Anyone that is interested, please send your resume and a sample of your work with a master password and a brief description of what the sample is accomplishing to jobs @ clevelandconsulting.com.

FileMaker Pro 12 was released last week with a host of new features. Among them are:

• Enhanced container fields. The container fields have been re-engineered to improve database performance. You can now drag and drop any type of file into your database, including photos, videos, music, documents, and more.

• 40 new themes with pre-determined fonts, colors, and styling that allow users to attractively manage their databases.

• Quick Charts, a charting tool that allows users to to quickly and effectively display data in an attractive graphical manner.

Help Us, Help You!

Want to help shape the newest version of CC NonProfit? Take this brief survey, and let us know how you use our product and where it can be improved.

Be on the lookout for an update to CC NonProfit in the coming weeks. We are very excited to get CC NonProfit v2.2 out to our customers!

The Tests Run

We have a testing database that we use for internal purposes which we used to run these tests. It can run a sequence of routines, namely:

• Create Records
  • Create a specified number of records with the window either frozen or not.
• Custom Function Loop
  • A self-referential custom function looping a specified number of times.
• Empty Loop
  • A looping script incrementing a local variable a specified number of times.
• Find Records
  • Perform a find on all records in the sample data set on either an indexed or unindexed field, either locally or through a relationship, a specified number of times.
• Layout Change
  • Jump between two layouts, either refreshing the layout or not, a specified number of times.
• Record Loop
  • Loop through all the records is the sample data set, either refreshing the window on each new record or not.
• Sort Records
  • Perform a sort on all records in the sample data set on either an indexed or unindexed field a specified number of times.

We have the database process a long loop of each event, and record the time it takes to process. We log the event in the database, and that way we can compare it across multiple platforms. All functions are done in a straightforward manner, and use only native FileMaker functions.

We built the tests using sample tables copied and pasted from the contact management template provided by FileMaker Inc. to keep the table structure simple and repeatable. All tests on the iPad, iPad2, and original iPad were done with the device plugged in and no other applications running in the background, in case that ends up affecting anything.

The hope is that this can start a trend towards finding ways to efficiently code and design on the iOS platform.

The Results

Our results from our test are as follows, each cell is the time in loops per second the device could generate and the second chart is how many times faster than the original iPad the device was. One important note, FileMaker can’t tell which iPad it is on, so the test results in the database are combined in the report, if you look, the faster ones are on the iPad2 and the really fast ones are on the new iPad.

Loops Per Second

Number of Times Faster Than Original iPad and iPad2

And for those of you who like pictures, here’s the chart showing the number of times faster one iPad is to the other.

FileMaker Go iPad Speed Comparison

Of course we don’t expect you to want to compare the new iPad to our machine, we figured you’d want to see how your systems will compare relative to your machine, so below you’ll find a download link for the database we use to do the testing. It contains our baseline tests on the iMac, the Original iPad, the iPad2, and the new iPad for your own comparisons.

Grab the zipped FileMaker database here…

Enjoy

Houston’s Skyline

Somewhere Between Houston and Austin

Texas State Capital at Austin

Dallas’s Maze

We were pleased to be able to meet with the groups and each offered unique feedback; some even providing feature requests for a future version! CC Pivot’s unique ability to create pivot tables as a cross-tab report provides a very useful addition to any FileMaker solution, and many of the participants felt likewise.

This tour represents our second trip to various FMPUG meetings (the first being back at the end of July, beginning of August and was along the west coast). We have enjoyed meeting many different FileMaker developers and users and are excited to be able to provide them a useful tool for their solutions.

If you have questions about how CC Pivot can best be used in your organization or in your FileMaker solution to enhance your reporting capabilities, feel free to contact us at info@clevelandconsulting.com.

Software bugs are called bugs for a reason – they’re small and hard to find! So we’ve been spending a little time doing some search and destroy here at CCI. We recently uncovered a bug in the plugin for our FileMaker reporting tool, CC Pivot. It produced an error in CC Pivot when the data being reported on had extraneous return characters. Fortunately, our crack team was able to quickly diagnose and solve the problem! CC Pivot (Full & Free) has been updated, so rest assured, this bug has been eliminated from our product lineup.

