Pause[x]London will be trying another new concept: speaking via Skype. Our good buddy, Mark Richman, from Skeleton Key in St. Louis will be leading a session on (what else?) WAN performance. Only he’ll be doing it in his fuzzy slippers from the comforts of his digs in St. Louis. We’ll be keeping our eye on this, as this brave new session style could mean great things for future Pause events AND user groups like the Philadelphia FileMaker User Group.

If you can make it to Pause[x]London, do yourself a favor and get there. The Pause On Error events are a great way to build community around FileMaker development and get access to some of the best minds in the business.

 

Our next Philadelphia FileMaker Developer Group meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday evening, August 30th 2011 at 6:00 PM. The meeting will be held at the IT Solutions Fort Washington Office.  (Please note: this is a schedule change.)

414 Commerce Dr., Suite 150, Fort Washington, PA 19034

Google Map: http://tinyurl.com/37mhhh

Please RSVP here if you are planning to attend this meeting:

http://www.fmpug.com/rsvp.php?eventID=1212

2011 FileMaker DevCon Recap!

The sixteenth annual FileMaker Developer Convention was held in early August in San Diego CA.  We’ve just gotten back and can’t wait to share.  A record-breaking TEN Philly FileMaker User Group members attended this year, so this ought to be a very lively session.

About the Philadelphia FileMaker User Group

The Philadelphia FileMaker User Group was founded in 2004 as an initiative by FileMaker Business Alliance Platinum member IT Solutions Consulting.  The group’s goal is to provide an open forum for FileMaker developers and those interested in FileMaker to meet, brainstorm and network.

We hold meetings the 4th Tuesday of every month at 6PM, in the office of IT Solutions Consulting, Inc., at 414 Commerce Drive, Suite 150, Fort Washington PA.  Meetings are open to all, regardless of background and there’s no charge to attend.

Please subscribe to our Mailing List to get announcements on upcoming meetings. The list is set to Announce only, so the volume is typically between one and 2 emails a month.

http://fmpug.com/mailman/listinfo/philly_fmpug.com/

You can read our blog to get updates and meeting recaps:

http://www.phillyfilemaker.org/

Twitter here:

http://twitter.com/phillyfilemaker

We’re also an FMPug Chapter:  http://www.fmpug.com/  Consider membership today, especially if you purchase training, plugins, 3rd party products, or web/filemaker hosting – FMPug membership affords considerable discounts across a range of offerings.

Finally, The Philadelphia FileMaker User Group is hosted by:

IT Solutions Consulting, Inc.

Employee ownership – fueling our innovation, strengthening your business.

http://www.itsolutions-inc.com/

Learn more about us on our new Videos/Blog Page!

http://www.itsolutions-inc.com/videos_blog/index.html

 

Also appearing on this special DevCon 2011 episode are our good friends Tim Neudecker from Kyo Logic, Lee Lukehart from SavvyData, and Kirk Bowman from MightData! Check it out here.

 

This year’s conference was held at the gorgeous San Diego Hilton Bayfront where we enjoyed temperatures in the 70s with low humidity and a pleasant breeze. The accommodations and facility was top notch, with plenty of space for the conference and all of the normal hotel patrons.

For me, it’s really about being together. This is an amazing and supportive community of people who share common interests, face similar hurdles, and are working toward many of the same goals. While the FileMaker online community is vibrant, nothing beats face time, and DevCon offers plenty of opportunities to hang out and chat with 1,000+ of your closest FileMaker friends! Here are some of my highlights from the 2011 FileMaker Developer Conference.

Performance

The three sessions that had the most impact for me this year all had to do with performance. FileMaker, Inc.’s Jon Thatcher kicked off the first slot on Wednesday, the first official conference day, with an “under the hood” session focused on WAN performance. He explored some of the behind-the-scenes changes that they are working on to improve WAN performance in future versions and explained the ins and outs of the FileMaker Server logs. Understanding the logs is the first step in analyzing and ultimately correcting performance issues.

On Thursday Mark Richman from Skeleton Key in St. Louis, MO presented “Practical Techniques for Improving FileMaker WAN Performance”. Mark shared some of the most “expensive” features in FileMaker (from a performance perspective) and how to work around them, or simply avoid them when deploying over a wide area network.

Jason Young from Terapico Data in Boulder, CO expanded on last year’s more general “What’s Faster” session with a focus this year on “What’s Faster for FileMaker Go”. Jason provided some comparative speed metrics when running FileMaker processes in FileMaker Go on an iPad locally, on a WLAN, and over 3G. The results in relation to each other were as expected with performance being worse over 3G than on a WLAN, and both being dramatically slower than a locally run process. Jason also shared a case study where performance was a major hurdle for  a FileMaker Go deployment. He explained what techniques they used to overcome performance issues by simply rethinking the way they approached certain features.

