The Logitech Touch Mouse is perfect when you forget your mouse back at the office or if you need to control your computer from a distance, like when presenting a talk...
From Logitech: Touch Mouse is an application that turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a wireless trackpad and keyboard for your computer.
There are two parts to Touch Mouse:
Have you ever wanted to Standardize a postal address to post office specifications? There's a great php script available here:
http://www.analysisandsolutions.com/software/addr/addr.htm
One of the things that this script does is to take all the different abbreviations that people use and convert them to standards. Below you can see a few of these and HUNDREDS more handled in the PHP script below.
From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 10 DeveloperWEB: www.dwaynewright.comEMAIL: info@dwaynewright.comTWITTER: dwaynewright YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughtsJust a quick note to announce that we have recently lowered the prices of our InBizness FileMaker framework database products. These products are designed to provide a FileMaker developer of any experience level a great head start in their own customized database engine. InBizness Real Estate 2.0 formerly $399 has now been reduced to only $199. This entry level real estate office management tool is easy to use, provides powerful contact management features, diverse property listing tracking, activity management, correspondence integration and much more!InBizness Property Manager formerly $399 has now been reduced to only $199. InBizness Property Manager is designed to have just the right modules needed to do your property management tasks and these include the tracking of buildings, apartment units, tenants, work orders, activities, rent payments, work orders and more!Our flagship CRM product, InBizness SOHO formerly $1,200 has now been reduced to a low $499 price. This product may have more than you need but isn’t that usually a good thing? Look at this comprehensive list of modules that come within one FileMaker file!People - Clients, Contacts, Vendors, Staff and LeadsSales - Proposals, Quotes, Sales Orders, Invoices, Payments and InventoryProjects - Campaigns, Events, Emails, Timecards and Media FilesPurchases - Purchase Orders and Vendor BillsFinances - Finance and Bank DepositsSupport - Credit Memos, Return Merchandise Authorizations and Support CallsFor more information please, visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/ today!=More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.© 2010 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.comThe material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.ADVERTISEMENT ==================Help support this blog by considering a donating to its ongoing growth. For more details, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/donate.html
At Pause On Error I was scheduled to lead a discussion about using the SQL API in FileMaker Pro but nixed it to make room for other presenters. Instead I talked about FileMaker MVC with Ernest and data modeling with David Graham of BitTailor. Because of the popularity of the topic, however, I thought I'd address a few of the questions I received in hallways and at the bar here.
The FileMaker PauseOnError Portland unconference ended a few hours ago. Below you can download audio files for the sessions that I attended exported from my Pulse Pen. PauseOnError rocked! Well worth traveling the 2500 miles from Orlando!!!
We just released a small update of Clip Manager 3 for Mac OS X.
It fixes an issue where Clip Manager would not always open the correct text editor on Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
Download it here or select "Check for Updates" from the Clip Manager 3 menu.
From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 10 DeveloperWEB: www.dwaynewright.comEMAIL: info@dwaynewright.comTWITTER: dwaynewright YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughtsRight now there is quite a bit of hype going around for value billing practices. There is a wide range of discussions about the topic and not all of them are good. Yes, some of the viewpoints are well thought out and articulated. I find them quite illuminating and have shared them with some clients. Some stated viewpoints on the topic are a bit heated and I’m not sure what to believe. One FileMaker developer is being accredited with saying that any developer doing hourly billing is unethical. I haven’t been able to hunt down the particular place where that statement was made but it is inadvisable for any FileMaker developer to take it personally. As some of you know, I’m studying to attain a certification called the Project Management Professional (PMP). Being able to place the initials of PMP after your name is recognized worldwide as a personal and professional achievement in project management knowledge. I am striving to be one of the few (perhaps the only) certified FileMaker developer that also has PMP certification to bring to the table. Whether that will make me special or a bit of a freak ... well the jury may still be out on that one.Anyway, I’d like to let you know how (as I see it) the Project Management Institute has categorized billing contracts in the fourth edition of the Project Management Body Of Knowledge (PMBOK). This doesn’t mean it should be considered gospel by any means but I think you might find it worthwhile to absorb. If you are working with (or wanting to work with) a larger corporation, knowing the PMI slant on things may be a significant advantage to you. The PMBOK discusses contract types on pages 322 - 324 in the chapter that deals with the Project Procurement Management. It breaks the topic into three broad categories of Fixed Price, Cost Reimbursable and Time & Materials. You might find it interesting to note that Time & Materials is considered a hybrid-type and not nearly as frequent as the other two. This viewpoint lends some credence to some of the points “Value Based Billing” advocates keep making. FIXED PRICE CONTRACTSThe PMBOK breaks these down into three subcategories and they are firm fixed price (FFP), fixed price incentive (FPIF) and fixed