In this video, we explore the concept of a “clickable interface”. Traditionally, a Claris FileMaker developer would have to spend hours in layout mode manually creating squares that represent a floor plan or some architectural schematic. They would then have to create individual FileMaker elements such as fields, portals, buttons, and popovers and assign each one by hand, one by one. This is a very tedious and time-consuming process especially considering some floor plans have many objects that range in the hundreds or even thousands of elements. In addition, assigning fields, buttons, calculations, and tooltips to a layout with this many objects is going to be a performance killer.
Instead, we are using a predefined image with all the objects already drawn (think of a pre-defined floor plan graphic) as the starting point. We then insert this into a standard FileMaker container field and it’s converted as a background image displayed in a web viewer. Then a data entry person simply creates a simple plot point top and bottom to each graphic and assigns it to a given name. This allows the user to do a much quicker assignment of the floor plan without the need for a developer. And if the floor plan changes, you don’t need to create a brand new layout – you simply just reinsert a new image and have the user replot it. Doing things in this way keeps the performance moving at light speed as well since you are not creating hundreds of FileMaker objects that have to be woven together and manually programmed.
This video gets you started with understanding the concept that you can consider using in your own solutions. If your organization has a need for something like this, we’d love to help you to get started as well!
Have a look at our overview of FileMaker 19 features: https://youtu.be/lwN_Tp5iOEs
► PCI WEBSITE: https://www.productivecomputing.com/
► ONLINE UNIVERSITY: https://www.productivecomputinguniversity.com/
► TWITTER: https://twitter.com/prodcomp
► FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/productivecomputing/
► LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/productive-computing-inc.
► NEWSLETTER: http://eepurl.com/c_ZkGr
Please subscribe if you like this content or want to stay informed on more Productive Computing and FileMaker training videos.
► Auto Subscribe: https://youtube.com/c/ProductiveComputing?sub_confirmation=1
Thanks for watching!