Some common themes emerged across all three of these sessions. Primarily, with more and more movement toward WAN deployments, FileMaker developers need to rethink some common practices based on an understanding of what causes performance to drag. For example, all three presenters talked about the increased use of one-to-one relationships to help keep tables thin, push fields that contain a lot of data out to related tables, and ultimately reduce the amount of data that needs to be pulled down from the server when records load.

This topic is very important for the development community right now and it’s great to see so much attention being placed on it. Thanks to Jon, Mark, and Jason for their hard work and for bringing real solutions for dealing with performance issues to the community.

FileMaker Feud

The most fun I had at a session this year was FileMaker Feud, presented by our friends at MightyData in Dallas, TX. This was one of several vendor sessions that gave vendors an opportunity to showcase their products and services. MightyData had some fun with their slot by recruiting eight contestants and two of their FileMaker coaches, Martha Zink and Anders Monsen, who competed as “families” guessing the most popular answers to many FileMaker related questions. The answers came from a survey sent out to the greater FileMaker community months in advance. Based on a tournament format, the winning team was then split up for a second round, and then those winners went head-to-head for the final rounds. In the end Laura Betz from Cross IT beat Lee Lukehart, SaavyData, in a suspense-filled final round that could have been the basis for a fine come-from-behind, underdog film! All contestants received great gifts, with the grand prize being a brand new iPad 2!

Next Year

The conference ended with the announcement that the 2012 FileMaker Developer Conference will be held in Miami, on July 16-19. If you are part of the FileMaker community but haven’t yet made it to a DevCon, do yourself a favor and try to get out to Miami next summer. You won’t regret it!

 

One hallmark of DevCon is the lack of available sleep time.  This year was no exception with the time zone change (for us east-coasters) and the number of sessions and informal gatherings going on this year.

The sessions I chose to go to on the first day covered a wide variety of FileMaker use cases.  The day started with a session on WAN performance by Jon Thatcher.  After a primer on the differences between data transfer on Local versus Wide Area Networks, we learned how to use the Stats page of the Filemaker Server admin tool to diagnose problems and improve serving data.  Throughout the talk, Jon gave design tips that would improve overall performance of a solution.

The main sessions of the day covered the relationship graph and script triggers.  While both of these topics are very different, the interesting conclusion of the day was the same from both sessions.  All of the action should be in your scripts.  If your business logic lives in scripts, then it is much easier to modify, document, and even move it to other sections of a solution.  There are also many performance benefits you can get doing finds and sorts at run time in scripts versus relying on the relationship graph for these things.

But one of the best parts of DevCon was seeing all of the people I have spoken to on the net, or in real life, and catching up with old friends. Also, we had several members of the Philly FileMaker User Group attend the conference this year (pictured above). It was great to see everyone in San Diego!

 

Whether you want to be a spectator or an actual contestant is your choice, but MightyData (who is sponsoring the event) would love for your answers to be part of the survey.

You can check out all the details at MightyData’s FileMaker Feud.

 

If you’re not familiar with it, Pause On Error is a (mostly) self-organized series of free gatherings held in a hotel with the purpose of bringing together FileMaker developers to share ideas about creating and deploying software with the various FileMaker products and related technologies. Why “mostly”? Because the steering committee (Molly Connolly,Thorsen Consulting, Andy Gaunt, FMPug, John Sindelar, SeedCode, and Ernest Koe,ProofGroup) spend a considerable amount of time and effort getting these events off the ground, such as researching and choosing locations, setting up the online portals for scheduling sessions, and fielding questions and managing expectations. The committee has done a remarkable job with POE!

To attend a POE gathering you simply register online, but you have to be quick about it because space is limited. The only expense is travel and accommodations, so if you’re local, you can simply show up. Attendees create the content and several “sponsors” rent suites in the host hotel where the main sessions are held, but sessions can spin up anywhere.

How popular is it?

The popularity of POE has grown with each gathering, and while the steering committee has never intended to limit the attendance, there is a capacity. POE3 reached its capacity of 120 attendees in about 48 hours after the initial announcement. Since the event is free and consists of people gathering in hotel rooms, it can’t technically sell out. Certain events, though, such as the kick-off breakfast need to be limited to registered attendees, and based on the physical constraints of the hotel, the experience will certainly suffer if too many people showed up. This speaks volumes about the popularity of POE, but leads to several very important questions about the future of these gatherings. If new locations are found where the capacity doubles or triples, how does that change the spirit of POE? Can the current model be sustained, or does POE just become another conference that requires a full event planning staff, and therefore, real sponsors and an admission fee, etc.? Time will tell.

