ISO FileMaker Magazine: FileMaker Video Tutorials, Templates, Help & More

Dissapointment hits home

Warning: This post started out simply about FileMaker’s Leopard compatibility. But then, it started to take a path towards becoming a rant. I decided to post it anyway, despite my aversion to doing so, because I feel it’s valuable to anyone who is just coming into the world of FileMaker thinking their brand-new FileMaker solution or web site is going to be loved by FileMaker and they’re going to get all kinds of support and love from FMI the company. To be honest, don’t expect much.

It all started with the bad news.

I was really excited to taste the new features in Leopard for OS X. Then I read this article on Macworld that gave me the bad news. It is, with this post, my sad duty to inform you that FileMaker is not currently compatible with OS X Leopard.

What?

Are you kidding me? FileMaker is owned by Apple!

Yeah, that was my thought too. Then, after reading this article, my distaste for this news was eased a bit. It seems there are two issues which are causing the problems.

1. Instant Web Publishing doesn’t work
2. Language settings can cause inoperability

These are spelled out in very little detail by FileMaker. Now, this same announcement states that FileMaker is targeting a release for November 19, 2007. I can only guess there’s some hurried programming going on at the headquarters of FMI and who really knows what else might be broken.

My only question is. “As an Apple owned subsidiary….[pause]…uh, how did this happen?”.

I ask, not because I’m all heartbroken about installing a new version of the OS, and being an early adopter and having to weed through all the issues I’ll eventually resolve by searching MacFixit. Moreover, it’s because I’m not impressed that FileMaker hasn’t been brought into the 21st century with regards to its user interface and interaction. (No ill will towards my friends in the interaction dept. at FMI)

The 1980’s happened over 20 years ago

Don’t get me wrong, I love what I can do with FileMaker - and how quickly it CAN be done (that’s why I provide the content I do). What I don’t love is the lack of informational features throughout the interface. For example, why can’t you see, at a glance, in Layout mode, what table occurrence a layout is tied to, which table that’s tied to, and any anything else that will prevent me from jumping into the myriad of dialog boxes I have to swim through just to see what is connected to what.

If I was leading FileMaker development, I would have ditched the four dialog boxes you have to open just to add a script parameter to a Perform Script script step all in favor of a single window that allows you to accomplish most of your programming efforts. Yeah, we’ve all heard the “Easy-to-use” mantra, and it worked when fewer people used the software, but it’s developers who are developing with FileMaker - even if they’re just starting out as beginning developers, do they really need all the dialog boxes that FileMaker employs? Seriously, if you have a comment about how you enjoy the number of dialog boxes in the application then please publicly flame me below.

Let’s all be nice now

Ok, so I don’t need to go slamming the market that feeds me, lest I fear a loss of income because FileMaker Inc. decides to stop providing me with information about what’s coming down the pike - Oh…. wait, they don’t do that currently. In fact, I have to tell you that FileMaker is one of the worst companies I have ever heard about (and personally worked with) with regards to supporting and promoting their third party markets - simply for the sake of supporting those companies who support them - with the desired result of reciprocal support for their own market. I guess they probably figure they’ll get it anyway.

In fact, let me go so far as to say that FileMaker doesn’t even know how to leverage their third party market. They’re horrible at it.

How do I know? Well, I have friends in other markets, who are paraded around by the companies they support. These companies are much larger than FileMaker Inc. and you’d think there was more red tape at them because they are larger. Who are they? Well, one is Adobe the others are smaller, but still much more supportive of their third party market.

Here’s a little bit of info that supports my opinions. Did you know that FileMaker, Inc. only lists products, sites or solutions by members who pay an annual fee to be part of their developer programs - no matter how good it is? I know because there is a blank space on this webpage where the link used to read “Magazines”.

It’s not there anymore because I raised the issue and kept pursuing the fact that I didn’t feel I needed to pay to be part of their business program in order to have my quality resource listed - especially when they had a category which was earmarked exactly for my service. (Of course, who am I to say that my website and content is quality? Maybe my Alexa ranking should mean something.)

