September Seattle FileMaker Pug Meeting Pictures

Thank you to Angelo Luchi for taking these pictures with his iPhone! Check out the view from our 42nd floor meeting room in Seattle!

Here is Jesse of 360Works in front of the class!

Here you can see the attentive stare of Tim Trimble, Dwayne Wright and Laura Bowyer

An impressive view from the Seattle PUG meeting room window and equally impressive it came from an iPhone.

Another window shot from earlier in the meeting.

Seattle Chapter FMPug October 2007 Meeting

SolutionMakers Presents Seattle Chapter FMPug October 2007 Meeting
The Session Model with John Howell & Scott Newton from DataExperience
Come and join us as we learn about the session model from our presenters John Howell and Scott Newton from DataExperience.

Visit www.fmpug.com to register.

The session model allows for a layer of separation between data tables and the user experience required by business rules. A session instantiated set of variables, global fields and interface record(s) can provide the developer with much of the abstraction used in the separation model, and yet it can also be developed quite well in a single file system. Multiple window environments can be modeled elegantly. A single point of reference allows the developer to always perceive the database system from a consistent perspective. The demand for context awareness is radically reduced, and a development template can be used to build robust systems much faster. Merging portals and related data onto one view becomes a snap, as does task oriented design! Record-locking can be handled smoothly. Adding modules to an existing session-based system is easy and clear. Multiple developers can work on a system with greater clarity. Techniques like audit trail and transactional entry lend them selves well to this approach, and can be modified and implemented much more easily!

We will also discussion relative subjects in this presentation as time permits.

These subjects include development conventions, build management and versioning, as well as window management.

We will have snacks and goodies there for all attendees and as always a beautiful view of the Seattle waterfront from the 42nd level of the Washington Mutual Center! (1301 2nd Avenue, 42nd Floor, Seattle, WA 98101) Register at www.fmpug.com to attend the meeting.



Speaker Bio:
Jonn Howell is the president of DataExperience, Inc., and has been developing solutions in FileMaker Pro since 1992. His personal goal is to provide the most intuitive user experience in the world. His clients include: Apple Computer, Amgen, Genentech, Electronic Arts, Nortel Networks, Novell Corporation, Stanford University, The University of California, and Air Support. He holds annual training classes on database design, relational modeling, business requirements, development conventions, documentation, client management, and interface design at his office north of Los Angeles. Jonn leads a team of 6 developers, building data systems, e-commerce systems and web design. He has a solid reputation in the bio-technical industry as a database system programmer, business analyst and project manager. Formally trained as a robotics engineer, Jonn is also an accomplished graphic designer and professional sales trainer. Jonn received a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from San Jose State University. He is currently an Associate Level FBA member, and has spoken at four previous FileMaker Developer Conferences.

Katie Strock

Project Coordinator

SolutionMakers Inc.

(360) 668-4903 ext. 101

Toll Free (800) 237-3975

Seattle FMPUG Tenative Meeting Schedule

Hello Seattle Puggers,

Just wanted to drop you a line of pending meetings at the Seattle PUG.

1) Jesse Barnum 360Works 9/24/2007
2) **Special Meeting John Mark Osborne 9/30/2007
3) John Howell and Scott Newton DataExperience 10/22/2007
4) John Sindelar SeedCode 1/28/2008
5) Alexei Folger FileMaker 2/25/2008
6) Jeff Hough SiteCraft 3/24/2008
7) TENTATIVE Jason Mundok ItSolutions Inc 4/28/2008

Thanks!
Dwayne

Art Of SW Blog Post About FMP and Quickbooks

Hello All,

Just wanted to give you a heads up on an interesting blog post from Tim Trimble (Seattle PUG Member) on the FMBooks Connector from Productive Computing.



