Using Filemaker 7 - Softcover

Steve Lane has worked with relational databases for 15 years. He has written for FileMaker Advisor magazine and co-authored Advanced FileMaker Pro 6 Web Development. He is a vice president with the Moyer Group and has led training classes in FileMaker technologies all over the country, both in open sessions and in on-site client engagements. He regularly speaks at the annual FileMaker Developer's Conference, where in 2003 he was awarded the FileMaker Fellowship Award for “pushing the boundaries of FileMaker Pro.”

Bob Bowers is a columnist and contributing editor for FileMaker Advisor magazine and has co-authored two other books: Advanced FileMaker Pro 5.5 Techniques for Developers and Advanced FileMaker Pro 6 Web Development. He is president of the Moyer Group. At the 2002 FileMaker Developer's Conference, where he is a perennial speaker, he was awarded the FileMaker Fellowship Award for “developing outstanding technical and educational resources for FileMaker.”

Scott Love has been working with FileMaker at leading technology firms for over a decade. Currently a vice president with the Moyer Group, he served at MacUser/MacWEEK as an online Managing Editor, at Apple Computer as its Web Publishing Technology Evangelist, followed by directing the Technical Marketing team at Macromedia. He has written dozens of feature and review articles on FileMaker and Internet/Web topics for a wide range of computer publications, including Macworld magazine.

Chris Moyer has been designing and implementing database solutions for Fortune 500 companies for more than 13 years. He is CEO of the Moyer Group. Before founding the Moyer Group in 1995, he worked as a Sales Engineer for the Claris Corporation (now FileMaker, Inc.). He was one of three trainers selected by Claris to train the FileMaker developer community in the United States and abroad when FileMaker 3.0 was released. Chris subsequently authored Special Edition Using FileMaker Pro 3 for Macintosh. In 1998, he was awarded the FileMaker Solutions Alliance Award of Excellence. Chris is a co-author of Advanced FileMaker Pro 5.5 Techniques for Developers. Today Chris serves as a technical editor for FileMaker Advisor magazine and is a regular presenter at the FileMaker Developer Conference.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to FileMaker Pro 7

In this introduction

• Waiter, There's a Software Development Tool in My Productivity Application!
• How This Book Is Organized
• A Brave, New World

Waiter, There's a Software Development Tool in My Productivity Application!

Welcome to the world of FileMaker Pro. By simply standing in this section of your local bookstore, you're sure to have heard the word "database." We'll cover what databases are ad nauseam in the rest of this book—so go ahead and take it up to the counter...we'll wait—but one of the first things you'll need to understand about FileMaker Pro is that it is far more than just a database.

FileMaker Pro is nearly unique in the world of software. It is a powerful database system that can manage and store a wide range of information; it's an application for end users (like Microsoft Excel or Intuit's Quicken), and it's also a robust rapid application software development platform.

When you hear someone speak about FileMaker, keep in mind they may be viewing it from one of these different perspectives or another. An IT professional likely sees it as a database engine that fits into a greater security and network infrastructure. An end-user probably is thinking about a specific solution built in FileMaker Pro and how that solution helps (or doesn't help) make work more efficient. A software developer may see it as one of many tools he employs in building a wide range of applications.

However you approach FileMaker Pro, some core strengths of the platform are important to all types of users.

• Flexibility—Working with FileMaker Pro is inherently open-ended. It is simple to create ad hoc data queries, quickly manage data entry, add functionality to a live system, or deploy to the Web in minutes.

• Ease of Use—The folks at FileMaker, Inc., have labored hard to make FileMaker as approachable as humanly possible. Day-to-day users can easily learn how to add fields to a database, create reports, add form layouts, and more. With FileMaker Pro, organizations need not be dependent on mysterious software engineers and their arcane knowledge or, even worse, consultants like us!

• Interoperability—FileMaker Pro supports many common, open standards for data exchange (SQL, ODBC, JDBC, XML) and allows users to connect their database solutions to the greater world of applications—both within their organizations and online on the Web.

• Modern Data Architecture—FileMaker Pro, despite being "just" a productivity application that lives on your computer along with Microsoft Word and Solitaire, allows users to create fully relational data structures for information and to properly build architectures that rightly manage real-world data.

