Seattle FMPug changes

Hello! It's a new year and the Seattle Chapter of FMPug has a new home and a new coordinator!

John Sindelar, with SeedCode, is now the acting coordinator for this group. Their new site is located at:

http://fmpug.com/blogs/seattle/

Thanks John! We're all looking forward to the new changes that you will bring to this group.

And thank you to all that helped contribute in the past to getting this group started and keeping it moving for the first 2-1/2 years.

Best regards,
Laura Bowyer
Former Chapter Coordinator

Meeting Room Change for October's meeting

Please note that the meeting for October 27, 2008 will be held in the Jupiter Room (6th floor) for the Washington Mutual Center.

Hope to see you all there Monday!

Laura Bowyer
Seattle FMPug Chapter Coordinator

Seattle FMPug Meeting - October 27, 2008

Cris Ippolite will be presenting on:

Extended Uses for Web Viewer
Web Viewer offers developers the ability to integrate web viewing functionality as a Layout Object. Web viewer comes with default functionality to integrate maps, searching and tracking. However there are many other exciting uses of the Web Viewer that can easily be integrated. This presentation will cover using the Web Viewer to : Display Images and video as an alternate to containers, Display documents as a Help System, run java using plug ins, "Scrape" HTML content, and Displaying Flash or Flex to provide extended layout functionality.

Cris Ippolite is president and founder of iSolutions, Inc. He has been working with databases since 1991, is an FSA Partner member, specializing in FileMaker Development and Training in addition to being a pioneer in Flash and FileMaker integration. For more information visit: http://www.crisippolite.com and http://www.isolutionstraining.com.

Cris will be providing 2 FileMaker 9 Training DVDs and 2 Bento Training DVDs for raffle as well as 24 hour lynda.com passes for each attendee.

UPDATE: Bob Majors form 7th Wave Productions has graciously volunteered to make and bring Lasagna! (Thanks Bob!)

NOTE: Meeting will be at the WaMu Center, 1301 2nd Ave, (Jupiter Room - 6th Floor), Seattle, WA 98101. This is the last formal meeting of 2008 so don't miss out!!! (Don't forget to RSVP so that you will be admitted by security!)

RSVP

Vincenzo Menanno to speak at September Seattle Chapter FMPUG meeting

We are proud to announce that Vincenzo Menanno, Chief Database Architect at FM::Nexus, will be our speaker for the September 2008 Seattle Chapter FileMaker Professional User Group (FMPUG) meeting. This meeting will be held at the Washington Mutual Center, 1301 2nd Ave, 42nd Floor, Seattle, WA 98101. Please RSVP to be included in the security list.

Menanno will answer the questions, “What are Web Services, what the heck is a WSDL, and how can FileMaker developers take advantage of them?” Menanno will demonstrate powerful Web Services available on demand across the Internet. He will show how easy it is to plug Web Services into a solution, starting with an example database talking to FedEx Shipping. Menanno will also configure the ability to send SMS messages from inside FileMaker, implementing this in less than 5 minutes, with most of the heavy lifting done by a plug-in, a WSDL, and minimal coding. He will also go over the enhancements and changes made in the 2.0 version of the plug-in and how those changes greatly improve the usability and deployment.

Next on Menanno’s agenda, he will share the development framework that he and others use to start projects - the FOCUS framework. Menanno will talk about the merits and drawbacks of what he calls FOCUS, and the benefits of this approach with code re-usability, UI objects, functional groupings, etc. He plans to make this framework freely available early next year and is looking for developers interested in contributing suggestions and advice. So far the framework has adopted some gems from the FileMaker community, and he will dive under the hood to present those to the audience.

Menanno will be raffling off a free copy of Web Services 2.0 to an FMPug member, as well as a secret surprise only available to those who show up! In addition, other raffle prizes include a copy of FileMaker 9 donated by Phil Smith of FileMaker and the book “FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual” courtesy of Peachpit Press.

The meeting will be held on Monday, September 22, 2008 from 6:30 PM until 8:30 PM and is open to all current FMPUG members. Not yet a member? Want to see what FMPUG is all about? Feel free to attend your first meeting at no charge. Event organizers, SolutionMakers, Inc., will provide PIZZA and beverages and Washington Mutual has once again donated the beautiful meeting space, the White Oak Room on the 42nd floor of the Washington Mutual Center in downtown Seattle. The address is 1301 2nd Avenue, 42nd Floor, Seattle, WA 98101. Attendees will need to register online at http://www.fmpug.com to obtain access to the building.

Help us Choose a New Meeting Place!

Hello Puggers!

Thank you for participating in our survey about the physical location and times of our Seattle FMPug meetings!

To date, we have had an overwhelming response to keep the meetings in Seattle and keep them on the 4th Monday night of each month.

