If you come across the problem of a Filemaker Pro 9 client on Mac OSX not being able to connect to a FileMaker server, it is probable that you need to update the client.  The update solves the issue with the SSL (Secure Socket Layering) certificate for FileMaker Pro Clients installed after Sept 22, 2008.  

SSL is enabled in FileMaker Server to only allow SSL encrypted FileMaker Pro clients to access hosted FileMaker databases for security.  This is especially important when accessing FileMaker Server hosted FileMaker files through ports or pinholes on routers.

To download FileMaker Pro update, please go to: 

FileMaker Pro Update

More info on Update:

More info on update

Make the Case for FileMaker Pro to Corporate IT Departments

FileMaker Pro solutions often spring up in departments to solve immediate problems for users. But what does a corporate IT department need to know about FileMaker Pro before adopting it as a standard?

By Stephen Gallagher, FileMaker Inc. senior director of systems engineering and field sales

If you develop FileMaker Pro solutions for an organization with an internal IT department, at some point IT will want answers to some legitimate questions. Understandably, applications that are new to the organization or have been used “under the radar” can cause concerns. To maintain your relationship with these organizations, it’s important you understand the role of IT departments in specifying or guiding the use of workgroup applications throughout the enterprise, and you address their spoken or unspoken concerns — sooner rather than later. The FileMaker field sales organization can help you make the case.

This article provides some guidelines for explaining the value of FileMaker Pro in an organization’s IT strategy.

Acknowledge the IT group’s role

It’s effective to open a dialog with IT by asking for the IT group’s questions about FileMaker Pro. It isn’t necessary to answer the questions as they’re asked; you simply want to let IT know you understand their concerns. Typical questions include:

• How can we integrate FileMaker Pro into the application development environment?
• Why haven’t we heard of FileMaker Pro?
• How does FileMaker Pro scale to fit into the organization?
• What are the boundaries we should put around FileMaker Pro development and deployment?
• What kinds of projects provide the best return on investment (ROI)?
• Why should we add FileMaker Pro as a standard when we already have standards such as SQL Server, Oracle, Java, and Visual Basic?
• How can we avoid data silos when using FileMaker Pro?
• How can we control the proliferation of inappropriate application development with FileMaker Pro?

Introduce FileMaker Pro and its vision

FileMaker Pro is a toolkit designed to help people build solutions that make data more meaningful and rapidly provide a return on investment (ROI). FileMaker Pro solutions address tactical business challenges ranging from tracking scientific experiments to grant management to purchase-request tracking systems.

IT groups that use FileMaker Pro are in good company: FileMaker has sold more than 12 million copies globally, and 70 percent of unit sales in North America are licenses. Customers tend to be “thought leaders” who use FileMaker Pro to gain a competitive advantage and improve their knowledge workers’ productivity.

Contrast FileMaker Pro with existing DBMS standards

Explain that FileMaker Pro solves a different type of business problem than other IT standards. DBMS standards such as Oracle and SQL Server are intended for strategic business problems involving largely static business processes, such as cash register systems, transactional systems, and financial systems. The development technique used with these standards is commonly referred to as the “waterfall” technique because a detailed specification is completed before development begins and development steps happen in sequence.

FileMaker Pro, in contrast, is designed to solve tactical rather than strategic business problems. Development can be based on a much looser specification, is iterative, and lets developers create a functional prototype in hours or days. The FileMaker Pro development technique is known as the “spiral” technique because development is iterative rather than sequential. The spiral technique produces excellent results for companies that have dynamic business processes. In a recent survey of FileMaker Pro users, 67 percent said they modified their solution at least weekly and 85 percent at least monthly. Such flexibility simply isn’t possible with any other DBMS in the organization.

Explain the FileMaker Pro value propositionFileMaker Pro gives users and workgroups a faster and less expensive approach to building applications that support their own job functions. Traditional database solutions require at least three different skill sets: database architecture, business logic, and user interface. FileMaker Pro encapsulates all three elements into one product, wrapping them in a graphical user interface (figure 1). Most FileMaker Pro development is point and click. You can think of FileMaker Pro an integrated development environment (IDE) or a rapid application development (RAD) tool rather than just a database.