Updating Your Solution

If you’ve purchased CC Pivot, we’ve sent out an email with instructions on how to install the update (it’s pretty easy!). You can see the instructions here. If you’re not sure that you have the latest version, open the preferences in FileMaker and look at the CC Pivot plugin. The newly updated version is 1.043, if you’re using 1.042 or earlier, then it’s time to update. If you’ve purchased CC Pivot and did not receive an email about the update, just send us an email with your email address and/or order number from your purchase to support@clevelandconsulting.com and we’ll send the instructions on how to download the update right away!

Most significantly, this version adds a Change Log to the Donations amount field. This feature was added at the suggestion of a fiscal officer at Ohio State University, who recommended it to provide a high level of internal control for a nonprofit organization. (We won’t mention that this  fiscal officer happens to be the spouse of the CC NonProfit product manager.) The related report on the Change Log will allow administrators of an organization to view any changes to the amount of donations, with the date, account of the person making the change, and the reason for the change.  (Of course, to be effective the Change Log must be paired with appropriate FileMaker account security.)

This release also adds a feature frequently requested by our customers: the option to print address labels for bulk correspondence mailings. This option supplements the ability to print addresses directly on envelopes which was part of the previous version.

In addition, this new version updates its import wizard to include importing data from CC NonProfit Free and from version 2.0, as well as from v1.x.

You can continue to check out CC NonProfit on a public server, at fmp7://east.01.fmsdb.com/ccnonprofit2-1.fp7. Or, test out our lighter version, CC NonProfit Free. When you’re ready, purchase this latest release of CC NonProfit.

CC NonProfit helps an organization keep track of its various contacts, donations, pledges, and events, giving it the ability to send targeted mailings to its constituents, and giving it robust reporting capabilities for reporting to its donors, administrators and grantors about the donations and pledges it has received. While the free version does not have all of these capabilities, it remains a full-featured program, making it a valuable asset to any organization. Compare the features of the Free and Standard versions of the software on the product page for CC NonProfit.

Or download the free version directly.

We have gotten great reviews of the existing full product, we wanted to make the product available in a lighter version to everyone. So many folks have told us this is the one feature they wished Filemaker had always had, so we thought we would make a version available to the whole community.

For people who aren’t aware of what  CC Pivot does, there are is a walkthrough video of it on our site. However basically it allows the creation of a pivot table, or cross tab report, directly in FileMaker Pro, the integration is super simple, 5 minutes or less, and no modification to your existing system is necessary.

The free version of CC Pivot bass all the core features of the full version, the core version add the ability to report on related fields as well as a host of other additions. A full feature comparison is available on the product page.

If you don’t want to read about all the differences and just want to grab the free version, you can do that here.

Thanks for helping us make CC Pivot a great product, and please keep the reviews and suggestions coming. You can post them here, or email them to us directly at support@clevelandconsulting.com

The Quick Path

If you feel pretty comfortable with CC Pivot and FileMaker in general, here’s a quick path to upgrade. It can also be used as just a basic overview, as I’ll go into more detail further into this post. Or, you can just skip right down to the detailed path.

1. Copy & Paste One Field

The field CCP.Pivot::_exportas needs to be copied to the CCP.Pivot table in your solution.

2. Copy & Paste Two Scripts

Two scripts need to be copied to your solution.

• m.current.pivot.export_xls [ { filename ; filepath } ] (found in the folder: CC Pivot -> models -> current pivot)
• c.pivot.excel (found in the folder: CC Pivot -> controllers -> pivot)

They should copy and paste without any problems, unless you have renamed the CCP.Pivot table occurrence. If you have, our recommendation is to name your version of the CCP.Pivot table occurrence back to CCP.Pivot before doing the copy and pasting, then change it back after that process is completed. This way the field references won’t break.

3. Copy & Paste One Button

On the layout CC Pivot there is a new button on the bottom left with “Excel” as its label. Copy and paste that button to your solution where your pivot display is. Alternatively, you can create your own button in your solution and just make sure it calls the c.pivot.excel script.

