March 23: Please Join us for an exclusive look at FileMaker 11!

By: Colin Keefe

Published on March 9, 2010 in FileMaker Inc. and Meeting Announcements
Greetings FileMaker Enthusiasts,
Our next Philadelphia FileMaker User Group meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday evening, March 23rd 2010 at 6:00 PM.
The meeting will be held at the IT Solutions Fort Washington Office:
+  414 Commerce Dr., Suite 150, Fort Washington, PA 19034
+  Google Map: http://tinyurl.com/37mhhh
As always, pizza and soft drinks will be provided.
Please RSVP here if you are planning to attend this meeting:
http://www.fmpug.com/rsvp.php?eventID=997

Join us for an exclusive look at FileMaker 11!

We have a very special featured speaker coming from FileMaker this evening – Matt O’Dell, our regional FileMaker Systems Engineer!
Matt will be giving us an overview of the new features in FileMaker 11, and their implications both for making life easier for FileMaker users and for new techniques for the developer.  Matt’s presented to PFUG twice before, most recently on using server OS and FileMaker scripting and Script Sequences, and we’re pleased to have him back.
What’s new in FileMaker 11?
FileMaker Charts!
Quick Reports in Table View
Snapshot Links
Recurring Imports
Quick Finds!
Inspector – a master tool palette for layout design
Object Badges
Built-in Invoice Starter Solution
Layout Folders
Portal Filtering
Scripting Enhancements
Improved File Security, including specific file access authorization
Variables in Find Requests and Merge Fields
We’re looking forward to this presentation, and hope you’ll be able to join us.

About the Speaker:

Matt O’Dell is a Systems Engineer with FileMaker in the Northeast US and Canada. He has 11+ years experience using FileMaker and building web solutions. Along with being a certified FileMaker Developer, he also is an authorized FTS trainer and a certified MySQL 5.0 developer. Prior to working for FileMaker, Matt was an application developer, trainer, and  tech support professional with Soliant Consulting in Chicago.

2/23/10 Meeting recap/video stream: David Hollander

By: Colin Keefe

Published on February 24, 2010 in FileMaker, Meeting Recaps, Meetings and Video

Thanks to David Hollander for presenting last night!  It was great to have an overview of a real-world solution optimized with 10-specific best practices techniques.

David walked through some techniques we’ve seen applied elsewhere – extensive use of script triggers to drive the UI, modular programming, some real world examples of Set Field By Name.  There was one especially clever use of Custom Menus to create true modal dialog layouts that can’t be closed by clicking the X box.  I’ll ask David to share that one, maybe in an example file.

Video stream recording below.

Peachpit Press User Group and Apple User Group affiliations – Lending Library and discounts

By: Colin Keefe

Published on February 17, 2010 in News and Other User Groups

Since we set up affiliations with PeachPit and Apple  via their respective User Group programs back in December, we now have some additional member benefits available.

In order to take advantage of benefits associated with either of these affiliations, you must have attended a meeting in the past 3 months.  I’d also like to remind folks that FMPug membership is the hands-down best resource for FileMaker-specific member benefits and discounts – and I recommend joining today.

PeachPit User Group Affiliation

Through our Peachpit User Group membership, we receive monthly additions to a PFUG lending library.  If there is a Peachpit title you’d like us to acquire, let us know.  There’s not much to speak of yet in the Library, as we only started this program two months ago.

You can check out any of these titles at a user group meeting, and return it by the next meeting.

Currently available:

Paperless: Real-World Solutions with Adobe Technology (J.P. Terry)

Web Anatomy: Interaction Design Frameworks that Work (Hoekman & Spool)

The permalink to the Lending Library is here:

http://www.phillyfilemaker.org/index.php/members/lending-library/

And a link can always be found in the right sidebar of this blog; look for the yellow Peachpit logo.

Apple User Group Affiliation

The Apple User Group program offers us a number of benefits, but the most immediately germane is the discount program.  Discount offers on many products are available here:

http://appleusergroupresources.com/?cat=12

Note that you’ll need to contact me directly to get the discount code for a particular item.