Describe how FileMaker Pro can integrate into IT environments

FileMaker Pro is unique in that an IT professional can develop a single-user solution on the desktop and then, without code modification, scale it to serve a 250-person workgroup. All you have to do is deploy the solution on FileMaker Server or FileMaker Server Advanced.

Built into each copy of FileMaker Pro are connectivity standards such as ODBC, JDBC, and XML so IT can easily exchange data between FileMaker Pro solutions and existing corporate database management systems. You can also build FileMaker Pro solutions to include the corporate data dictionary and corporate schema.

Some IT groups choose to become actively involved with FileMaker Pro development and others do not. IT groups that want to publish standards so FileMaker Pro co-exists in their environment can take advantage of a rich suite of products, services, training, and certification.

You might mention to IT that users tend to genuinely like using FileMaker Pro solutions, which can help IT groups increase user satisfaction. Why? FileMaker Pro solutions readily address problems that knowledge workers previously had to solve on paper or with a spreadsheet.

Make the ROI case

FileMaker Pro provides ROI by improving the productivity of knowledge workers who aren’t served by other DBMS. If the IT group is typical, 80 percent of its application development budget affects less than 20 percent of knowledge workers (figure 2). The majority of knowledge workers — in marketing, research, real estate, and other departments — are using and abusing spreadsheets to keep track of their information. If the company can improve workgroup productivity with a tool that integrates with the IT infrastructure, these productivity improvements go straight to the bottom line.

Ask for a presentation sooner rather than later

IT organizations need answers to key issues before they adopt FileMaker Pro as a standard. It’s most effective to answer IT’s concerns about FileMaker Pro as soon as the questions arise. When developers invite me to present to an internal IT organization, the invitation tends to come only after IT has become concerned enough to consider banning the use of FileMaker Pro. Please don’t wait for a crisis before inviting FileMaker to make a presentation to the IT department.

“FileMaker Script Step: Set Field By Name [; ]“

Allows us to have a single script step evaluate which field to populate with a calculated value.  Cool.

I frequently write scripts that go through a routine of “If, Else If” evaluations to set different fields with values, based on some sort of business rule or data evaluation.  The “Set Field By Name [ ]” script step allows me determine which field I want to populate with a calculation.  : )

FileMaker Script Step:  Set Field By Name

Purpose
Replaces the entire contents of a calculated target field in the current record with the result of the calculated value.
Format
Set Field By Name[; ]
Options
•
Select Specify target field or click Specify to create a calculation to specify the field whose contents you want to replace. In the Specify Calculation dialog box, use the field list (on the left) and the functions list (on the right) with the mathematical and text operators to build the calculation.
•
For Calculated result, click Specify to define the calculated value.
Compatibility
This script step is also supported in web publishing and in a FileMaker Server scheduled script.
Description
The Set Field By Name script step lets you create a calculation to specify a field name, then change the value of the field either literally or based on a second calculation.
The calculated target field must return a text result.
If quotation marks are not included around the fully qualified field name, the target field name is obtained from the named field.
If no field is specified and a field is selected in Browse mode or Find mode, that field is used.
Notes
•
The specified field doesn’t have to be on the current layout.
•
Set Field By Name ignores validation checking.
•
When possible, the Set Field By Name script step makes the record active and leaves it active until the record is exited or committed. Scripts that use a series of Set Field By Name script steps should group these steps together if possible, so that subsequent Set Field By Name script steps can act on the record without having to lock the record, download and upload data, index the field, and so on, after each individual Set Field By Name script step. These functions and record-level validation are performed after the record has been exited or committed.
Example 1
In the following example, a calculation identifies the target field in which a value should be replaced based on the geographical location in which the data was entered. Then the script enters a calculated value in the target field based on the appropriate currency exchange rate.
Set Field By Name
[If (Members::Country = "USA" ;
Members::Fee Paid-USD ; Members::Fee Paid-GBP);
If (Members::Country = "USA" ;
Members::Fee* ;Members::Fee*;
Example 2
The following example replaces the contents of the Country field located in Table1 with the data located in the Name field in related Table2.
Set Field By Name["Table1::Country";Table2::Name]
Note To ensure proper evaluation, FileMaker Pro must treat the target field as a literal string. Therefore, you must include quotation marks around the calculated target field.
Example 3
The following example evaluates the global target field Location::fieldName, then replaces the contents of fieldName with the data value located in the Name field in related Table2.
Set Field By Name[Location::fieldName;Table2::Name]
Note The context for the calculation (determined in the upper left corner of the Specify Calculation dialog box) is essential for proper evaluation.
Example 4
The following example uses the GetFieldName function to ensure that FileMaker Pro retrieves the fully qualified name of the target field and the Evaluate function to extract the value stored in the target field, then replaces the contents of fieldName with the data value located in the Name field in related Table2.
Set Field By Name
[GetFieldName(Evaluate(Location::fieldName));Table2::Name]

