DevCon 2007 Closing Session
5:30-ish PM…the room is packed and people settle in.
Ryan Rosenberg MCs the session. On the stage sits Chris Crim (CC), Jon Tatcher (JT), Clay Makel (CM), Eric Jacobsen (EJ). Q & A session follows. Most of these questions were submitted ahead of time and preselected by the panel and projected overhead for the audience to follow:
Disclaimer: I was blogging as fast as I could, please forgive any inadvertent errors or omissions. Where I have I not been able to quote verbatim, I have tried to paraphrase as best as I could without losing essential information. I have also tried to attribute the answers to the proper panel member. I may have gotten some of those wrong too. Drop me a line if you catch any omissions or see anything that needs correcting. I’ll do my best to keep this accurate.
Q. If i run a backup in FMS 9 and then copy that folder of backed up databases, are those database “complete” exact replicas of the live databases at the point of backup?
A. [Yes]
Q. Date fields stored internally as integers
A. Everything is stored as text…the calc engine will do type promotion….could use GetAsNumber() function explicitly. (CM)
Q. How does tab panel load the information fro the end user? Is it a bad idea to load up the layout with stuff…
A. Things are drawn on demand…if it is not visible, you are not paying for that
Q. Some SQL dbs slow down if there are too many fields indexed..true for FMP?
A. The number of indexes you have does effect time for inserts and deletes…for modifications, for text fields, we do differential indexing…we don’t re-index the whole thing, only the changes that are added.
Q. Is there a practical limit to the size of SQL data source linked from FileMaker?
A. Size of table doesn’t matter so much, main issue is number of records you are working with…just like FileMaker…if you do a summary across a lots of records it is slower….don’t try to do summary totals on 14 million records
Q. Why can’t value list be based on external SQL data sources?
A. because it is base on indexes….aware of the issues…working on improving this it in the future
Q. Does FMP 9 evaluate calculation expression in a specific order?
A. We use a postfix form….a+b is really “a, b +”…we have to start ‘inside out’…prior to v7, FileMaker will evaluate the entire expression. That has been improved, short circuited, evaluates only when it has to Does it matter how you construct the expression? It can matter if you are referencing same fields several times in the expression…everytime you do that reference, you have to go get that value…use let function, use variable now you can reference variables much quicker than going to the reference…use recursion…you can take advantage of tail-recursion if the main function is isolated. (CC)
Q. How does the Evaluate() function perform compared to other functions…if is slower, why?
A. Have to parse it…can be more expensive, but take some parsing time…great to be able to use it but it may be more expensive. (CC)
Q. Does the order of predicates listed in the relationship dialog have any bearing on the speed of the evaluation of the relationship
A. Predicates are based on equality first, relationship operators next (greater than, less than)…do not have to worry about this….will take care of this for you…(CC)
Q. Why do you have to pick two match fields in Cartesian products?
A. doesn’t matter, quirk of user interface…those fields don’t matter. (CC)
Q. If the same plug-in exists in both the application “extensions folder and the user’s “ApplicationData” folder, which one is used
A. The one in the user specific folder gets loaded. (CM)
Q. If you have enabled “secure connection to FileMaker Server” does this secure the connection between the FMS9 admin console and the server?
A. The checkbox only controls communications between client and server. Admin console is using a different method…using the https://…don’t need the SSL certificate (JT).
Q. Best fonts for cross platform use. Is there a list?
A. Use web-safe fonts: Arial, Arial-black, courier new, comic sans, georgia, Impact, Symbol, Times New Roman, Trebuchet, Verdnana, WebDings…allow extra space for your fonts. (EJ)
Q. Can a PHP solution hosted by a hosting provider connect to a remote FileMaker server databae for PHP use?
A. Yes. Use standalone PHP API files that come with Server, put those files on the external server as well. (EJ)
Q. Does PHP site assitant do ‘real’ html <table>’s or does it use <div>’s?
A. We use both…we use <table> for real tables…other things are in <div>s to enable CSS use. (EJ)
Q. When is it safe to use ESS in PHP?
A. Still some issues using ESS and PHP, basically, the operations that are safe are “Finds” and “Adds”…anything that relies on recordid may not be safe….anything generated by site assistant will be clear…looking at this for the future
Q. What sort of things has FileMaker Server 9 done “under the hood” to prevent or in some cases, repair file corruption?
A. We’ve made some minor changes in the engine to prevent corruption in some unique cases. (JT)
NB: I didn’t really catch this answer in full. Please let me know if you can fill it the blanks or fix the answer.
Q. Will it be possible to back up database to a location that is not local?
A. …not a best practice to rely on the network for your initial backup…back up to a local drive first or a super reliable external volume (fiber channel), then use backup software such as virtual tape to archive that. (JT).
Q. Why does the plug-in API require a JPEG stream when returning an image?
A. When it was implemented JPEG was the only fully cross-platform graphic format…PNG is becoming more prevalent…JPEG may not be a requirement in the future. (CM)
Q. Why can’t FileMaker Pro 9 can’t luach via RDC on Windows?
A. Activiation technology we are using right not can’t tell the difference between a remotely launched session or not, but you can launch it first then connect…looking to address this this for the future. (CM)
Q. Does Recover create a clean database?
A. NO. See my (JT) DevCon session. Recover can drop blocks out of the file. If there is damaged blocks…it can cause the file to crash…who knows what part of the file could have been corrupted….use a backup. Not the recommendation. (JT)
Followed by questions from the floor…I got caught up talking to Corn and futzing with my flaky wifi…Blackwell, sitting to my left insisted I do not use unsecured Wi-Fi and wasn’t able to catch much…
Q. Is there a document about what might break on 9 and when we move to it?
A. Ryan Rosenberg says don’t think there is any…Eric says, check knowledge base first.
Q. Why are date formats not stored in a standard format instead of the local format?
A. Everybody would wait for conversion [to their local format] all the time…it is optimal this way
Closing remarks by Rosenberg. Rosenberg jokes that the DevCon Site Selector picked Desert Desert for the next location and reveals that DevCon 2008 will be in Phoenix, in July. DevCon ends, people file out of Coquina hall, some head outside to see the shuttle launch.6:30 PM – I pack up, say my goodbyes and begin the drive back to Jacksonville, FL
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One Response to “DevCon 2007 Closing Session”
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Unfortunately can’t I get ends to meet, when attempting to participate each year in Devcon. But this session would have been beneficial to me at least. However, a lot of these observation or rules of thumb’s ought to be availiable more publicly than bleeding out of corners and cracks when special occations arises.
Let me give an example of where the ticks or clocking could be nice to know. If you have a many2many stucture and you wish to make an ANDSEARCH … should you go ahead with a constrained search in the portal? Or should you work only stored fields:
1. In Actors, find Bogart OR Bacall (2 requests);
2. Go to Related Record [ from Appearances ; Match found set ];
3. Find duplicates in TitleID [ Constrain found set ];
4. Go to Related Record [ from Titles ; Match found set ]
(Michael Horaks reply to a thread in fmforums)
It’s obvious if three actors are chosen, will this metod break!
–sd