Rubber Boots Data

Introduction to the series.

Given a FileMaker production setup, such as a given server box and settings, concurrent user count and network connections, what can one do to improve the speed of the database? That is, how can one refactor it: redesign and reprogram to improve speed while keeping the functionality exactly as it is? There are many ways, but before getting into nitty-gritty topics, this post and the series it belongs to, will deal with low-hanging fruit. They give an overview of all the easy tips and tricks that I came across during the past ten years or so.

This post will deal with two very well know speed improvements: performing scripts on the server, and using styles for layouts.

 

2 Perform data intensive scripts on the server

If your application is running on a server and users work with FileMaker client applications on their computer or iOS device, it makes sense to run data intensive tasks/scripts on the server. This will work faster than running them on the client machine because on the client machine all the necessary data needs to be transferred to the client, whereas the server has direct access to the data. Even with fast network connections using the Perform Script on Server ( PSoS ) script step will be faster. With a very slow network connection it might even make sense to run the less data intensive tasks on the server.

When users access the database through WebDirect, using PSoS is likely not to perform that much faster. This has to do with the fact that WebDirect runs user sessions on the FileMaker server ( either the actual server or a secondary one dedicated to WebDirect ) and only serves the interface to the user. In other words, with WebDirect, all scripts already run on the server.

2.A Limitations

One limitation is that not all script steps can run on a server. For some, like importing from one db file to another, one can program a workaround. For others, there is not. Notably, on a server, one can not invoke the web viewer to download data from a website. Obviously, one would normally use the Insert from URL script step, but some web servers do not reply to that.

2.B Price

The price to pay for the speed is that the scripts are run on the server, either because many scripts of the application are programmed to run there, and/or because there are many concurrent users. I do not know at which point the balance tilts towards better not performing the script on the server. Perhaps there is no easy answer to this question and it is a matter of monitoring server performance.

2.C Source

FileMaker’s own documentation points out that a reason ( the first mentioned, but not the only one ) to use PSOS ( as the script step is sometimes abbreviated ) is “to improve performance by reducing the amount of network traffic between the client and server”. Source.

 

3 Use styles for layouts

Themes and styles save the developer and FM a lot of time. Creating the styles and developing good naming conventions are not always easy, but once that is done, they do a lot of heavy lifting. Better not defer ‘until later’. Start using them immediately, especially if it is clear that one is working on a real application, or if one can suspect that the application may grow out of hand.

Styles make an application faster because they need to be loaded only once, similar to the use of cascading style sheets in websites. This is obvious for WebDirect applications, but also the case for client server setups.

3.A-B Limitations and price

I am not aware of any limitations to using Themes and Styles. The price, as mentioned above, is that the style library needs to be created ( or bought ) and maintained. Depending on the visual sophistication of the UI, there could be dozens or even hundreds of styles. Also, FM is somewhat limited when it comes to tools to manage a style library ( They are not included in the Digital Design Report nor the XML export ). Arguably, ‘visual sophistication’ is not necessarily a good thing. Users should not be overloaded with visual clues, but they or the database’s commissioner may have other ideas.

3.C Source

Claris Engineering Blog : Top Tips: Optimizing Performance of FileMaker Custom Apps in the Cloud. This is a good overview of important improvements, although I would not consider all of them to be low hanging fruit.

 

 

About this post

If I can, I will give references to the on-line resources that first pointed out the tip or trick. If a reference is missing, or if you know an earlier reference, please do let me know through a direct message or comment.

I wrote the post myself, without the help of an AI. The post’ featured images were made with the help of WordPress’ AI driven image generator plus a lot of trial and error with prompting it.