price economic price adjustment (FP-EPA).. Firm fixed price doesn’t really need much clarification but feel free to do so via commenting on this blog post. Fixed price incentive is pretty straight forward as well. An incentive to the seller may be awarded for meeting / exceeding goals in regards to cost, time, quality or other determined factor. Fixed price with economic price adjustment is used in very long term projects in which some economic factor needs to be taken into account. One example that comes to mind is if you are to fly to a client location once a month for a week onsite and the costs of transportation soar (as they can do). COST REIMBURSABLEThis is broken down into three subcategories by the PMBOK as well. They are cost plus fixed fee (CPFF), cost plus incentive (CPIF) and cost plus award (CPAF). The names pretty well describe the process but feel free to look into them more detail. TIME AND MATERIALSThe acquisition of experts and staff augmentation are the two big reasons the PMBOK guides says the time & material contracts come into play. It also says this is often used when a precise statement of work cannot be quickly prescribed. Does that sound familiar to you and your consulting business? NOW LETS CHAT A BIT ABOUT RISKThe general impression I’ve gotten from all the project management training I’ve received in the last year have come back to managing risk. Project managers right now have two big tasks to handle and they are to manage communication and to manage risk. If we were to say that “value billing” equals “fixed price contract”, then most project managers agree it is less risky for the buyer. The risk is solely upon the seller because they agreed to a fixed price contract (either in writing or verbally). In this regard in FileMaker development for hire, I’m talking about scope definition and acceptance criteria. These are two big risks in any FileMaker project for hire. If you are a risk adverse business person, then value based billing might not be your cup of tea. If you are risk seeker or risk tolerant, then value based billing may be a sweet addition to your business strategy. Remember that risk acceptance (and managing it correctly) can be very beneficial to any company.=More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.© 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.comThe material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc. PMI, PMP Certification and the Project Management Body Of Knowledge are the registered propery of the Project Management Institute. ADVERTISEMENT ==================Help support this blog by considering a donating to its ongoing growth. For more details, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/donate.html
Mike Lee will be speaking at the CASE District I conference in Boston with Donna Savelli Orleman from the MIT Alumni Association. The title of the session is: Getting Everyone on the Same Page: Integrating Databases. Mike and Donna will be discussing the work that Proof and the MITAA have done integrating Oracle and FIleMaker Pro. From the CASE program guide:
From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 10 DeveloperWEB: www.dwaynewright.comEMAIL: info@dwaynewright.comTWITTER: dwaynewright YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughtsThe following was an email I replied to and thought it might be good to share. Thanks,Dwayne-----------------------------FROM MY CONSULTING PROSPECTSorry for the delay due to the holidays of course and how crazy it is after the new year. Anyway, I have seen few software both FileMaker and Non-FileMaker based, unfortunately I did not like any of them, the main problem is the data is scattered all over the software and not in one place for easy viewing, also most of them requires lots of time and “clicks” to navigate through the records.I believe software programmers should work closely with medical professionals to design such a successful software.Currently I started fooling with Filemaker Pro DE 5.5 (the reason is because the 5.5 version is universal for Classic Mac and Win XP). I have to problem designing the templates and such, but scripting and linking the data all together requires experience developer in this field.As you know by 2014 Electronic medical records will be required for all providers, so if you are interested in working on something like that I believe we can work together on building such a program sophisticated enough and yet easy to use.----------------------------PART OF MY REPLYNo problem about the delay in getting back with me and I hope you had a pleasant holiday with family and friends. Sometimes I think holidays were invented to give us a break from replying to our email in boxes! FileMaker databases do seem to have a default behavior of being mouse click heavy. I've seen some people working on complex databases and you could swear they were playing a set of drums in a hard rock concert. In some ways, FileMaker 10 script triggers may provide some relief in that area. What I would recommend is documenting a set of goals for our project, then build a "proof of concept" skeleton file and update our documentation as we refine the prototype into what we want our finished product to be. You should know that I'm not one of those developers that just wants to jump straight into the pixel wrangling. I like to have a work plan in place before we go into the execution phase of the product design. Then as we execute, we can monitor our progress against our plan. I like a very open and transparent working relationship that is progressively marking things off a to do list. This is why I tend to work on all new projects on a shared server so we can both work on the latest version of the product together. Some developers / development firms don't want you to ever see or touch the work in progress and I'm just not one of those developers. I do work on a time and materials billing basis but I can offer a package deal of bulk hours. Some developers are touting what they call value based billing. This means a fixed price and a very limited disclosure on the actual time spent on your project. I like the idea of you knowing how much time I'm spending on your project and specifically