FileMaker Pro 10, FileMaker Advanced 10, FileMaker Server 10 and FileMaker Server Advanced 10 are getting Great Reviews… and We Love Using the new platform too  : ) 

5 out of 6 Stars: “FileMaker Pro 10 introduces sound practical improvements and it manages to do so within a familiar framework. With something here for everyone and new features that are genuinely useful, this is one upgrade we can heartily recommend.”

FileMaker Pro 10 is a ‘must–have’ for those who spend their time working with databases. With features to streamline database navigation…and shortcuts to get you where you need to go quickly, we think this update is worth the money for saving you time so you can move on to the next big project.

New FileMaker Pro 10 is ‘hard to resist’: “This upgrade offers lots of gain and almost no pain. In fact, at first glance, FileMaker Pro 10 offers so many real benefits to developers and end-users alike that you’re going to find it hard to resist the urge to upgrade.”

‘A Solid Upgrade’: “In an era when companies slap a few alterations onto an interface and call it a ‘new version,’ FileMaker Pro 10 bucks the trend with a solid upgrade that will appeal to customers and developers. Easier to use than the previous version, FMP 10 ups its game with powerful new dynamic reports and trigger scripts.”

When setting Up networks to access FileMaker solutions hosted on FileMaker Server through pin holes, the following ports need to be opened and pointed at the FileMaker Server. (Turn SSL on!)

Port number; Used by
5003; FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Server for hosting files
50003;FileMaker Server service (Windows) or daemon (Mac OS)
50006;FileMaker Server Helper service (Windows) or daemon (Mac OS)

This fantastic diagram outlining the various FileMaker ports was put together by the geniuses at Six Fried Rice, Configuring a Firewall for FileMaker 9 Thank you!

FileMaker Pro 10 and FileMaker Pro 10 Advanced Considerations and Issues

Backward Compatibility
Miscellaneous
Scripts
Save as PDF
Instant Web Publishing
Mac OS X
Windows
External Data Sources
Documentation Errata

