FileMaker 11 Product Briefing comes to Louisville

FileMaker, Inc.’s own Bill Kaiser and Bill Heiser (remember them from November?) will be passing through Louisville on the 20th and hosting a gala event at the Marriott Courtyard Downtown (100 South Second Street). Filemaker fun, food and prizes!

Bill Heizer, FileMaker Senior Systems Engineer, will be showing off all the awesome new features in FileMaker 11. You’ll learn about charts, scripting, calculations, the enhanced Layout/Report Assistant, Quick Find, Inspector, Portal Filtering, Snapshot Link, and more. Whether you are a hot-shot developer or just a dabbler, there’s something new and useful just for you in FileMaker 11.

Register at https://ncsfms1.filemaker.com/fmpb/

See you there!

Script Triggers - “Sticky Tabs”

Today we talked about script triggers and offered an introduction. This is a redo of last years “sticky tabs” as published but updated a little for FMP 11. This demo file will work with FileMaker Pro 10 or 11. Here is the demo file: demo

All the best,
Brian Ginn

April Kentuckiana Meeting

Greetings, File Makers!

Well, after a change of program AND a change of venue, we finally have the details for this month’s meeting settled.

LOCATION
Next month (May) we will be back at the 1234 S. Third location, but this month we will be meeting in the board room of the main branch of the Louisville Free Public Library, 301 York Street, downtown Louisville. (Parking is on the street, so come a little early and bring quarters or your PARC SmartCards.)

TIME/DATE
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm (or so)
April 15

PROGRAM
Bob Patin–our presenter on FileMaker and the web that was scheduled for this month–had a last-minute client issue and requested that we reschedule him for a future date. We’ll let you know when that is. In his stead, though, we have arranged a power-house lineup of local talent for you:

First up is Byron Songer who will continue his Intro to FileMaker series with a session on the calculation engine and how you can really simplify your work by letting FileMaker calculate a whole host of things for you.

Following that, Brian Ginn will give you his take on what’s cool about script triggers. This caps off Jonathan’s two-part introduction to the subject by taking it up a notch and showing you some really effective ways to automate your solutions.

NETWORKING
Following the main presentations will be a time of discussion and networking where you can ask questions and commune with other FileMaker users as long as you want.

FUTURE
We are still looking forward to Bill Kaiser and Bill Heizer (of FileMaker, Inc.) bringing their FileMaker 11 show to Louisville in May. We’ll keep you posted on that.

Info & RSVP: http://fmpug.com/scheduleMeetings.php

See you Thursday!

Technique: Dynamic-Dynamic Value Lists

I’ve been showing around a technique that I’ve come up with that, while not overly mind-blowing, I have not seen demonstrated anywhere else. It allows the developer to create a value list that changes to entirely different content for each record that it is used on.

Now you may be thinking of what is known as a “dynamic value list” and indeed this uses that technique as well, but other tricks are employed to give an even greater variety of content to popups and menus.

It all depends on the fact that a list to FileMaker is any set of values that are separated by carriage returns. You can create any text values, stick carriage returns between them and they become a list. If you put them in a field and point a value list definition at that field you can receive back all the values listed there. This can be done on a field by field basis.

In addition you can also stuff that field with the contents of a predefined value list (static or dynamic) using the ValueListItems function.

The other bit of geekery is a calculation field that takes as its input the content of another field, makes some decisions about it and turns it into a list. Add a new related table occurrence and use that (and your new calculation) in your value list definition.

Whew, now I have me confused. Maybe I should go watch the video I just created so I know what I’m talking about!

If you’d like, you can too, right here.

jonathan

March 18 Meeting Agenda Annnounced

Our meeting this month is shaping up to be an event you won’t want to miss. Our speakers have been doing some traveling lately and are back amongst us with their insights.

To lead off, Brian Ginn, fresh from his recent travels in China, will regale you with–not his photographs and videos of the Chinese countryside and New Year’s celebrations, unfortunately–but with the culmination of our series on script triggers. For those of you that have ever set up a nice little tab set in FileMaker, only to have it forget where it last was when you switch to a different layout and back again, Brian has a cool way to make sure that your tab selections stay right where you last left them. His demo will also demonstrate his passion for all things with the words “social” and “media” in their names by showing you how to integrate Google Docs, straight from the cloud and right into your own programs.

Also returning from a foreign country (one called California), KFUG member Teresa Wilkins will share her experiences at last month’s FileMaker Bootcamp. This long-running, intensive immersion experience is held in Southern California and boasts several famous FileMaker luminaries on its faculty. Teresa says, “Bootcamp! It’s not for everyone, but if it’s right for you then you’re gonna love it. I’ll give a broad-strokes overview of what the experience was like and who might benefit most from it. I’ll share some tasty knowledge morsels that I picked up - quick bites and food for thought! Then I’ll end by sharing some great resources for users at every level, with an emphasis on custom menus and the brilliantly accessible wisdom of Jerry Robbins.”