where I'm spending the time. This is why I like to send daily timecards to you about each activity I work on for you. I like to think of my customers partners in the successful delivery of a project and not just the paycheck source of funding it. So I agree with you 100% that every developer needs to work closely with the audience of their endeavors. In fact, I tend to turn down projects that don't follow those guidelines. Without active client involvement, database design is just a wild shot in the dark. Although I do respect your viewpoint about staying with FileMaker 5.5 but I do think it would be too limiting to start a new project with anything less than the current version of FileMaker. I know the upgrade has some downsides but I'd like to work together with you in overcoming them. As a FileMaker Business Alliance member, I might have some pricing options for FileMaker that works well for us. If not, we can see what our best overall options are for FileMaker 10. =More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.© 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.comThe material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.ADVERTISEMENT ==================Help support this blog by considering a donating to its ongoing growth. For more details, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/donate.html
From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 10 DeveloperWEB: www.dwaynewright.comEMAIL: info@dwaynewright.comTWITTER: dwaynewright YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughtsI think this would be so cool. You know how you have the option with a FileMaker GTRR to open up the related records in a new window? A picture of the new window dialog box from a GTRR. You know how there is an Adjust Window script step that allows you to resize a window as part of a scripted action?Here you can see the Adjust Window script step and the pull down options for it. So what if we were to do a mashup of these two features so you could adjust the window directly within the New Window dialog box. =More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.© 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.comThe material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.ADVERTISEMENT ==================Help support this blog by considering a donating to its ongoing growth. For more details, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/donate.html
From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 10 DeveloperWEB: www.dwaynewright.comEMAIL: info@dwaynewright.comTWITTER: dwaynewright YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughtsDecided to take a break from pixel wrangling and cruise around the web for some FileMaker tidbits and thought I’d share them with you. Video Tips for Prospective FileMaker DevCon Speakers (from SavvyData)Lee Lukehart shares some great tips for video production for DevCon sessions. I just finished a couple yesterday myself and would have to say that I didn’t do many of the recommended tips. I find that an iMac actually has a pretty good camera / microphone and my office is fairly quiet. I wish I had read Luke’s recommendations before I finished because I just don’t have enough drive to record the movies this year. Great job Luke!To check out the post, please visit ... http://www.savvydata.com/blog/2009/12/video-tips-for-prospective-filemaker-devcon-speakers/#more-236FileMaker Advisor Puts The Brakes On The Print Version(from Application Arch)According to a blog post from Chris Kubica, FileMaker Advisor is putting the brakes on producing print copies of the magazine. The appear to be upgrading everyone to their online version. To check out the post, please visit ... http://chriskubica.posterous.com/my-main-tech-geek-trade-magazine-filemaker-ad=More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.© 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.comThe material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.ADVERTISEMENT ==================Help support this blog by considering a donating to its ongoing growth. For more details, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/donate.html
From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 10 DeveloperWEB: www.dwaynewright.comEMAIL: info@dwaynewright.comTWITTER: dwaynewright YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughtsSo my big 2010 challenge is getting my PMP (project management professional) certification. This is all part of a “OMG the economy is in the ditches and I only have FileMaker skills’ neurosis and leading to my attempts to build a career backup plan. This posting isn’t about that but just some header info (because I’ll probably be writing a lot about project management calculation functions in the future). Anyhoo ...THREE POINT ESTIMATESOne of the blessed expected value estimation calculation formulas for the PMP is the three point estimate. What it does is take three estimation points and gives you a most likely result. It can be used to calculate time for schedules or money for budget estimates. Here you can see three values and their three point result. Here is a probably a better illustration. Say that a client is asking for an estimate of hours to do a project task. You have done this type of work before and have code you can apply to it. You feel pretty confident that you can do the job in 50 hours and perhaps as low as 40. You want to throw in a higher estimate because you might not have all the deliverable scope because the client isn’t that sure about their definitive needs. So you put in a high estimate of 120 hours into the mix. You could tell the client that it could take anywhere from 40 to 120 hours. This might be a way to get them to better define their scope to you. It also may be a way to ensure that you never hear from the client again. A three point estimate says that if you give them an estimate of 60, you are pretty well covered. THE USE OF THREE POINT ESTIMATESNow every project is unique and no formula is bullet proof but this is one of them that is blessed by the Project Management Institute for PMP certification. Whether or not you are going to be giving the results of the three point estimate to your clients, it might be a worthwhile practice to track it internally. In fact, you could go more granular in this area and have three point estimates for each work package. That way you can refine your estimation skills and build your library of development related organizational process assets!ABOUT THE CUSTOM FUNCTIONThe custom function is ruthlessly simple. We take ...- the most likely estimate times four- add to that the optimistic estimate- add to that the pessimistic estimate- divide that total by sixHere is the custom function itself in living black and white!=More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.© 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.comThe material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.ADVERTISEMENT ==================Help support this blog by considering a donating to its ongoing growth. For more details, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/donate.html