1. Backward Compatibility
1.1. In FileMaker Pro 10, if a user navigates to a portal without selecting a specific portal row and without making an object active within a specific portal row, Get(PortalRowNumber) returns row 0 rather than row 1.
1.2. To add new custom menu items such as Saved Finds to menu sets created in versions prior to FileMaker Pro 10 Advanced, create a new custom menu and add the new menu item from the list ofstandard FileMaker menus in the Create Custom Menu dialog box.
1.3. When you execute the Halt Script script step with a “pre-event” script trigger, Halt Script cancels the original event, similar to when False is returned from an Exit Script script step.
1.4. If a file is hosted with an earlier version of FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Server, and a password change is required at next login, FileMaker Pro 10 clients will not be able to use the dialog to change the password. This issue does not occur when the file is hosted with FileMaker Pro 10 or FileMaker Server 10. Clients can still change passwords by choosing File menu > Change Password, as long as a password change is not required on next login.
2. Miscellaneous
2.1. If you have a printer saved in a script and the printer is named the same in Windows and in Mac OS X, when the script is run on the opposite platform and the printer is not the OS default it will print to the OS default instead of the printer in the script.
2.2. SMTP mail supports UTF-8 only.
2.3. User name will not be correctly encoded for some mail servers when the Email Address field in the SMTP server configuration is blank.
2.4. During an ODBC import, querying a SQL Server 2005 / 2008 table requires including the schema’s name in the query (i.e. schema.table) if it is not part of the schema being currently accessed.
2.5. The start of the week for find requests involving day names will always be based on the file’s locale (the regional/language settings for a file upon creation), even when the Use System Formats option is in effect.
2.6. Auto-complete only works in the last line of a multi-line field.
3. Scripts
3.1. If an external FileMaker file returns a set of related records when a “Go to related record” script step is executed, the sort order specified for the relationship to the external file will be ignored.
3.2. In Windows, if the functions Get(DocumentsPath) and Get(DesktopPath) are used to set a variable file or folder path, the string “file:” should be appended ahead of either function in order to be set properly. For example, create the following script: Set Variable [$test; Value: "file:" &
Get(DesktopPath) & "test.txt"].
3.3. “Run with full access” must be enabled for an entire script to completely execute if the script re-logins with an account that has no access to the current script.
4. Save as PDF
4.1. In Windows, when the Save Records As PDF script step is used with the Append option, the file attributes and permissions of the target PDF are reset to the system default.
4.2. In Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger), opening a PDF file saved from FileMaker Pro in the Preview application with the option enabled to require a password on open and no password specified for printing will disable printing of this PDF file. A password prompt will display when attempting to print, however, it does not accept the password set for opening the file.
4.3. Some fonts cannot be saved out to PDF files from FileMaker Pro due to third party license restrictions. As a result, the PDF file may be blank.
4.4. Font fallback is not supported in saved PDF files from FileMaker Pro. An example of this is the tab control label (which only supports one font). If the font used doesn’t support all characters included in the tab control label, then the unsupported characters appear as out of range squares when saved as a PDF file even if they appear correctly on screen and when printed.
5. Instant Web Publishing
5.1. When using SMTP mail with Instant Web Publishing, you must specify the absolute path to any attached files in the Send Mail dialog (for example, filewin for Windows, filemac for the Mac OS). For FileMaker Server, place file attachments in the ../FileMaker Server/Data/Documents folder. For more information about file paths, see FileMaker Pro Help.
5.2. In Windows, to improve performance of an Instant Web Publishing or Custom Web Publishing solution, avoid using localhost in the URL by replacing it with the IP address, either 127.0.0.1 or the actual host IP. For example, change http://localhost/fmi/iwp to use http://127.0.0.1/fmi/iwp instead.
5.3. Formatting as a Drop-down calendar is not supported for timestamp fields in Instant Web Publishing.
Calendar icons and calendars will not appear in Edit and Find modes for this configuration.
5.4. Using the web browser’s “Back” or “Forward” navigation buttons within an Instant Web Publishing session is not supported or recommended because the results can be unpredictable.
5.5. Content in a web viewer may have unintended effects on Instant Web Publishing. Therefore you must test the websites you want to display within a web viewer. For example, certain web pages contain attributes that cause them to completely replace Instant Web Publishing in the web browser window.
