Monthly Archive for November, 2008

11/18 Meeting Recap: Google Chart API

The temperature dropped about 30 degrees last night, which made for a cold drive up (or down) to the meeting.

Jerry did a great job walking through how the API works, and I’m hoping to get him to prep a sample file for posting here.  I’ll update when that happens.

I also mentioned in the meeting that I’ll be posting a survey in a week or two.  I want to get feedback from the group members – and potential members – as to what they’d like to see, and what they’ve seen that they liked, didn’t like, etc.  When I’ve got it ready, you’ll see a link to it here.

 

Year End Bonanza Reminder

Just a quick note to put this in your calendar – a more official announce will come as the date gets closer.

We’ll be hosting our annual Year End Bonanza meeting on December 16th at 6 PM.  Food will be catered, and we’ll do our usual 2008 predictions review, and take predictions for 2009.  Mainly this is an opportunity to wrap up the year with some food, networking and giveaways.

Oh yes, the giveaways – so far this is what I’ve lined up; more to come:

  • 1 Workgroup License of SuperContainer (360Works)
  • 1 Copy of AdminAnywhere (360Works) 
  • 1 Copy of BaseElements      (Goya Pty)
  • 1 Copy of Clip Manager      (myFMButler)
  • 1 Copy of DoSQL      (myFMButler)
  • 1 Copy of 123Sync      (SolutionMakers)
  • 2 Copies of FM Meters      (Dynamic Business Solutions)
  • 1 Single User Copy of FMDataGuard      (WorldSync)
  • 1 Copy of FMTouch      (FMWebSchool)
  • 1 Copy of FMStudio      (FMWebSchool)
  • 1 Single User/Single Platform Copy of MediaManager (promo, non xferable)      (NMCI)
  • 1 5-User/Single Platform Copy of SecureFM      (NMCI)
  • 1 Single User/Single Platform Copy of FMRobot (NMCI)
  • 1 Single User license of Troi File Plug-in (Troi)
  • 1 Single User license of Troi Activator Plug-in (Troi)

Thanks to all the vendors who’ve promised promotional copies!  We’ll be raffling these off; you don’t need to be a FMPUG member to be eligible for these.

That’s all for now – see you at Jerry’s presentation this Tuesday!

Colin

 

Next Meeting 11/18: Jerry Salem on Google Chart API

Jerry Salem will be presenting a very well thought out set of scenarios using the Google Chart API to solve graphing/charting problems in FileMaker through the Web Viewer. Jerry’s presented with us before and brings a lot of energy to the podium (or, in our case, folding table) – so you definitely won’t be bored.

Jerry’s a Certified FileMaker 9 Developer at IT Solutions Consulting and handles our Beginner and Intermediate FileMaker Training offerings.

For a quick primer on what the Google Chart API looks like and is capable of, go to http://code.google.com/apis/chart/.

As usual, the meeting will be held at 6PM at:

IT Solutions Consulting, Inc.
414 Commerce Drive
Suite 150
Fort Washington PA 19034

And, as usual, we’ll provide free pizza.

 

Welcome

Hello everyone.  I’m starting this blog in tandem with a push to move the Philly FileMaker Developer Group into a more participatory, public space.  Not really sure yet where that will take us, but entries here will recap meetings, discuss and document techniques covered in the meetings, and whatever else comes up.

 

9/23 Meeting Recap: Design Challenge/Charrette

We had about a dozen folks show up this night for the first PFDG Design Challenge/Charrette.

The concept here was that we would present the group members with a series of design problems in advance of the meeting, and they would attempt to provide solutions to them. The bulk of the meeting would be devoted to hashing out the different solutions submitted.

Unfortunately, the two challenges I presented proved a bit too high-end, so from a group participation standpoint this concept tanked a bit. It still fits with where I want to move the group – to a participatory, dialogue based format – but for the next Challenge we’ll be splitting the problems into easy/intermediate/hard, and giving folks a bit more lead time..

The Challenge file and Solution file are bundled together in a zip archive and can be downloaded here.

 

10/28 Meeting Recap: Design Critique and Discussion

Well, we had a lively group on the 28th – 16 people, 6 of them new faces and a few we hadn’t seen in awhile.  We also had Rodney Santwier from FileMaker, who talked about licensing for a bit with the group members.

For some background on this night’s meeting, we put out a call a few weeks beforehand for “victims” to submit themselves and their solutions to a high-level design conversation.  I’ve been starting to move meetings from a “present the product or obscure topic” mode to a more interactive, real-world locus for dialogue, and this critique session is one part of that.  We’ve also been doing “Design Challenges”, which is a subject for another post.

Bryant Minard, Wes Maughan and Jeff Moore all stood up and presented their solutions for critique – so thanks, you guys.  Interesting stuff, very varied, and good job focusing the conversation on the features and design decisions you wanted feedback on.  I honestly had no idea whether things would take off, but people seemed up to the game and jumped right in.

We also had Jim Huynh present his Sudoku generation solution.  It sounds at first blush like a toy – and it is – but having looked under the hood of this thing, I have to say it’s the first time in a long while where I looked at a FileMaker solution and, while understanding how all the parts worked, had no idea how the math worked.  Very interesting stuff.

The presentations wrapped up around 8:15, which is late for us, and we were kicking folks out the door at 9.  Not bad.

Colin