There were some interesting hacks submitted and we'd like to thank everyone who entered. All of the runners up (there are a few as we had a hard time choosing) are listed in no particular order following the winning hack and will each be receiving a free license of FMExpression Editor (look for emails early in the new year guys). The hacks that we looked at were original and / or were seen to solve a particular problem that FileMaker presents developers in everyday situations.
From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 10 DeveloperWEB: www.dwaynewright.comEMAIL: info@dwaynewright.comTWITTER: dwaynewright YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughtsAPPENDIX 3: Quick TipsI have a problem sometimes when I’m introduced to a new version of FileMaker. A virtual hamster in my mind jumps upon a wheel when a new feature is explained and then thoughts start whirling around at a record pace. During these frenzied moments, I sometimes miss some of the most simple and elegant features that are being explained to me. In this case, it is a small twist with the Find button in the FileMaker 10 status bar. Literally today, I noticed the small down arrow next to the icon for the first time!So instead of simply mashing the poor button down in the brutish manner I tend to, I clicked and held the mouse button down. To my amazement, a long list of find related features appeared including the ability to modify the last find, save a find, edit saved finds, my list of saved finds and listing of recent finds. =More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.© 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.comThe material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.ADVERTISEMENT ==================Help support this blog by considering a donating to its ongoing growth. For more details, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/donate.html
From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 10 DeveloperWEB: www.dwaynewright.comEMAIL: info@dwaynewright.comTWITTER: dwaynewright YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughtsA READER ASKSI'm trying to design a system that would automatically record the user name, time of opening, and time of closing for a record. Ideally, it would work without the user needing to activate the function/script. I've tried to use script triggers for entry into an object/field with no luck. Any suggestions? Thanks.-------DWAYNE RESPONDSYou should be able to do it with script triggers. If you are tying to make it work with a production database, take a step back. Go under the file menu and create a simple prototype file. Then experiment with this. I would also write down exactly what you mean by opening a record because it could have a great many different interpretations. One thing to remember is that script triggers are tied to the user interface. This can present both challenges and unique opportunities. You mentioned trying layout object triggers but what about the layout or record level script triggers?OnRecordLoad, OnRecordCommit, OnRecordRevert, OnLayoutKeystroke, OnLayoutLoad, OnModeEnter and OnModeExit I would think these trigger types might be better suited to your needs, particularly when the users are in form view. These trigger types can work almost like sub-scripts. That is to say the trigger script can fire after a regular script has finished executing. This is something to consider in your strategy. I tend to shy away from layout/record level triggers in list or table views. For some reason, I tend to think of records in these views as not truly loaded but that is obviously not the case. It is just a UI impression that I have stuck in my noggin. That is why I am suggesting you take a look at this design aspect as well. Here are some things I tent to think about in my trigger implementations ... Views - Form / List / TableModes - Browse / Find / PreviewPre Event / Post Event TriggersOnce again, I’d recommend doing your script trigger experiments with an off line prototype database and not a copy of your production database. If an experiment doesn’t work out, you can quickly trash the entire file. If it does, you can add the code to your production database and test.=More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.© 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.comThe material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.ADVERTISEMENT ==================Help support this blog by considering a donating to its ongoing growth. For more details, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/donate.html
Looking at records in a batch view with FileMaker IWP, the following limits are true ...a) Table View 25 Records - List View 25 Recordsb) Table View 50 Records - List View 50 Recordsc) Table View 50 Records - List View 25 Recordsd) Table View 25 Records - List View 50 Records=====================TO SEE THE ANSWER TO THIS QUIZ QUESTION(CLICK HERE)=====================For a more challenging quiz environment, check out our interactive FileMaker quiz product at http://www.dwaynewright.com/inbiz/quiz/index.htmlMore info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com. © 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.comThe material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.
