Archive for the 'Meetings' Category

Matt O’Dell on HTML5: Example Files

Published on January 26, 2012. 2 Comments

Matt O’Dell of FileMaker Inc. presented this past Tuesday at the Philly FileMaker User Group, providing an overview of HTML5 and possible applications in FileMaker Go.

We’re happy to share that Matt has graciously provided his complete demo files and presentation slide deck for download!

Included are some pretty slick iPad geolocation demos, graphical seat assignment, canvas drawing and charting, web chat, and more!  All in all fun stuff.

Thanks Matt!

Edit 1/30/2012:

While this was probably clearer during the presentation, some of the code in Matt’s DevCon 2011 offering should be credited to Todd Geist of Geist Interactive who shared his expertise with Matt for this portion of demo.  Todd has coincidentally released – today – a packaged tool for performing canvas drawing in FileMaker Go, so if any of this has whetted your appetite for this kind of thing, you’re in luck.

It’s called GoDraw.  It looks pretty slick, the lite version is free, and the full version offers editing saved drawings, Save as PDF and more.

 
Published in Meeting Recaps and Meetings by Colin Keefe. Tags: Tags: , , , , , , , .

4/26/11 Meeting Video: John Sindelar and Jesse Barnum – Zulu iCal Server and Docubin

Published on May 12, 2011. 0 Comments

Thanks to Andy at fmpug.com for hosting this stream!

This was a great meeting – and at 2 hours and change, packed with stuff. Enjoy.

 
Published in Meeting Recaps and Meetings by Colin Keefe. Tags: Tags: , , , , , .

Please Join us December 7th: 6th Annual Year End Bonanza!

Published on December 3, 2010. 0 Comments

Our next Philadelphia FileMaker Developer Group meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday evening, December 7th 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

This is our Sixth Annual Year End Bonanza!

Please RSVP here if you are planning to attend this meeting:
http://www.fmpug.com/rsvp.php?eventID=1108

Continue reading ‘Please Join us December 7th: 6th Annual Year End Bonanza!’

 
Published in Meeting Announcements and Meetings by Colin Keefe. Tags: Tags: , .

Please Join us October 26: Integrating FileMaker with Amazon Web Services

Published on October 14, 2010. 0 Comments
Our next Philadelphia FileMaker User Group meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday evening, October 26th 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://bit.ly/d7L05o
As always, pizza and soft drinks will be provided.
Please  RSVP here if you are planning to attend this meeting.
INTEGRATING FILEMAKER WITH AMAZON WEB SERVICES

With Alan Deffenderfer, CEO, ABD Enterprises

This presentation will provide a brief overview of Amazon Web Services and then focus on performing a REST request to return product data from the Amazon product advertising API.  Amazon API credentials, requirements and limitations will be discussed as well several strategies for performing a REST request from FileMaker that is AWS compatible.  A use case that employs SmartPill PHP and XML/XSLT will be presented as one way harness and deploy Amazon Web Services in the real world.

About the Speaker

Alan Deffenderfer is CEO of ABD Enterprises, Inc. and has been developing with FileMaker since 2004.  He has been a college professor for the last 14 years and has worked in the book industry since 1993.  He currently uses FileMaker to run his own online book business.

Jason interviewed Alan before the 2009 DevCon recap; you can see the interview here.

Door Prize

We’ll also be giving away a door prize, courtesy of our User Group membership with PeachPit Press.  Assuming we can obtain interesting stuff from PeachPit going forward, this may become a regular thing.

Undercover User Experience Design

Undercover User Experience is a great little primer on UX work, written by Cennydd Bowles and James Box.

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.

You can read our blog to get updates and meeting recaps.  Twitter here.  Facebook over there.

We’re also an FMPug Chapter.    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 about IT Solutions in our new Blog and Videos section of our website!

- Follow ITS on LinkedIn and learn more about the company:

IT Solutions Consulting, Inc. on LinkedIn

 
Published in Meeting Announcements and Meetings by Colin Keefe. Tags: Tags: , , , , , , .

Philly FileMaker now on Facebook

Published on September 28, 2010. 2 Comments

I was complaining the other day that I just didn’t have enough social media in my life.  This ought to solve the problem, for now.