Need more? Try this Google search looking for anything on the FileMaker.com web site that references this site. Nada. Zip. Zero.

I also have a number of friends within the third party FileMaker market and in pretty much every case, Ok, I’ll say 90% of them, they voice their opinions about FileMaker Inc’s support of third parties in a less than favorable light.

Even after speaking with Dominique Goupil directly (probably a year or two ago), about the state of affairs with regards to how FileMaker approaches their third party supporting sites, there was no change. It was simply business as usual.

I heard ABSOLUTELY nothing about 8.5 or 9 prior to its release - despite the fact that I personally know the folks responsible for PR. This wasn’t always the case. Trying to get pre-release copies of the software is almost unheard of unless you’re MacWorld or some other larger company. I’ve known a good number of people at FileMaker who have tried to make a difference and they’re not working for FileMaker now - myself included.

Boil it down for me

So, Matt, did this one piece of news about Leopard compatibility cause you to break down and start this rant about FileMaker Inc and how they operate?

Nope.

Quite simply, it’s been on my mind for a number of years now. I think FileMaker needs a wake up call. Sure, they’ll always get feedback from users requesting features they think will make FileMaker better. But what will they do when a top FileMaker web site has something to say?

My guess. Not much.

Every company and the products they provide can be improved. It’s what humans do. They move forward. While FileMaker has added new features to the software it doesn’t quite feel like it’s moved forward as a whole - at least to me. It feels like it’s hobbled along with the addition of some nice features. What other well used applications still use patterns from 1980’s MacPaint, doesn’t support gradients and doesn’t provide OS native interface widgets.

What it boils down to is this “FileMaker, are you listening?”

So are you giving up on FileMaker?

Criticism and open comment about what you feel about how a company operates can be a double-edged sword. You can fear you won’t ever get invited to speak at Devcon because you publish information such as this or that the company won’t license your products out of spite. Or you can feel that your market is deserving of the information that you have to share. They may not like it, but is it true? And who is “they” anyway?

It’s people, not companies, who make decisions and maybe there’s someone or multiple people who simply don’t like this website, or even myself, over at FileMaker Inc. What I do know is that it’s the FileMaker market, you, my reader, who is supporting my efforts regarding FileMaker informational resources. I still like the software, what it can do and how it can be used. I’ll always be honest about where FileMaker fits and I won’t shove it into a round hole when I know it’s a square peg. There are plenty of places that need square pegs.

The moral of the story

I remember first getting started with FileMaker. You may be where I was in 1991. I was starry-eyed and quite hopeful that the world of FileMaker (more specifically the company) was going to treat me right. In many ways it has. In other ways it’s been disappointing.

It turns out that it’s the market itself that has always been there the most - not the company that makes the software.

No, I’m not giving up on FileMaker. I’m getting older and wiser and learning to set your expectations low while relishing the highs is the best way to approach anything you do - be it working with FileMaker, raising kids or making a peanut butter sandwich.

Much luck, and as always Happy FileMaking!

The virtues and pitfalls of trying to cater to your whole market

Every once in a while, I receive an email from a developer who mentions that my style of video delivery is a bit superfluous. To respond to this form of comment, I reply “Yes, you’re absolutely right. I do occasionally add some ‘fluff’ into the video article - obviously, making it much longer than it needs to be.”

These comments don’t hurt my feelings in any way. In fact, I like getting these emails and comments. I need to hear from all levels of viewers watching my content. If I’m not creating what people want to watch, then I’m not going to feed my family.

To take this to the extreme, and bypassing any concern that the following statement might cause a loss in subscribers, “I myself wouldn’t even watch my own videos.” They’re often longer than they need to be and they cover certain areas I already know.

Ah, there it is, “areas I already know”. This is the part where I feel like the delivery works for those subscribers who value the content. You see, the range of your market, especially a technical one, is always broader than your own level of knowledge. You’re at point X when everyone else is in the range from A to Z. Personally, I would love to see all of my videos covered within an extremely short period of time and offer only the nuggets needed to pull of the tricky stunts. Of course, this takes on a number of assumptions about what you know and what level you’re at.