From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 10 DeveloperWEB: www.dwaynewright.comEMAIL: info@dwaynewright.comTWITTER: dwaynewright YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughtsINBIZNESS QUIZ - FileMaker Edition 1.3 Release NotesDecember 11, 2009 - Pleased to announce that we have released an update to the online version of our InBizness Quiz - FileMaker Edition product. This release features four new targeted learning areas and an updated user interface for iPhone users. We have also continued to add more content to the database engine and it currently contains more than 1,300 questions!NEW TARGETED QUIZ AREASIn this release we added the following new areas where a user can target their learning goals ... Instant Web Publishing (with 33 questions currently)Keyboard Shortcuts (with 70 questions currently)Troubleshooting (with 75 questions currently)Project Management (with 92 questions currently)As a note, we are adding at least 50 new questions each week, so there is always new content to be found here. RANDOM OR TARGET QUIZ QUESTIONSWith over 1,300 questions, you will want some options with your quiz experience! Basic subscribers can take random topic quizzes or quizzes targeted to a particular knowledge area. Subscriptions start at only $7.50 a month, they are on an automatic renewal basis and can be canceled at any time.Another bonus for basic subscribers is access to the FileMaker database via a web browser. Since the quiz engine is a FileMaker database, we are using FileMaker Instant Web Publishing technology and it is even compatible with the iPhone Safari browser.WANT TO TRY IT OUT WITH A COMPLIMENTARY SUBSCRIPTION?We do offer a complimentary subscription that allows someone to take a 10 question random question quiz via the FileMaker interface each day. Each complimentary membership will last for 30 days, more than enough time to test drive the product.For more information, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/inbiz/quiz/index.html .=More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.© 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.comThe material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.ADVERTISEMENT ==================Help support this blog by considering a donating to its ongoing growth. For more details, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/donate.html
The User Interface is the window to your solution. While that statement is admittedly corny it goes to the root of the issue – your user interface (UI) IS your solution. Regardless of how clean your naming conventions are and how well laid out your relational graph is, potential customers will never be able to (or want to) venture further than the interface you present - If it doesn’t look and feel right in the short time you have to make a sales pitch, or in the time it takes to train a new person to use the solution, it will be a much harder sell to any prospective end user. If you get lost in your own solution while performing a demo (I’ve seen this happen more than once), that’s usually a sign of a bad UI and lost moolah (aka money).
Port Forwarding and FileMaker
FileMaker will do a lot of things for you. It can email your clients, generate dynamic reports and even connect to external SQL data sources. In fact, just about the only thing FileMaker won’t do for you is your Christmas shopping. Another thing FileMaker won’t do is configure port forwarding on your router. This article provides a brief overview of port forwarding, an example of a configured router and a list of ports used by FileMaker.
This video provides a basic overview of scripts in FileMaker 10, it covers:
The video briefly addresses the almost endless possibilities which scripting provides in FileMaker. The main point of scripting however is to make your life easier. If you find yourself doing the same thing over and over again chances are a script could do it faster. The easiest way to think of Scripts in FileMaker is to imagine them as automating the human process. In this sense they're very similar to AppleScript on Mac OS X or VBScript in Windows. Unlike VBScript and AppleScript however scripting in FileMaker is a purely point and click affair. Even if you wanted to you can't type a single line of code.
