October 18, 2011 by Karen

    FileMaker Go promises the power of FileMaker Pro in a smaller package, with the flexibility a mobile device requires. But with a new platform comes new methods, techniques and expectations for development. Leveraging the power of FileMaker Go is not just about understanding general core development skills, but understanding the benefits and limitations of the mobile platform. Are you curious how you can use FileMaker Go as a development platform in your organization? Join Anvil Dataworks and the FM Academy for a free webinar: 5 Important Techniques for Building a Solution in FileMaker Go Thursday, November 10 Noon to 1:00 [...]

  2. Creating Dashboards with FileMaker

    September 28, 2011 by Sameer

    First, I would like to thank everyone who attended the first ever FileMaker Academy Webinar, How to Create Dashboards in FileMaker. This blog is intended merely to summarize the webinar and to act as a reference to the development strategies that were discussed during the presentation. Dashboards, or Management Information Systems, are designed to give employees information pertaining to their companies unique business process. Think of a car dashboard, and how it displays information about the status of the car (e.g. Speed, Odometer, Gas, Engine Heat).  Items known as “Widgets” display information about a particular category, and the combination of [...]

  3. Dive into Your Enterprise Data this Summer

    June 20, 2011 by Karen

    We’re in the middle of summer and we bet all you want to do is dive into a cool, clear pool.  We at Anvil Dataworks cannot provide exactly that for you, but we can provide you with the opportunity to dive into your data—your enterprise data—and make it work better with your FileMaker systems. Join us for a free webinar on July 13 at 2:00 PM EST, and learn how you can pull data out of your MSSQL, MySQL, and Oracle databases, load it into your FileMaker database, manipulate it, and push it out to share with others. Use SQL [...]

  4. Price Is Not Everything When Choosing a FileMaker Developer for Your Custom Solution

    March 10, 2011 by Karen

    We at Anvil Dataworks have had the pleasure of working will all kinds of businesses and all kinds of solutions.  In our experience, most buyers of custom FileMaker development are looking for a solution based on value and return on investment.  But sometimes, buyers can get caught up in the hourly rate cost and make poor vendor choice decisions based on price alone.  Here’s what happened to two of our customers.  We want to share these lessons so you don’t make similar mistakes when choosing a FileMaker developer for your next project. The first client is an association based in [...]

  5. Calendar Events from FileMaker – No Plugin Required

    January 3, 2011 by Sameer

    The other day a client asked me if FileMaker could do something, which I had always believed was impossible to do innately from the program, create calendar events in Outlook. I had always thought I needed to use a plugin to get information from a FileMaker database to Outlook. Now the client didn’t want to use a plugin, they wanted to keep cost down on the system, so it fell on me to find a way to create calendar events through FileMaker based on data in the system. I found a way… It started with a dinner date. Strange, I [...]

  6. Dynamic Column Lists in FileMaker

    September 17, 2010 by Sameer

    I recently built an interesting tool for a client, which was based on the requests for having layout after layout of different lists. Some examples were a list for clients and their addresses, another a similar list, except for the need for the phone number to be attached, and than even later on the need for the email address. All as separate lists. Of course the differences for the column structure were based on what “found set” the users were working with. I decided that, instead of building a new layout for each list they needed, I would build one [...]

  7. DC User’s Group Meeting, August 4, 2010 – FileMaker Go!

    August 3, 2010 by Sameer

    FileMaker recently released a new program for the FileMaker Suite of products, FileMaker Go, the Mobile solution to database connectivity. As you may have read below in our review of the product, there are some rules and limitations for FMG that need to be addressed if you plan on developing for this new platform. The DC area is lucky to have an Engineer from FileMaker, and even luckier to have that Engineer present a special User Group meeting on the new iOS FileMaker Application. Please join us Wednesday August 4, 2010: FileMaker, Inc. One Metro Center 700 12th Street NW [...]

  8. FileMaker Go – a Quick Review

    July 23, 2010 by Sameer

    Just a few days ago FileMaker released their newest version of FileMaker, running on the Mac OS mobile platform. Wittingly named FileMaker Go, this new version of the software shows excellent promise for mobile database access. With full screen, multiple windows, and multiple database access, FileMaker inc. has gone all out with this new version. The first thing to note is FM Go’s price, which runs at $19.99 for the iPhone version and $39.99 for the iPad version. After completing the download and starting the application, we get a very nice looking home screen which contains files loaded on the [...]

  9. DC User’s Group Meeting, May 12, 2010

    May 14, 2010 by Sameer

    (Demo file is available for download in detailed view of this blog) At our last DC User’s group meeting we covered the topic of using some advanced scripting methods in a database to increase efficiency and overall speed in our system. The areas we covered were: 1. Using script triggers to free up real estate with buttons or tasks 2. Inserting images to containers so that users can reference images without having to do the tedious work finding the shared folder location, and renaming images. 3. Some basic centralizing of scripts for common tasks, such as creating new related records. [...]

  10. We now have FileMaker 11 Certified Developers

    April 8, 2010 by Anvil Dataworks

    As of Monday 4/5/2010 Anvil Dataworks now has 2 FileMaker 11 Certified Developers on staff. Sameer Khan and Chuck Melton both passed the beta certification exam. Our goal is to have the rest of our staff 11 certified by the end of the month. If you have an interest in becoming a FileMaker certified developer Anvil Dataworks offers a specialized FileMaker Developer Exam boot camp. You will work one on one with one of our highly qualified staff to review and learn all of the skills you need to pass the exam. Please contact Sales@anvildataworks.com if you have an interest.