The Problem

When you boil it down, there are highly advanced developers who know what you’re talking about as soon as the screen shows a small snippet of code. On the other end of that spectrum, there are viewers who don’t even know what you can do with the Let() statement.

While I don’t focus on the low level beginner, I do try to avoid assumptions about what a viewer may (or may not) know. This carries both positives and negatives. I’ve heard that going slow and covering everything is great for intermediate and international speakers who aren’t fluent in English. It provides a basis for which additional learning can sprout even though I don’t offer all the specifics.

The downside is that if you know what you’re doing, the video can get boring and even a bit painful to listen to. In fact, I have some developer friends who also view the video articles and use the fast forward playback feature of QuickTime (you can find this by using Command-K or Control-K in QuickTime Player - look for the Playback speed).

So, I’m constantly asking myself. “How can I solve this problem?”

Solving the Problem

I’ve long considered splitting up the content I cover and offering a beginner track and an advanced track. The problem is truly knowing where the bulk of all my viewers are. True, I can use a survey and ask some technical questions to try to assess this, but, how well will this work? FileMaker isn’t a super large market and my goal is to offer content that appeals to the widest range of possible viewers.

I’ve offered the Developer Overview movies in the past, which try to showcase a technique in the shortest time possible, and I’m always open to suggestions. Is it the way I say it - or - what I say?

If you have any ideas about how I could make things better or can tell me specifically what you do and don’t like about the content or quality of delivery then, by all means, leave a comment on this page!

Tell me what you want to see!

This past Tuesday the 10th, FileMaker Inc. released it’s latest version of FileMaker Pro. Version 9 has a variety of new features, some big, some small. When it comes to the big ones, there are essentially four big with the rest having less significance(1).

Big Feature #1

The biggest of these features is the ability to connect to SQL data sources. You’re able to interact with a SQL database just like any other table in your database.

Adding a new SQL connection is a simple matter of adding a new External Data Source. From that point forward you can use the reference within your Relationship Graph just like any other normal table occurrence.

One thing you’ll need to do first, however, is set up the right database connection. This is going to require the use of third party drivers. Depending on the database you’re connecting to, the drivers and setup will vary.

Here are the SQL databases which are supported (taken from FileMaker’s help)

• Oracle 9g
• Oracle 10g
• SQL Server 2000
• SQL Server 2005
• MySQL 5.0 Community Edition (free)

Too bad they aren’t supporting MySQL 4. There are a ton of Open Source systems out there running MySQL 4.

For more info you can visit the FileMaker site covering SQL information.

Big Feature #2

The second big feature is called Conditional Formatting. It allows you to conditially control (using the standard calculation dialog box) the way any text is formatted when viewed in Browse mode.

This includes both fields and text labels. This is a nice new feature and there are a few things you can do with it. If you need to know more tips about using it then Geoff Coffey has posted a number of great tips at his new website.

Big Feature #3

Biggie number three would be Auto-Resizing of layouts. This feature, coupled with biggie number four, are the two reasons I would at least upgrade to FileMaker 9 Advanced - even if you’re stuck using FileMaker 8 or 8.5 for all your clients.

Auto-resizing of layouts is the feature many people have been asking for for year and years. It’s long overdue and it’s a great reason to upgrade(2). It works just like it sounds. It allows you to create layouts which dynamically resize.

Big Feature #4

Number four on the list is a complete overhaul of ScriptMaker. You’re now able to keep the ScriptMaker window open and also open as many script windows as you desire. For this one feature alone I would SERIOUSLY upgrade your copy of FileMaker Advanced. This is a HUGE time saver.

It takes a bit to get used to leaving script windows open when you’re working/debugging a script, but it eventually becomes second nature. I’ll provide more info about using the new ScriptMaker in a future video. Also of note are the changes to the Data Viewer, which now shows you all active global variables, where a dual pane Data Viewer shows you global variables and your own specified watched variables.