From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 10 DeveloperWEB: www.dwaynewright.comEMAIL: info@dwaynewright.comTWITTER: dwaynewright YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughtsThought I’d take a quick moment and share the welcome email that goes out to users that subscribe to InBizness Quiz - FileMaker Edition. Thanks! Dwayne-----------------------------Hello!Thanks for subscribing to InBizness Quiz FileMaker Edition. We are making adjustments to the package all the time but let me tell you where we currently are. The quiz environment is a FileMaker database, runs on a hosted network and the included launcher file will take you directly into the quiz engine. We also added the ability to take the quiz via browser interface using FileMaker Instant Web Publishing. Here is a link to that access level ( http://tinyurl.com/y8fk72d )As a basic subscriber, you can take both random quizzes and quizzes that are targeted for a specific area (calculations, relationships, scripting, etc...). If you haven't already, you might want to preview the two movies about taking the quiz found at http://www.dwaynewright.com/inbiz/quiz/index.html. When the quiz fires up, it will challenge you for account name and password credentials. I've setup the following for you ...ACOUNT NAME: PASSWORD: Please be aware that passwords are case sensitive. Right now, we have just over 1,200 questions in the quiz and add about 50 new questions each week. I'm sure there will be plenty of tweaks to the system in the coming months and please feel free to email me or submit feedback within the quiz at any time. Thanks,Dwayne WrightCertified FileMaker Developer (10, 9 & 8 )http://www.dwaynewright.com=More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.© 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.comThe material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.ADVERTISEMENT ==================Help support this blog by considering a donating to its ongoing growth. For more details, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/donate.html
Can the FileMaker OnTimer script fire at a determined interval if the user is in Layout mode?a) Yesb) No=====================TO SEE THE ANSWER TO THIS QUIZ QUESTION(CLICK HERE)=====================For a more challenging quiz environment, check out our interactive FileMaker quiz product at http://www.dwaynewright.com/inbiz/quiz/index.htmlMore info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com. © 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.comThe material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.
From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 10 DeveloperWEB: www.dwaynewright.comEMAIL: info@dwaynewright.comTWITTER: dwaynewright YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughtsThanks to a twitter post from Jason Thomas, I enjoyed a rather interesting discussion on LinkedIn about FileMaker status / credibility. LinkedIn in a business community forum and has a number of special interest discussion groups. Being a FileMaker Developer group, you can imagine the discussion was largely positive and it had some interesting viewpoints in the 20+ comments that make up the discussion thread. Although I encourage you to read the entire thread (link right here), here are some snippets that I found interesting on one level or another.FileMaker continues to lead its competitors in the workgroup database development space because of its robust design, yet approachability and ease of use. It can be used easily by novices and expand to support large workgroups with complex needs.Worldwide, FileMaker have over 2000 developers in an developer group called the FileMaker Business Alliance and are now independently certified by ProMetric - look for the Certified logo.What might take a week or two to implement in some environments, takes but a few minutes in a FileMaker environment. It is very robust, very forgiving, and I have seen files that have been "mistreated" for years still open and run for days on end without issueAnother thing to consider is that whilst FileMaker is used by both PC and Mac users it’s most enthusiastic users are undoubtedly from the Mac fraternity. "The IT overhead for a FileMaker solutions is WAY LOWER then any other comparable solution because just like the Macintosh it's a self contained environment not dependent on multiple technologies from different vendors to all work together to create a solution. " I think the FileMaker platform would be a great solution for your firm but just as important is finding the proper development group who will work with you in an open manner. Last Devcon I attended, as every other, FileMaker speaks of its numbers, and it sells FAR MORE PC licenses than it could ever hope to have MAC users. I think MACs are great, but highly over rated. I can do both, but PCs are my bread and butter, as for almost all developers, it's simply a matter of fact, the number don't support the idea that a vast number of comments here are made based upon zealous MAC enthusiasm. FileMaker developers are plentiful... and get the largest proportion of their work from windows clients. FileMaker itself has no limitations on windows... apart from the OS and it being pretty inconsistent between versions and machines. You claim that "FileMaker developers are plentiful" well this may be so, but in relative terms when compared to many other leading database applications we are sadly a scarce bunch and anything that I have said is intended to reflect this position. I have to agree, the idea of using FileMaker as a primary web platform is simply not effective. That functionality begins its usefulness when extending a solutions capabilities to the web. This seems to be a conversation about which technology religion you believe it. FileMaker is a very stable development environment and is going nowhere other than far into the future.As you can see, some very interesting comments but I have to say that I don’t know how closely it hugged the main topic of FileMaker current and future status/credibility. In my opinion, FileMaker is a great choice when you have decided the path of MAKE in a MAKE VS BUY database decision. I do continue to worry about the how viable the MAKE decision will be in a world in which software as a service applications are sucking less every day. I am hoping topics such like this might come up in the Portland Pause On Error FileMaker conference on January of 2010.=More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.© 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.comThe material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.ADVERTISEMENT ==================Help support this blog by considering a donating to its ongoing growth. For more details, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/donate.html
Yikes, it has been awhile since I've blogged here. As they say, fatherhood turns your priorities upside down, and for the better. Well, I am back, and there has been a ton of exciting activity from the our secret research labs at Proof to talk about.