Fresh off an encore engagement in Fort Wayne, Indiana (not quite as exotic as the aforementioned locales, but the natives are friendly), Jonathan Fletcher will have a handout and short presentation on FileMaker-related resources available around the ‘net. From helpful blogs to downloadable software, the internet houses a wealth of useful information for the aspiring (and experienced) FileMaker user/developer. Want to know how to get your questions answered? There’s a site for that.

And for the hot news of the week: FileMaker 11 is out! That means that FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Pro Advanced, FileMaker Server and FileMaker Server Advanced all have new versions with a metric boatload of new features and stuff to talk about. Jonathan will end his presentation with a short overview of some of the higher profile new features to be found in the latest versions of our favorite toys.

That said, stay tuned for an official announcement about the return of the Bill and Bill show. Bill Kaiser, FileMaker Inc.’s Midwest Business Account Manager and Bill Heizer, FileMaker Inc.’s Senior Consulting Engineer spoke to our group in November and wowed us with their presentation on FileMaker 10. Well, they’re going to do it again with FileMaker 11. Invites will be going out to the wider community of registered users in Kentucky and Southern Indiana, so we expect another SRO turnout. While tentatively scheduled for the May 20th meeting at this point, we’re not inking it into our Day-Timer just yet. We’ll let you know the minute we get firm confirmation.

Don’t forget you can get more info about our next meeting and also RSVP at: http://fmpug.com/scheduleMeetings.php

Thanks again and see you on the 18th!

–
Alan Bird
Jonathan Fletcher
Brian Ginn
Bill Holt
Byron Songer

KYana FMPUG - Part Deux

Well, last month didn’t seem to have scared too many of you away. About a dozen more souls braved the chilly winter sunshine to seek out another darkened room to watch geeky Keynote presentations and FileMaker demos. And were glad of it!

Byron Songer dishes out delicious FileMaker-ness for all wanting to learn more about their favorite data muncher.

Byron certainly showed off his extensive experience with FileMaker in the latest installment (FMP 102) of his series on the nuts and bolts of basic data and interface design as it applies to everyone’s favorite database development environment. Presentation and demo files here.

Jonathan progressed from object script triggers (last month) to what can be done with layout script triggers (all seven of them) and why. Presentation and demo files here.

A little refreshment and meeting some new comrades in the FileMaker Revolutionary Cause rounded out a perfect FileMaker-er outing.

Next month you get to listen to some special people who haven’t presented to the group before, so mark your calendar for March 18 (and watch this space) and tell your boss you’re not coming back after lunch that day. If you’re self-employed and your boss doesn’t let you off, they’re a slave-driver and don’t deserve such a great employee as you. See you then!

About a Dozen Get the Goods!

Byron shows off his best FileMaker 10 tricks

Make sure you don’t miss out: put next month’s meeting 2/18 on your calendar right now, why don’t you? We’d love to have you join us and you’d love to learn more about FileMaker 10 in general and Script Triggers in particular. Right? Right!

Byron and I gave out all manner of FileMaker-y goodness. Byron has posted some files related to his presentation, Intro to FileMaker 10, here.

My presentation on Script Triggers can be found here. It’s a PDF with the notes and my sample FMP file. (FMP 10 required.)

See you next month!

Jonathan

Success!

Nearly 40 people joined us for our very first Kentuckiana FMPug meeting!

The presentation by FileMaker Senior Engineer Bill Heiser truly wowed us and he even let slip a few hints about the upcoming FileMaker 11. If you weren’t there you really missed a treat. If you were there, thank you.

There are big things cookin’ in the engineering kitchens down at FileMaker HQ for the coming year. 2010 has exciting things in store for us unlike anything we’ve seen before. While you can probably read about them any number of places over the course of the year, there will be only one place in Kentuckiana where you can get together with your FileMaker friends and talk about what they mean to you. You’ll get to talk with experienced users and those who can help you make sense of how to use these fantastic new tools.

It’s going to be a fun trip. Join us at the meetings and you can also join us right here. If you’re a little more of the hands-on type there are a couple other things you can do as well: You can contribute to this blog by sending new posts to jonathan@fletcherdata.com and I will post them here with your byline. You can also join in the community discussion by subscribing to the chapter email list (A.K.A. “listserv”). More information about how to sign up and post can be found at: http://fmpug.com/mailman/listinfo/louisville_fmpug.com

It’ll be a real privilege (for me at least) to explore FileMaker with you all as we build a community around our favorite software tool.

Welcome to the club!

Jonathan Fletcher

41 Registered to Receive FileMaker Visitors!