Overview

Overall, if you’re not using SQL, then the Conditional Formatting is a nice feature to have - but not a requirement in most cases. The ability to resize layouts may be something you can go without but designing them in 9 is the route I would suggest - even if you’re still using an earlier version.

If you can’t afford to upgrade right away, then get 9 Advanced so you can work with the new features and have them ready for when you can upgrade. One of the nice things about working in the latest version of FileMaker is that the file format stays the same going back to FileMaker 7. If using the Conditional Formatting or Auto-Resizing layouts is something you can’t live without then go for it.

There are a number of other smaller features in the application - plus some function additions. One function in particular that I’ve been wanting for a while is the ability to specify the temporary path on the client machine. Here is the list of new functions and script step changes

Functions

• Acos (number)
• Asin (number)
• Get (HostApplicationVersion)
• Get (TemporaryPath)
• Self

Script step changes

• Refresh Window: new Flush cached SQL data checkbox
• Save as PDF: new Append to existing PDF checkbox
• Open File: Added ODBC Data Source option
• Close File Added ODBC Data Source option
• Undo: Renamed to Undo/Redo with new Toggle option

One final feature I’ll mention is the “Automatically check for updates every 7 days” checkbox found in the application preferences. While I’m personally not that proactive about finding new versions of software, this is going to be a great way to know when FileMaker has been updated.

More info to come…

Notes

(1) A certain “feature” may be significant to you, such as being compatible with Windows Vista or the ability to Append to PDF. While useful, these may not be major features. Fortunately, you’re able to discern this from the content above. As I was instant messaging with a fellow develoepr friend, talking about the feature list that FileMaker Inc. provides, I think the marketing for features got a bit ahead of itself. Chat Quotation: “Feature? Works with Windows Vista… Uh, Yeah, I think you would want it too, not a feature.” (Don’t expect me to sugar coat things. ;)

(2) When I mention upgrading, I’m not necessarily talking about upgrading all of your copies. My position is that you can develop using FileMaker 9 Advanced and you’re files should work fine in FileMaker 8 or 8.5 and even 7 if you go back that far. The features you use in 9 won’t work in the earlier versions - but your files will be ready for the when you can afford to upgrade. Just be careful and don’t make your solution dependent upon features from a version which your clients can’t support. In other words, if you’re using FileMaker 8 don’t use variables because your clients will need to use global fields!

It's pretty amazing how quickly content is spreading online. Including older books about all kinds of topics. Looking for a brush up on an older version of FileMaker? You might even find some good content covering some of the more recent versions of FileMaker.

You can find these older books at Google's Book Search service. Here's the link.

FileMaker Books on Google Book Search

Considering FileMaker, there are a few questions which are frequently asked and rarely need to be. The questions typically sound similar to "Can FileMaker show such and such data?"

The answer is almost always (99.9%) "Yes". In fact, it doesn't really matter if you're using FileMaker or some other database. It all boils down to how you structure the data with regards to extracting what you need to view.

In the current version of FileMaker (8.5 as of this entry) your ability to extract data is based around the way you set up your table occurrences and relationships. Because you can have as many table occurrences as necessary, you can extract data in a variety of ways.

Sometimes, it's hard to abstract when working with technology, especially when it's quite easy in the real world. Here's a simple analogy. When you go to the grocery store, you may be looking for something specific. Let's say a particular apple.

Internally, your mind has decided you want an apple that is light green, medium in size with little to no bruises.

What are your field names?

Color, Size, Quality

Since each apple is clearly unique, you add on an ID field.

ID, Color, Size, Quality

How do you extract the apple you want?

Simply use as many keys as necessary to find what you want.

If you want all small red apples then you need a relationship which uses the key values of color and size.

Want all bruised green apples? Use color and quality.

Extracting data subsets is REALLY that easy. It's all a matter of using the right keys.

