The Book of FileMaker 6: Your One-Stop Guide to FileMaker Pro, Pro Unlimited, Developer, Server, and Mobile

Author: Chris Kubica List Price: $59.95 Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price ISBN: 1886411816 Publisher: No Starch Press (15 July, 2003) Edition: Paperback Sales Rank: 7,731 Average Customer Rating: 4.39 out of 5

Buy now directly from Amazon.com -

Customer Reviews

Anyway, there are tutorials on setting up your first database, on building relational databases, setting up layouts, entering data, setting up an ODBC link, hooking up AppleScript, creating all kinds of portal magic and so on.

So that last reviewer was either high or really, really grumpy.

Chris' material shows a sensitivity to the novice as well as moving the experienced user through a more and more sophisticated understanding of the power of FileMaker Pro's many features and functions. What stood out for me was that he also showed a sensitivity to the processes of needs analysis, software requirements, documentation and project management. While the 'The Book of FileMaker 6' is thick and these topics were not developed completely, he nevertheless covers their importance and the available software tools that can help create truly professional FileMaker solutions. Later on, I suggest that a full review of this section alone is worth merit since it introduces the topic so well. Kudos to him for doing that.

Chris starts the book at Day One, opening FileMaker Pro. He then takes us through a whirlwind tour of the product, its basic functions and features. In case you need to refer to a hard copy version of the FileMaker on-line help, Chris has included virtually all of it in printed form with matching screen shots. Insert a few post-it notes and you start to have a well-referenced tome for all of your development staff. I have looked hard for a product to complement the training that we provide to our clients and require our developers to take. Chris Kubica's Book of FileMaker Pro 6 is it.

While Chris' book has a lot of breadth, I was delighted to find it also has significant depth. His review of relationships and portals for example, not only provides a good solid insight into how relationships work and how portals are used, he also peels off another layer of the onion, revealing more sophisticated uses of both. His example (files are included on the CD) of how to add quantities in a portal without using the keyboard are inspired and the hidden portal trick is lucidly explained. Both techniques are valuable to any developer . His chapter on security and the availability of his 'Darn Good Security' model (again on the CD and downloadable from his site) can become a login technique for any system that has sensitive information.

The author took the time to collaborate with a lot of other developers to bring all the pieces together. As such, the material presented is cogently covered by experts in that particular area. The reader is the beneficiary of the real world wisdom gained by those who have traveled down the road perhaps further than most. The chapters on AppleScript and ActiveX, again surprised me with the depth of their coverage at introducing a novice or even intermediate FileMaker user to technologies which extend FileMaker Pro's functionality.

Chris took the time to thoughtfully explain some of the naming conventions and best practices that he's adopted to make his solutions easy to work with, easy to maintain and easier to bring other developers on board to provide support. This is a favourite topic of mine and what I liked about Chris' approach was his perpsective that FileMaker at any time can be called upon to work with other environments, such as the Web, ODBC - JDBC, XML and of course with plug-ins. His naming conventions conform to this perspective and therefore make his applications more amenable to use with these environments with little or no change.

Of course, when discussing scripts, it is an excellent time to introduce the reader to FileMaker Developer, a powerful development tool which allows the user to 'step through' scripts step-by-step by using the Script Debugger. Chris covers this off beautifully. And FileMaker Inc. feels so strongly about the benefit of this tool in improving developer performance that they now include it in the membership fee to the FileMaker Solutions Alliance. If you are serious about developing FileMaker solutions, you need to use FileMaker Developer. On top of that, Chris notes the several tools that have been developed to analyze your solutions and particularly the scripts you've created. The first is the Database Design Report built into FileMaker Developer and then some third party products that round out any developers toolkit including The Analyzer from Waves in Motion, MetaDataMagic from New Millenium Communications, Brushfire from Chaparral Software and Autoscript.fm Pro.

The entire section on Designing, Estimating, Developing and Managing FileMaker Projects would act as a great study book for individuals who want to upgrade their skills and broaden their capabilities as an all round FileMaker developer.

Conclusion

I really want to revisit the many topics after I've had more time to play with the example files, looked up the resources, and read some of the reference material. FileMaker Server, FileMaker Mobile, ODBC and SQL, Web publishing and then the plethora of solutions that Chris refers to (some of which I'm actively pursuing for a solution I'm working on right now!) are all reasons why this book deserves not only to be purchased and read, but to have a more complete reference site that allows you to access more and more of the material he recommends.

About the Reviewer

James Hea is the President of DataWorksPro Inc, the founder of the FileMaker User and Developer Group of Eastern Ontario (FUDGEO), an authorized trainer for CoreSolutions, a software developer, consultant and project manager. For more reviews on FileMaker publications, visit www.filemakerreview.com

Similar Products