The End

That’s it. Not too hard, eh? Below we’ll go over the same thing with some screen shots to help explain things a little more in detail.

The Detailed Path

Now let’s examine each of the above sections and show you in a little more detail exactly what we mean. To get ready to follow these instructions, have both CC Pivot 1.1 upgraded file open as well as your own file. If this is too far down in the details, you can pop to the surface by looking at just the quick path.

1. Copy & Paste One Field

There are a few new fields in the CC Pivot 1.1 upgrade. Most of the fields are to help with the newly added import from previous version feature. However, since you aren’t importing any data, but rather upgrading your own version of CC Pivot that you’ve integrated, you won’t need those fields. The one field you will need is in the table CCP.Pivot and named _exportas. It’s a global text field that can be found towards the bottom.

• Open up the Manage Database dialog in CC Pivot 1.1
• Go to the table CCP.Pivot and open it to see its fields
• Select the field _exportas
• Copy it
• Close the Manage Database dialog
• Open the Manage Database dialog in your file
• Go to the CCP.Pivot table that you have previously added and go into its fields
• Paste the field into the table
• Close the Manage Database dialog window

All done with this step!

2. Copy & Paste Two Scripts

In this step we have to copy & paste two scripts into your file. They should copy & paste without any problems, unless you have renamed the CCP.Pivot table occurrence in your system to something else. If this is the case, you will want to rename it back to CCP.Pivot before we proceed with this step, and then name it back to your chosen name after this step. Doing this will ensure that no script steps are broken.

Script 1: m.current.pivot.export_xls [ { filename ; filepath } ]

• Open the Manage Scripts dialog window in CC Pivot 1.1 and in your file
• Find the CC Pivot -> models ->current pivot folder in the CC Pivot 1.1 Manage Scripts Dialog window and select the m.current.pivot.export_xls [ { filename ; filepath } ] script as seen in the picture above
• Copy it
• Select your file’s Manage Scripts dialog window and paste the script wherever you want it to be (we recommend using the same folder schema)

That’s that one, now on to the next one!

Script 2: c.pivot.excel

• Open the Manage Scripts dialog window in CC Pivot 1.1 and in your file
• Find the CC Pivot -> controllers ->pivot folder in the CC Pivot 1.1 Manage Scripts Dialog window and select the c.pivot.excel script as seen in the picture above
• Copy it
• Select your file’s Manage Scripts dialog window and paste the script wherever you want it to be (we recommend using the same folder schema)

That’s it! You’re done with step two. Almost there!

3. Copy & Paste One Button

In the previous step you copy & pasted a script called c.pivot.excel into your file. This is the script that you will want to call in order to perform the export to excel. You’ll want to have a way to allow your users to easily run this script. So you’ll want to have a button that is tied to this script. We’ve made one for you in CC Pivot 1.1!

Using our button

• Go to Layout Mode in CC Pivot 1.1 and in your own file
• Open the CC Pivot layout in CC Pivot 1.1 and the layout that contains the pivot display in your own file
• Select the button labeled “Excel” at the bottom left of the screen in CC Pivot 1.1
• Copy it
• Go to your file’s layout and paste the button wherever you like

Using your own button

• In your own file, find the layout where you are displaying the pivot
• Make a button and place it wherever is most appropriate for your file
• Attach the c.pivot.excel script to that button

Finished!

Congratulations, you’ve upgraded your integrated version of CC Pivot to include exporting to excel!

And, in the words of our society’s most distinguished, “That’s All Folks!”

We have added the most requested feature, in a way I hope you’ll like, Export to Excel. We have always supported copy and paste from the pivot table to Excel, but as an built in function, we relied on user interaction to get the data over. Now it is as simple as one click to save your pivot table to an excel file.

Check it out over in our store, or buy the unlocked product here.

If you are unfamiliar with the product you cay try the locked demo here.

Already own CC Pivot and want to upgrade? Just contact us sales@clevelandconsulting.com with your original order number and we can send you the new file. If you have already integrated the solution we have even created an import routine so you can save your pivot tables you already created.

Leave any feedback in the comments below, and if you have purchased the product, don’t forget to review it at the bottom of this page.