Scodigo blogs

Southwest Michigan FileMaker Users Group - Feb 08

2008-02-22T15:04:57-05:00

A big thanks to Trevor Gildersleeve for his presentation on using script parameters and results. His team has taken full advantage of this feature and it was interesting to see their approach. Trevor started with the basics and moved right along to more complex examples where numerous parameters are being passed and returned. He also mentioned the advantages for larger projects and team development that are gained by having "self-contained" scripts that can be developed independently (although this is less of an issue with FileMaker 9 since multiple developers can be scripting at the same time).

We had a good turn-out of 9 people from as far away as Detroit, Grand Rapids and Fremont. It's really great to see people making that kind of effort to join us.

We plan to have another meeting in May and invitations will be sent out closer to the date.

Please see attached for a copy of Trevor's slide show.

CAFDA Dec 07 Exploring Real-World ESS Examples

2008-02-04T06:30:52-05:00

Thanks to CAFDA for having me back to talk about our experience with ESS.

Here’s the description for my presentation and I've also attached the slides below.

“This presentation will explore two real-world examples that use the new ESS capabilities available in FileMaker 9. For those less familiar with ESS, we’ll start with a brief intro covering how to get started, some best practice suggestions and a list of useful resources.

The first example we’ll explore involves syncing and transferring data with a set of SQL tables. In this example, ESS interaction is carefully controlled and users do not work directly with the SQL tables. Instead, data is synced into and transferred from internal FileMaker tables. The ESS capabilities have allowed us to greatly simplify the development effort required to support these processes as well as improving reliability and performance.

The second example will explore a simple “front-end” application used to manage a small set of SQL tables. We’ll talk about when it’s appropriate to build this type of tool and cover some of the dos and don’ts that effect viability and performance.

As we work through these examples, we’ll take a look at how to run a server trace so that we can see the SQL that FileMaker is executing. This can provide helpful insight into how your development approach will affect server load and the performance of your application.

Time permitting; we’ll take a look at how our SmartPill PHP plug-in can be used to compliment ESS by providing direct query access to your SQL database.”

Southwest Michigan FileMaker Users Group - Nov 07

2007-11-19T00:00:00-05:00

Thanks to everyone that joined us and special thanks to Bill Kaiser and Bill Heizer from FileMaker for attending and also for donating a copy of FileMaker Pro Advanced for our raffle. Congratulations go to the lucky winner, Tullio Proni.

I had the chance to present on the new ESS capabilities in FileMaker 9 and Bill Heizer took us for an interesting ride under the hood with SQL Server Profiler to watch the SQL that FileMaker generates.

ESS seems to be off to a very good start and I expect it will become more mainstream as people gain experience and as more success stories are told. We've fully embraced ESS on a large project and it's been very successful.

I've posted my presentation files here.

SmartPill PHP Edition™ 1.0 Released!

2007-01-31T17:18:40-05:00

Wow, what a lot of work it takes to get a commercial product to market. From the initial concept and early development to the beta release, attorneys, testing, beta support, additional features, more testing, writing the manual, developing the example files, developing the website, late-night PayPal debugging, press releases, marketing and the list goes on...

It's been a lot of work but I've enjoyed it and learned a lot along the way. I'm excited have this new tool in my toolbox and I'm really looking forward to seeing how it gets used.

For a long time, I thought about different plug-ins that I'd like to create and finally one day I realized that I could have them all if I just had PHP. I now get my email, file, url, encryption, shell, zip, image, xml, ftp and script trigger plug-ins all in one.

When I started learning PHP about 7 years ago, it opened a whole new world to me. Previously, I'd been a FileMaker developer with a bit of Lasso experience. PHP introduced me to writing my own functions and I finally grasped what an object is. As I say, it was a great experience and it helped me to become a much better programmer. I realize that many of you may not be familiar with PHP but I highly encourage you to give it a try. It's relatively easy to get started and I think you'll be amazed at what you can do.

I hope you enjoy using SmartPill as much as I do!

Regards,

Micah Woods