Keep this example in mind and you'll find that whether you're using a lookup, a portal or a related field, the art of extracting data is as easy as choosing an apple!

It looks like we'll have a few more features to dis"cover" in the later part of this year. ThinkSecret.com has released some information about the next version of FileMaker.

At the very latest, I would hope that FileMaker 9 would be out by Devcon 2007 - but who knows - I know I don't. For some reason, FileMaker Inc. seems to overlook me when it comes to testing new versions.

Overall, things like this don't bother me like they used to. When I first started using FileMaker and getting involved in the community, I thought it was the cat's meow to be able to have access to beta versions. It was a "sense of pride" thing when you considered part of your world to be the FileMaker community.

These days, I'm all about simply providing good educational information about using FileMaker to the fullest. It's a great program for a wide variety of solutions - especially the lower end of the database spectrum. Having evolved my own programming skills to include AppleScript, VBScript, Perl, PHP, Shell (of course) and little bits of other languages and environments, I can say that working my way through FileMaker has been the impetus for becoming a programmer in general. Most everything you'll find in FileMaker will translate to some other language or tool - it's all just logic, the rest is syntax and environment.

For myself, the most interesting features coming up are the resizable windows and live SQL connectivity. I've been wanting the window features for years! However, one thing I won't be surprised about is if FileMaker still uses those 1984 pattern palettes. I can understand the need for staying compatible with older databases, but "Please" FileMaker, enter the 21st century. Check boxes aren't black outlines anymore <wink>-and-a-<grin>.

One thing I can say about ThinkSecret is it tends to be pretty accurate with regards to their FileMaker related information - but, not because I gave it to them.

I'm looking forward to a new version and new features!

Well, what can I say, it's been quite a trip trying to release this new site. To be honest, unless you create websites for a living (as a developer or designer), there are all kinds of "details" that need to be addressed. Considering myself both a designer and developer, these details didn't escape me. They hit me smack dab in the face! It's always funny how your brain can develop and release a website within a mere few hours. Doing that in real life is always a TOTALLY different story.

Fortunately, I've really enjoyed getting to know Drupal and how it works. I've had to custom code a number of PHP modules for Drupal to get things working the way I need them to. Alas, we've arrived and the site is functioning. There are still a number of features/areas I need to work on, but the core site is ready to go!

One of the biggest issues for any website is the issue of automation. You want things to be as easy as possible for people and this website is no exception. Making it easy to watch videos is my primary goal. I think I've achieved that with how the videos are linked on this new site.

The few things I need to fix are the video download links for subscribers and fine tuning some of the rough edges. Of course, there's always the urge to keep tweaking the css and how the site looks. Over time the resources found on this site should grow. If you've happened to find this blog post by stumbling upon it (because I didn't put it on the front page) and you'd like to contribute FileMaker content then make sure and start posting. You can request a blogger account or you can simply leave comments about most any article on this site.

I've enjoyed the process, I hope you enjoy the new site!

Sincerely,

Matt Petrowsky

Ah, the day is finally here! It's time for beta testing the new ISO FileMaker Magazine website. It's been a long time coming and I'm excited about the new features. I'm sure many have longed for a smoother experience here on this site. Over the previous year, I've been working on the site whenever I could find the time and this included some coding necessary for customization.

ISO FileMaker Magazine has been running off a battered, quite old, installation of a content management system called Postnuke http://www.postnuke.com . This new site is now running off the popular Drupal http://www.drupal.org CMS. I'm pleased with how things are going and it looks like the user experience will be much more enjoyable.

Some of the additional features for the site includes areas for news, templates and hosted blogs. If you're interested in writing about your own FileMaker experiences then please ask for a blogging account here on this site. It's free to have one and you can write anything you like (so long as it has something to do with FileMaker) whenever you wish - daily, weekly or even monthly.

As we move through this short beta period I'd like you to send your feedback by using the Editor feedback form. I'm always willing to hear what you have to say about this site and our services.

Here's to a great 2007!

Sincerely,

Matt Petrowsky