What’s the draw?

It’s all about access — access to a forum to present your thoughts on a topic, regardless of how niche it is, and access to some of the best minds in the business. Most of the sessions that I attended at POE3 were 20% slides and 80% discussion while sitting around hotel rooms with very smart people. There were no stages or microphones, just open dialogue in a small group setting, like a super-duper developer group meeting that lasts for two days and includes two years’ worth of guest speakers. The range of topics was 50% business and 50% technical so there was something for everyone.

What did I take away from POE3?

While I found value in all of the conversations I had with other FileMaker developers at POE3, there were a few things that stood out for me. First, I facilitated a session on best practices for testing FileMaker solutions. While our current practices have served us well over the years, I had some ideas for improvement that I wanted to bounce off the group and the feedback was excellent. Some ideas were affirmed, others were dismissed, and new ones were introduced through the discussion.

I also attended a demonstration of Zulu, the new iCal server for FileMaker from SeedCode and 360Works. Zulu is one of the most impressive 3rd party tools I have ever seen in the FileMaker world. John Sindelar, SeedCode, and Jesse Barnum, 360Works, will be visiting our PhillyFileMaker meeting on April 26, 2011 to present Zulu to our community.

Among a few other sessions and great discussions, I also sat in on a very rich discussion with Marshall Micheals, Anvil Dataworks, and Heather Winkle, FileMaker, Inc. exploring ways to introduce FileMaker to a new audience. I came away from that discussion energized about new possibilities for FileMaker in the marketplace and filled with ideas about how IT Solutions can contribute.

If nothing else, POE3 proved once again that the FileMaker development community is active and committed to the future. It recognizes that a strong community where innovative ideas are cultivated and shared benefits everyone from independent consultants to in-house development teams. There has been no talk yet of POE4, but be sure keep your eyes and ears open so you don’t miss the next one!

If you have any questions or comments about this article, feel free to contact Jason Mundok at jason.mundok@itsolutions-inc.com.

 

Our next Philadelphia FileMaker Developer Group meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday evening, March 1st 2011 at 6:00 PM. The meeting will be held at the IT Solutions Fort Washington Office.

(NOTE: This is a date change from our usual schedule.)

414 Commerce Dr., Suite 150, Fort Washington, PA 19034
Google Map: http://tinyurl.com/37mhhh

Please RSVP here if you are planning to attend this meeting:
http://www.fmpug.com/rsvp.php?eventID=1167

PAUSE ON ERROR NY RECAP

Four members of PFUG trekked up to New York for Pause On Error this month to present, listen, discuss and debate. During this meeting we’ll share what we heard and learned, and share our thoughts.

Jason Mundok, Colin Keefe, Kevin Ayers and Dan Stein attended POE, and depending on who’s available we’ll see what we can glean from them.

We’ll also be giving away a door prize, courtesy of our User Group membership with PeachPit Press (it’s the one I forgot to give away last month).

Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide
- Tom Geller, author

http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321619218

About the Philadelphia FileMaker User Group

The Philadelphia FileMaker User Group was founded in 2004 as an initiative by FileMaker Business Alliance Platinum member IT Solutions Consulting. The group’s goal is to provide an open forum for FileMaker developers and those interested in FileMaker to meet, brainstorm and network.

We hold meetings the 4th Tuesday of every month at 6PM, in the office of IT Solutions Consulting, Inc., at 414 Commerce Drive, Suite 150, Fort Washington PA.
Meetings are open to all, regardless of background and there’s no charge to attend.

Please subscribe to our Mailing List to get announcements on upcoming meetings. The list is set to Announce only, so the volume is typically between one and 2 emails a month.

http://fmpug.com/mailman/listinfo/philly_fmpug.com/

You can read our blog to get updates and meeting recaps:

http://www.phillyfilemaker.org/

Twitter here:

http://twitter.com/phillyfilemaker

We’re also an FMPug Chapter: http://www.fmpug.com/ Consider membership today, especially if you purchase training, plugins, 3rd party products, or web/filemaker hosting – FMPug membership affords considerable discounts across a range of offerings.

