Dispatches from DevCon 2007
by Ernest Koe
We are back in theme-park country of Orlando, Florida. This year, DevCon returns to the Grande Lakes Marriott in Orlando, (10 minutes from Sea World). If you were lucky enough to get a room at the JW Marriott or the Ritz, the conference is conveniently right in the hotel. Corn Walker, Steve Ritchie and I made it this year from Proof. Haven’t run into Steven Blackwell or Peter Vinogradov (fellow fmCollective contributors) yet.
Day 1
Opening Session Snippets & Highlights
8:30 AM
Dominique Goupil opens. “Biggest DevCon todate…1300+ attendees…(Bubble Charts are back)…”
“We play in the Enterprise…but we are not pretending to be what we are not…still focused on sweet-spot…workgroups…strategically very important for us…The big thing with FileMaker 9 is seamless connectivity…making easy to extend FileMaker to IT…integrate more than ever…important to satisfy IT/web [integration]…bridging the gap, partnership with MySQL.”
Sailing the boundless RG - “Here there be dragons”
by Peter Vinogradov
If you use Anchor Buoy design methods and find yourself building endless TOs just because you like the way they look, then you’ve probably already devised a number of tricks and rules to keep your sanity and productivity alive any time you need to venture into the unknown reaches of your relationship graph.
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FileMaker Nine
by Steven Blackwell
The release today of FileMaker Pro 9 and FileMaker Server 9 marks another milestone for FileMaker, Inc., as well as a significant new direction for the FileMaker family of products.
With the introduction of support for seamless connectivity to external SQL based data sources, the company demonstrates its continuing commitment to FileMaker Pro’s becoming an enterprise level player for businesses large and small. The ability to draw data from back-end “big iron” types systems such as Oracle and SQL Server 2005 and to utilize those data within the FileMaker Pro solution construct will open new markets for FileMaker products and for FileMaker developers.
While a considerable amount of attention and experimentation will center on this External SQL Source functionality, the new FileMaker Pro 9 and FileMaker Server 9 have some additional enhancements that are both compelling and useful:
•Scripts can now be organized into folders and subfolders, a major step forward in organization and management of even modestly complex solutions. Developers eagerly await the extension of this functionality to other objects such as tables, fields, layouts, and value lists.
•ScriptMaker now has non-modal windows, meaning that several scripts can be open for editing at the same time and that items can be copied from one to another without closing any windows. Additionally, developers can switch between ScriptMaker windows and layout windows.
•An enhanced script debugger permits running of scripts with subordinate level Accounts but then temporarily authenticating for high level privilege functions. As a result developers can see how the script behaves for different levels of privileges.
•Conditional formatting of layout objects, based either on hard-coded formulas or on dynamic calculation results will significantly enhance UI capabilities. For example, if an invoice is over 60 days old, its total can be made to turn to red automatically without need for scripting or other workarounds.
•In FileMaker Server 9 the venerable SAT Tool has been replaced on both Macintosh and Windows platforms with a new Uniform Admin Console. In an enhanced panel focused on connected users, the Account Name, Privilege Set name, and IP address of each connected user can be made to display.
•Since Custom Web Publishing is now part of the core FileMaker Server 9 product, its configuration is also managed through the Uniform Admin Console. The configuration options have been simplified and more tightly integrated into the core parts of the Console. For example, there is no longer the need to specify the User ID and Passcode or to have separate credentials for accessing the Web Publishing Engine’s management options.
•Finally, FileMaker, Inc. added several new functions to FileMaker Pro 9, my favorite of which is the Self function. As its name implies, it returns the content of the object in which a calculation is defined. This is useful for creating a single calculation formula that can be applied to many different objects. It provides a way for a calculation to reference an associated object without having explicitly to reference it.
Steven H. Blackwell
The Importance of Maintaining Data Integrity and Availability In FileMaker Pro Databases
by Steven Blackwell
By:
Steven H. Blackwell
Platinum Member, FileMaker Business Alliance
FileMaker 8 Certified Developer
FileMaker 7 Certified Developer
Comprehensive, real-time maintenance of data integrity and data availability in FileMaker Pro databases is an on-going and significant challenge for business owners, database developers, database administrators (DBA’s), and IS/IT managers in organizations of all types and sizes. Whether you are a government agency in the health care field, an airline maintenance department, a small business providing commercial dish-washing facilities for the food services industry, a business trade association or professional society, or a small dry-cleaning business contractor on a military base, you have to be able to rely on the fact that your data will be available when needed and that those data are accurate and complete.
Like the Dark Force from some science fiction movie, there are a host of elements that ceaselessly conspire to attack the availability and integrity of your data day in and day out. And hovering over many database installations are also a myriad of regulatory requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley, the European Union’s Basel II, HIPAA, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), and the Buckley Act—to name just a few.
What can go wrong? And given that accidents can happen even in the best-regulated of households, when things do go wrong, how can DBA’s and IS/IT people fix them? And given that in many small businesses the business owner is the DBA and lacks formal DBA or IS/IT training, how does that business owner recover from what could be a disaster?
In this paper I will detail a number of errors and events that can occur. I will also explain some concepts for addressing, mitigating, and even reversing those errors. I will focus particularly on the difficult issues of deletion management, of backup reconciliation, both roll-back and roll-forward, and of regulatory compliance.
To read the rest of this article, http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/187893/
June 8, 2007Adventures in Barcoding
by Peter Vinogradov
As a fulltime educator, there’s never any shortage of new and exciting projects to inspire me and capture my interest. As an FM developer, though, it can sometimes be a bit of a stretch. Even new releases of FileMaker (like that‘ll happen any time soon…) can be a melancholy blend of “gee whiz” moments and feature request letdowns (”what?! They didn’t include facial recognition on container fields?! Damnit, I’ve been asking for that since version 4!”). Fortunately, we can sometimes count on our clients to throw something fun our way. Read more