We'll cover the right and wrong ways to build solutions in FileMaker throughout the book; for now the point we're making is that FileMaker Pro is both something you use (a productivity application) and something with which you build things (a development tool).

Rapid Application Development

In the world of software development, flexibility and speed are critical. We live in the world of Internet time—burst bubbles notwithstanding—and businesses usually embark on a development project only when they need something yesterday.

In addition to simple impatience, the practices and experiences of the past two decades have proven software development to be a risky, unpredictable business. NASA's travails are painful reminders that this stuff is, in some ways, truly rocket science. New job functions have been developed in software quality assurance and project management. Certification programs exist to sift the wheat from the chaff.

FileMaker Pro exists in many respects to help organizations take on less risk and navigate the waters of software development without having to reinvent the boat, the oar, the sail, and the steam engine. Because it is a rapid application development platform, it is possible to build a system in FileMaker Pro in a fraction of the time it takes to build the same system in more classic, compiled software languages.

Low Total Cost of Ownership

FileMaker Pro is focused around offering a low total cost of ownership for organizations. In October 2001, the Aberdeen Group, an independent research firm in Boston, found that, "Under conservative assumptions, FileMaker Pro was superior, with an average ratio of 5:1 in cost of ownership over the industry average database." (Quote taken from the Aberdeen Group Executive White Paper "FileMaker Low-IT Database Cost-of-Ownership Study," October 2001.)

Both the cost of the software itself and the rapidity with which systems can be built mean that IT organizations have a viable alternative to the massive enterprise-level systems of the past.

FileMaker Is a Seasoned Pro

The history of FileMaker Pro reveals that the software is nearing its 20th birthday, though its first years are a bit fuzzy: Sometime between 1983 and 1985, Nashoba Systems created an initial version that was acquired and published by Forethought, Inc., in April of 1985. Nashoba then reacquired the rights to their software and published FileMaker Plus in 1986 and FileMaker 4 in 1988.

Claris Corp., which was then being formed by Apple Computer and was to become FileMaker's guiding parent, purchased Nashoba and published FileMaker II in 1988 and 1989. Finally in October 1990 FileMaker Pro 1.0 made its debut and set the product line on the course it has largely followed to this day. In December of 1995 Claris shipped FileMaker Pro 3.0, which saw the introduction of relational data modeling to the platform and even more importantly a completely seamless cross-platform application that's virtually identical between the Mac OS and Microsoft Windows. Today a majority of FileMaker's audience lives on the Windows side.

Other major innovations have occurred along the way, but nearly everyone in the community recognizes that it was the watershed version 3.0 that broke open the gates for FileMaker. Version 4.0 introduced Web publishing to the platform and version 6.0 offered significant support for XML-based data interchange.

In 1999, at the time of version 4.1, Claris Corp. rechristened itself FileMaker, Inc., and focused all its energy around its flagship product.

FileMaker has been profitable every quarter since changing its name from Claris Corporation to FileMaker, Inc., in 1998 (an extraordinary feat considering the climate in Silicon Valley for the past few years) and continues to enjoy the backing (as a subsidiary) of a cash-flush Apple Computer, Inc.

You're Not Alone

FileMaker, Inc., has sold more than 8.5 million units worldwide as of this writing. Users range from a single magician booking gigs in Denver, Colorado, to Fortune 500 companies such as Citibank and Genentech. Just like any tool, FileMaker is noteworthy only when it has been employed to build something...and its builders come in all shapes and sizes. The only true common element seems to be that they own computers (but not always!).

There are some trends: FileMaker Pro is widely used in the world of both K-12 and higher education. Of the 50 top Universities in the United States, 49 use FileMaker Pro. The non-profit industry is also a key focal point for FileMaker. Ultimately these trends have more to do with FileMaker Pro's price tag than with any inherent advantage the software offers. FileMaker Pro truly is like a hammer: You can build a birdhouse or the Golden Gate Bridge. It's just a question of the skill of the craftsman and the time you're willing to devote to your system.

How This Book Is Organized

Special Edition Using FileMaker 7 is divided into five parts, organized into something like a tree. Part I, "Getting Started with FileMaker 7," and Part II, "Dev...