Colin

colin.keefe@itsolutions-inc.com

REMINDER: Meeting next Tuesday, February 23 – Solution Case Study: Intuitive workflow for Medical Research using FM 10 Features

By: Colin Keefe

Published on February 17, 2010 in Meeting Announcements

Just a reminder; we’re meeting next Tuesday:

Our next meeting will be February 23, at 6 PM, at the IT Solutions office.

David Hollander makes databases for medical researchers. He’ll demo a project for managing lab samples that incorporates cool features in FM10 to make it as intuitive and goof-proof as can be. You’ll see how script triggers, conditional formatting, custom menus, and other interface tricks are put to work. Newcomers will come away learning new techniques; and veterans can compare their own favorite methods to David’s.

David Hollander is a longtime active member of the Philly FileMaker User Group, and we’re pleased to have him present.

You can RSVP here:
http://www.fmpug.com/rsvp.php?eventID=962

Please Join us February 23: David Hollander – Solution Case Study: Intuitive workflow for Medical Research using FM 10 Features

By: Colin Keefe

Published on February 8, 2010 in FileMaker and Meeting Announcements

Our next meeting will be February 23, at 6 PM, at the IT Solutions office. An official announce will go out closer to the meeting date, but here’s the blurb:

David Hollander makes databases for medical researchers. He’ll demo a project for managing lab samples that incorporates cool features in FM10 to make it as intuitive and goof-proof as can be. You’ll see how script triggers, conditional formatting, custom menus, and other interface tricks are put to work. Newcomers will come away learning new techniques; and veterans can compare their own favorite methods to David’s.

David Hollander is a longtime active member of the Philly FileMaker User Group, and we’re pleased to have him present.

You can RSVP here:
http://www.fmpug.com/rsvp.php?eventID=962

Pausing in Portland: a written recap

By: Jason Mundok

Published on February 3, 2010 in FileMaker, IT Solutions Consulting and PauseOnError

Check out the following blog post for a written recap from Pause On Error, the FileMaker unconference in Portland. This has a little more info about the back story and where the movement itself may be headed. This post is available on an IT blog that is hosted by IT Solutions: http://bit.ly/aIzZkx

Update from Jason Young on “What’s Faster?”

By: Jason Mundok

Published on February 2, 2010 in FileMaker, PauseOnError and Tips and tricks

At last week’s meeting I presented some FileMaker performance analysis findings that were compiled by Jason Young, Mighty Data (Denver, CO). He had shared them during his session “What’s Faster?” at the recent PauseOnError unconference in Portland, OR a few weeks back. Jason sent a follow-up email about some of his findings and some tidbits he’s learned since Pause On Error, along with the slides from his presentation, which are attached here. If you weren’t at the meeting, check out the meeting video on an earlier post to gain some context for this update (fast forward to the 54:20 mark).

Continue reading ‘Update from Jason Young on “What’s Faster?”’

Jan 2010 Meeting recap: Pause On Error (video)

By: Colin Keefe

Published on January 27, 2010 in Conferences, FileMaker, Meeting Recaps, PauseOnError and Video

Jason Mundok gave a great overview of the Portland PauseOnError Unconference to about 20 folks.  We also hashed out some plans for the Member page of this blog.  Ustream recording below:

Five Minutes with Philly FileMaker: Pause On Error Portland

By: Jason Mundok

Published on January 27, 2010 in FMPug, FileMaker, News and Video

I was fortunate to attend day one of Pause on Error in Portland and had a chance to chat with John Sindelar (SeedCode) and Ernest Koe (Proof) about what it was like to organize Pause II. We debuted this interview at the Philadelphia FileMaker User Group meeting held at the IT Solutions office in Fort Washington.

What’s so great about the Modification Date?

By: Jerry Salem

Published on January 18, 2010 in FileMaker and Tips and tricks

Problem:
Every once in a while, I have a client say, “I want to have the modification date on the layout.  Oh, but I only care when the <<Insert Field Name here>> has been modified”.

Filemaker has a built in auto enter option on a field called ‘Modification’.  This lets you create a field that gives you information about the last time the record was modified.  You can capture any of the following: User Name, Account Name, Date, Time or Timestamp.  This is a great function, but it updates the value whenever any field in the record is modified – in other words, it doesn’t give feedback as to which field was modified.

Continue reading ‘What’s so great about the Modification Date?’