Today, May 4th is Intergalactic Star Wars day! The non-Star Wars fan may need an explanation. Perhaps one of the most memorable phrases from Star Wars is “May the force be with you.” Today that becomes: “MAY the FOURTH be with you.”
In honor of this special day, we have put together a FileMaker database that uses html, CSS, and Javascript in a web viewer to display the original Star Wars intro titles with customizable text. As a bonus, there is also a navigable Starfield so you can feel almost like you’re steering the Millennium Falcon right from your FileMaker database!
Download the free demo file at the end of this article.
How it works: The web viewer in FileMaker may be used to display any website URL. It can also be used to render html, CSS, and Javascript stored locally in the FileMaker database (as opposed to being hosted on a web server). In FileMaker 14 and earlier, the use of the data URL prefix data:text/html was required to tell FileMaker that what follows is code instead of a URL. That prefix is no longer necessary in FileMaker 15 and above, but we left it in to maintain backwards compatibility. By placing the html/Javascript/CSS code in a stored field, simplify the creation of this data URL so we can use quotes without changing them to single quotes or escaping them in the FileMaker code.
We took advantage of existing code created by web developers such as Tim Pietrusky to display the actual titles with animation. He explains the details here. It’s some pretty cool stuff.
Did you know that FileMaker is used by LucasFilm to track the continuity of the Star Wars universe? A database put together by Leland Y Chee called the Holocron covers over 55,000 records of characters, planets, and weapons. It’s named after a repository of mystical Jedi knowledge. Continuity is a term used in the movie industry that refers to maintaining continuous action and self-consistent detail in the various scenes. With so much information to keep track of, a database is necessary to have a shareable and easily searchable repository of information. FileMaker fits the bill perfectly.
In a period of code war Rebel characters striking from a hidden screen, have won the first victory against the database empire.
During the battle, Rebel developers managed to build a database tool, FILEMAKER, that was easy to use yet extremely powerful.
FileMaker developers race to build solutions faster than ever to help save businesses everywhere and restore freedom to the galaxy….
Here is a short video demonstration:
Try out the free LuminFire FileMaker Star Wars Day demo file. View the source, Luke!
Tim Cimbura – CEO and Software Engineer
Tim is an expert in creating custom business solutions that make businesses more effective, productive, and profitable. He specializes in rapid application development with the Claris platform including FileMaker and WordPress. He also knows Apple macOS technology inside and out.