Finally, The Philadelphia FileMaker User Group is hosted by:

IT Solutions Consulting, Inc.
Employee ownership – fueling our innovation, strengthening your business.
http://www.itsolutions-inc.com/
Learn more about us on our new Videos/Blog Page!
http://www.itsolutions-inc.com/videos_blog/index.html

 

I started thinking about this series of posts (yep, this is #1 in a series) after a few conversations I had with people at this year’s FileMaker DevCon.  I’d strike up a conversation with someone at lunch or at the bar, we’d exchange stories and experiences…and inevitably the talk would shift to why people come to DevCon in the first place.

Reason number 1: for the community.  Hands down.  The clear pleasures and advantages of meeting other people who are engaged in the same practice as you – with whom you can share ideas, learn from and teach –  always trump session topics, what’s on the lunch menu, what kind of swag you can haul back, or how many banners you can affix to the bottom of your convention badge.  One of the things that’s sometimes lost when you do a hand count of how many people in the room have iPads is how many people in the room are there because of the other people.

I’m going to go on a tangent here for a moment to talk about human behavior, and will come back to those DevCon conversations a little later.

We’re advocates of Agile development methodologies here at IT Solutions.  One of the core statements of the Agile manifesto is: where possible, value individuals and interactions over processes and tools.  In the context of Agile development, that statement helps emphasize (and leverage) the fact that software is built by humans working together.

I happen to love that statement, though, because I believe it’s not just a statement about development workflow.

It’s an observation about what really motivates us as humans.  Our monkey brains are social.  Our emotional and social batteries are recharged by engaging with each other.  Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, IM, blogs, websites, email, Basecamp, and everything else that we use as proxies for social interaction offers us myriad opportunities to recharge those batteries, at recharge rates proportional to bandwidth.

By far, though, the highest, most optimized bandwidth available to us is face to face, in person contact.  You can live stream and tweet all you like, but I can guarantee I can communicate more in five minutes with you in person than I ever could online.

This is why DevCon matters.  We all know it; it’s why we go.  To be with our particular sub-tribe of humans, speaking our own language.

This is also…

Why User Groups Matter

All right, so maybe I’m biased, because I run a user group.  Feel free to bump the font size down a few notches in your mind.  I will say that more often than not, the conversations I had at DevCon would eventually shift to what kind of local resources were available for whoever I was speaking with.  Who was in their area?  Who could they network with?

And especially…was there a FileMaker Developer Group nearby?

At this point the conversation went one of three ways:

• There was one, and it was awesome
• There was one, kinda, but it was an hour away
• The nearest one was in the next state or country

With the second and third responses, the tone was either wistful or frustrated.  I’ve had a bunch of conversations like this in the past, and my reply has always been: “Start your own!  It’s easy!”

Which probably glosses over things pretty badly.  For one thing, starting anything is never easy.

There’s the risk involved with investing time and energy into something that has a good chance of never getting off the ground.

There’s the open question of whether or not anybody will be actually interested enough to come.

There’s the “qualifications” question that some people ask: “Why me?  Who’s going to come to a group that I start?  What, am I special or something?”

No, you’re not special.  But you can start a User Group anyway.

This post is an introduction to a series of posts I’m going to put out in the next few weeks providing some key concepts and advice on how to start a group and how to grow it.  I’ll be covering:

• Initial tools and frameworks for managing a group
• Finding group members, marketing the group and building a community
• Finding speakers and topics

I’ll get into FileMaker-specific concepts in places, but by and large this stuff applies to anyone looking to start a technical user group.

That’s to come.  For now, if you’re really interested in starting a FileMaker User/Developer Group in your area – or finding one – your first stop should be to www.fmpug.com.  I’ll be talking about FMPug as a marketing and organizational tool in a future post, so won’t go into detail here.  Just take a quick look now.

What qualifies me to give advice?

I’m not special either  But I have had some experience building communities.  We’ve done a lot of hard work over the years to build Philly FileMaker into a large, robust group, and have learned some lessons along the way about what works and what doesn’t.  We want to share that.  And when I take off my day job hat, I run an art gallery with my wife, Mount Airy Contemporary, which has been a community-building exercise in a very similar way.  And when I take off my gallerist hat, I’m an artist, and engaged with promotion and community-building around that as well.  And when all of those hats are safely stowed, and I’m back at work, I promote training opportunities for IT Solutions, as well as work as a full time FileMaker Consultant.

This stuff matters to me, in short.  And I want to talk about it.  I want to see the FileMaker community expanded and enriched through local efforts.  I want more of you folks out there starting groups today. This’ll be my little contribution to that effort.  Feel free to comment along the way.  If you’re a group coordinator, especially, and have your own advice to add, it would be most welcome.

Colin

Coordinator
Philadelphia FileMaker User Group

www.philllyfilemaker.org