6. Mac OS X
6.1. In the Mac OS, if you set up a print script step to output to print preview, the setting is not remembered when the script is run, it will instead print to the printer defined in the print script.
6.2. In the Mac OS, opening files containing transparent PICT images may cause the PICT images to no longer appear transparent in FileMaker Pro. Applying a transparent fill to the object may correct this problem.
6.3. In the Mac OS, SMTP mail does not support IPv6.
6.4. In the Mac OS, type-ahead is not supported for Asian characters in a drop-down list.
6.5. In the Mac OS, for some languages, you cannot access the Tutorial from the Learn It link on the Quick
Start Screen. Instead, choose Help menu > Product Documentation > Tutorial in order to open the
tutorial PDF.
7. Windows
7.1. In Windows, ScriptStatus() property of the ActiveX Application object returns 3 if a script is queued (triggered but not yet started).
7.2. In Windows, you cannot press Ctrl+Alt to force-apply an incompatible font from the formatting bar. Instead, use this key combination with Format menu > Font.
7.3. In Windows Vista with User Account Control enabled, running Setup.exe results in a UAC alert that refers to the program as Setxxxx.tmp. Confirming the alert will allow Setup.exe to run normally.
7.4. In Windows Vista, an object on a layout flashes as the document window is resized. You can fix this by enabling the option “Disable Desktop Composition” in the FileMaker Pro Application properties.
8. External Data Sources
For updates on supported ODBC data sources and drivers, see www.filemaker.com/support/technologies.
8.1. In Windows x64 editions, Oracle drivers will not accept login credentials from FileMaker Pro when attempting to connect to an Oracle data source if FileMaker Pro is installed into the default location: “Program Files (x86)” folder. For the Oracle drivers to work properly install FileMaker Pro into a directory that is not the “Program Files (x86)” directory. (Windows x64 has two “Program Files” directories, however, installation into the “Program Files” directory is disallowed.)
8.2. FileMaker Pro does not differentiate zero and NULL (empty) values in shadow fields. For example, changing a shadow field’s value from empty to “0″ and then refreshing the window will still display an empty field instead of “0.”
9. Documentation Errata
9.1. The following Control script steps no longer clear the last error condition: If, Else, Else If, End If, Loop, Exit Loop If, End Loop, Exit Script, and Halt Script.
9.2. FileMaker Pro 10 no longer requires deactivation when uninstalling the product.
9.3. The SetPrecision function returns inconsistent results in calculations involving small values. For example, for numbers with more than 16 decimal places, only 16 decimal places are returned.FileMaker Pro Help incorrectly states that constant numbers are left at the precision in which they were entered.
9.4. Some script step Help topics contain incorrect information about web-compatibility or server-side support. Here is the correct information:
9.4.1. The Insert Current User Name script step and Set Error Capture script step are supported in web publishing and in a FileMaker Server scheduled script.
9.4.2. The Open URL script step and Set Web Viewer script step are supported in web publishing but are not supported in a FileMaker Server scheduled script.
9.5. For the Install OnTimer Script script step, FileMaker Pro Help incorrectly states that the default interval is zero and you must specify a script name. The default interval is blank, not zero. You must specify a script, not a script name, because scripts can have the same name.
9.6. FileMaker Pro Help does not provide a complete list of the data returned by the Get(ApplicationVersion) function. Get(ApplicationVersion) returns: Pro (version) for FileMaker Pro, ProAdvanced (version) for FileMaker Pro Advanced, Runtime (version) for FileMaker Runtime, FileMaker Web Publishing (version) for FileMaker Web Client, Web Publishing Engine (version) for FileMaker Server Web Client, xDBC (version) for xDBC Client, and Server (version) for FileMaker Server.
9.7. In FileMaker Pro 10 for Windows, the keyboard shortcuts for increasing and decreasing text size have changed. You press Ctrl+Shift+> and Ctrl+Shift+< in order to increase or decrease to the next available size in the Format menu. You press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+> and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+< to increase or decrease text size by 1 point.
9.8. In addition to the column types and attributes listed in the ODBC and JDBC Guide, the SQL CREATE TABLE statement also supports the column types “Numeric”, “Double Precision” and “Float” and the column attribute “Unique”.
9.9. Get(HostIPAddress) returns only the IP address that the client used to connect to the host.

Photo caption here

Sample Help and Resources Entry. General Help and Resource Topics… Mac Use, networking, etc. New Entries will show on the main page, and others will be