So, we have some options:

1) The Seattle dBug Resource Center (thanks to Bruce Robertson for offering this option!) is available every 4th Monday of the month. Location is 9620 Stone Avenue North, Suite 202, Seattle, WA 98103-3378. We can bring in food (pizza) and beverages (beer was a common request) and parking is free. HOWEVER, it's possible that the room may not be avialable as early as January 2009.

2) Revolution's office (one of our members - thank you DeForest Shotwell!). Location is 421 Fairview Ave North,Seattle, WA 98109. We can bring in food and beverages and keep the schedule of every 4th Monday of each month. The only challenge may be parking with limited areas.

3) Adobe (thanks to Angelo Luchi for getting a sponsor for this site). Location is 801 N 34th St, Seattle, WA 98103. We're verifying now if we can bring in food and beverages and what the parking accommodations are.

Please weigh in and let us know what you prefer. The survey is listed to the right of this post. Thanks for your participation!

Laura Bowyer, Chapter Coordinator

My apologies for last night's Seattle FMPug meeting

My Dearest Seattle Puggers:

I want to extend my humblest apologies to those of you who attended last night's Seattle FMPug meeting!

Due to cut backs in staff and our current WaMu contact being out ill, the list of registered attendees did not make it to the security desk in order for us to get admission to the room. The room was scheduled and available for our meeting, as was graciously set up for us by Dan Wilton (formerly at WaMu, now at Entellic) a few months back.


I would like to thank our presenter, Richard Carlton (Richard Carlton Consulting), and William for their patience and understanding in our search for a new meeting space! And for their presentation and open Q & A discussion around all things FileMaker and ESS. A terrific bunch of folks at Richard Carlton Consulting.

I'd also like to thank those that came to the rescue with positive, problem solving suggestions: Ruth Johnson (Teague), for pointing us in the direction of the Benyroya Hall for some ad-hoc meeting space; The man at Benyroya (sorry, name unknown) for letting us stay past their closing, Dan Wilton for trying to locate someone at WaMu that could arrange entry to their meeting room for us; Mike Ross (Digital Designs) for trying to get us a room at the Apple Store (currently being remodeled...), and Angelo Luchi (SolutionMakers) for making a last minute accessory run for a power strip. And, of course, to the other attendees for putting up with the chaos of the room change. This group is awesome!

We have made some checkpoints and guidelines to assure that this does not happen again.

I invite your feedback and input on how we can make the Seattle FMPug a more rewarding and enriching group! Do we need to look at changing venues, dates, days of the week, geographic locations, topic format or anything else? This is your group - let's make it GREAT!

Please email or call me with your ideas or suggestions. And I look forward to seeing more of you at our September meeting when Vincenzo Menanno (FMNexus) presents!

Best regards,

Laura Bowyer

Richard Carlton to speak on ESS at August meeting

We are proud to announce that Richard Carlton, President of Richard Carlton Consulting, Inc., will be our speaker for the August 2008 Seattle Chapter FileMaker Professional User Group (FMPUG) meeting. Carlton’s topic, “Essential Setup Skills Using FileMaker ESS”, discusses how FileMaker ESS has opened a new door into the world of integrating with external data sources. Beyond the basics, he will provide some important information to help users make the most of this new technology. The meeting will cover tools needed to leverage ESS. He’ll also examine how users can use SASE in conjunction with ESS to manage, manipulate, and move data around without user intervention. He’ll also discuss best practices for ESS to ensure maximum integration.

Highlights of the session include how to integrate external SQL data into FileMaker Pro solutions, how to use SASE to automate SQL data management, how to deal with synchronization and refresh issues, and ESS best practices and performance optimization.

The meeting will be held on Monday, August 25, 2008 from 6:30 PM until 8:30 PM and is open to all current FMPUG members. Not yet a member? Want to see what FMPUG is all about? Feel free to attend your first meeting at no charge. The meeting will take place at the Washington Mutual Center, 1301 2nd Avenue, 42nd Floor, Seattle, WA 98101. Attendees will need to register online at http://www.fmpug.com to obtain access to the building.

For the monthly Seattle Chapter FMPUG raffle give-away, Peachpit Press has kindly donated a copy of “Web Publishing with PHP and FileMaker 9” and FileMaker's Phil Smith has graciously donated a copy of FileMaker 9. Event organizers, SolutionMakers, Inc., will provide some light snacks and beverages and Washington Mutual has once again donated the beautiful meeting space, the White Oak Room on the 42nd floor of the Washington Mutual Center in downtown Seattle.

Additional information: Jody Bossert - Marketing and Project Coordinator, 1-800-237-3975 x103, jodybossert@solutionmakers.com, or visit our web site at http://www.SolutionMakers.com. For information specific to FMPUG, visit their web site at http://www.fmpug.com.