As with so many things here at Philly FileMaker, it’s an experiment.  If it floats, we’ll keep it, if it sinks…you must promise never to speak of it again.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Philly-FileMaker-User-Group/126085994109837

- Colin

 
Published in Meetings and News by Colin Keefe. Tags: Tags: , .

Why User Groups matter…and how to start one (Post #1)

Published on August 26, 2010. 7 Comments

So this guy walks into a San Diego hotel lobby…

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. Continue reading ‘Why User Groups matter…and how to start one (Post #1)’

 
Published in DevCon, DevCon, FileMaker, FMPug, Meetings, Other User Groups and Tips and tricks by Colin Keefe. Tags: Tags: , , , , , .

Meeting Recap: Don Levan on Exceptional Interface Design

Published on April 28, 2010. 0 Comments

Many thanks to Don Levan (Vanguard Custom Software) for coming out and presenting to the group!

Don presented to a packed house (28 people) on the impact of successful user interfaces, working within the constraints of human psychology and physiology – and optimizing workflows and tools for humans (as opposed to developers :) ).  Drawing liberally from Edward Tufte, Alan Cooper and Donald Norman for background material, Don laid out some excellent groundwork for building the right software tools for the job that are easy to learn and efficient to use.

This is a topic he’ll be presenting at the 2010 FileMaker DevCon (in San Diego in August),  so it was great to get a preview of the material.

Here are some photos from the meeting.  Tried out my new cell phone’s camera…it is what it is.

 
Published in Conferences, DevCon, DevCon, FileMaker, Meeting Recaps and Meetings by Colin Keefe. Tags: Tags: , , , , , , , .

Join us April 27th – Don Levan – The Fundamentals of Exceptional Interface Design

Published on April 20, 2010. 0 Comments
Our next Philadelphia FileMaker User Group meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday evening, April 27th 2010 at 6:00 PM.
Please RSVP here if you are planning to attend this meeting:
http://www.fmpug.com/rsvp.php?eventID=985
We’re very pleased to have Don Levan presenting this month – he’s been an active participant and presenter at both Pause On Error events, and will be presenting at FileMaker DevCon 2010 this August.  This is a great opportunity to get a preview of the kind of content he’ll be presenting at DevCon.
THE FUNDAMENTALS OF EXCEPTIONAL INTERFACE DESIGN
Presenter:    Don Levan, Vanguard Custom Software, LLC
Successful user interfaces are those that are easy to learn and efficient to use. Meeting these goals requires that you understand the people who will use your software.  This presentation will provide current information about interface and interaction design best practices, our shared human psychology and abilities, and the ways to leverage FileMaker tools to create exceptional user experiences.
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.
About the Speaker:
Don Levan, Psy.D., is president of Vanguard Custom Software, LLC., a New York FileMaker consulting firm. Dr. Levan is a FileMaker Certified Developer and a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. He has been using FileMaker since the early 1990s and developing FileMaker applications professionally since 2002. He will be speaking at the 2010 FileMaker Developer’s Conference.
Vanguard’s mission is to “create simple applications which solve complex problems.” They incorporate software development best practices, interaction design, and cognitive psychology to create data-driven applications and websites that are efficient for business and easy for people.
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/
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 about our new FileMaker support offerings: FMAssist and FMAssure!
- www.itsolutions-inc.com/our_solutions/application_development/fm_assist.html
 
Published in DevCon, FileMaker, Meeting Announcements and Meetings by Colin Keefe. Tags: Tags: , , , , , , .

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

Published on February 24, 2010. 0 Comments

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.

 
Published in FileMaker, Meeting Recaps, Meetings and Video by Colin Keefe. Tags: Tags: , , , , .

Please Join us January 26th 2010: Stump the Chump / Roundtable / PauseOnError Unconference Field Report!

Published on January 11, 2010. 0 Comments

Highlights:

January 26th Meeting:
- Extended Stump the Chump: Bring in your code for troubleshooting!
- Pause On Error UnConference in Portland: Jason Mundok’s first hand report

- About the Philadelphia FileMaker User Group

Continue reading ‘Please Join us January 26th 2010: Stump the Chump / Roundtable / PauseOnError Unconference Field Report!’

 
Published in Conferences, FileMaker, Meeting Announcements, Meetings and PauseOnError by Colin Keefe. Tags: Tags: , , , .