To check it out, click this link
http://artofsw.blogspot.com/2007/09/filemaker-quickbooks.html

SEATTLE FMPUG MEETING September 24, 2007

September Seattle Chapter FMPug Meeting:
Managing Documents and Images in FileMaker
with SuperContainer

Jesse Barnum from 360Works will be presenting SuperContainer, a better way to manage documents and images. SuperContainer uses the Web Viewer feature in FileMaker Pro 8.5 to upload, download, view, and resize images and documents using FileMaker Pro client software or with your web browser and Instant Web Publishing. It is the perfect solution for storing scanned images, digital photos, PDF documents, and any other document or file without the the problems associated with embedded or referenced container fields: slow speed, large files and cumbersome backups, cross-platform path issues, lack of browser uploads, and share drive IT issues.



Jesse has donated one license of SuperContainer to raffle off for members and we will be raffling off five copies of the FMPug Everything Reference Guide.

Be sure to register in advance so that we can get your name on the list for the front security desk. Visit www.fmpug.com <http://www.fmpug.com/>

360Works Bio:

360Works is a Georgia LLC company (Prometheus Systems Consulting LLC d/b/a 360Works) established in April of 1996. We were originally founded as a Macintosh IT support consulting company, but by 1999 we had shifted our focus to custom database development with FileMaker Pro for desktop applications (http://www.filemaker.com) and Java / WebObjects for web applications ().

360Works is a Platinum member of the FileMaker Business Allance, and currently employs nine people, four of whom are certified FileMaker 7 developers, and three certified FileMaker 8 developers (see http://solutions.filemaker.com/fsa/search_details.jsp?serial=62687 for our certification levels). The company president, Jesse Barnum was selected by FileMaker as a member of the initial beta test group used to establish the testing standards for others. He also leads the Atlanta FileMaker Developer group, which meets monthly.

Meeting Date: Monday 9/24/2007
Meeting Time: 6:30 to 8:30 PM
Meeting Location: 1301 2nd Avenue Seattle, WA 98101
**Make sure to RSVP at www.fmpug.com <http://www.fmpug.com/> to get your name on the list at the security desk.**

P.S. We are looking for food and beverage sponsorships for the September meeting. If your company wants to give back to the Seattle FileMaker community let us know.

Thank You,

Katie Strock

Project Coordinator

SolutionMakers Inc.

(360) 668-4903 ext. 101

Toll Free (800) 237-3975

SEATTLE FMPUG MEETING July 23, 2007

Join us Monday evening, July 23rd, as Rick Colcock, Corporate Systems Engineer for FileMaker Inc will be giving a presentation on the new features in FileMaker 9 such as connecting to external SQL data sources, conditional formatting, auto-resize layout objects and much more!

LOCATION: Washington Mutual Center 1301 2nd Ave Seattle, WA 98101

DATE: Monday, July 23, 2007

TIME: 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM

SIGN UP: Go to www.fmpug.com, select Attend a Meeting and sign up for the Seattle meeting.

RAFFLE: All FMPug members are eligible to enter the drawing for the evenings give-aways.
For more details check out Rick’s bio below:

Rick Colcock is the Corporate Systems Engineer for FileMaker, Inc. He worked as a FileMaker developer and consultant in the travel industry prior to joining FileMaker in 2000. In addition to assisting corporate customers in configuration advice and advanced technical support, Rick has presented at the FileMaker Macworld Theater and produced and delivered trainings for FileMaker Tech Support and Sales personnel. He's the author of two XSLT examples at filemaker.com: FileMaker Pro to iPod and iTunes to FileMaker Pro.

For more information, please contact Katie Strock at katiestrock@solutionmakers.com or call (360) 668-4903.

SEATTLE FMPUG MEETING June 25, 2007

WorldSync is one of the very few FileMaker consultancies in the world to hold a patent on one of its products or business processes. WorldSync is a leader in the marketplace of database management for today’s growing mobile and geographically distributed workforce. Sales teams, telecommuters, field service staff, multi-national companies and collaborative work groups are just a few of the organizations who use WorldSync’s FileMaker technologies to become more productive anywhere and anytime.

Jason is the founder and CEO of WorldSync, Inc., and has more than 10 years of experience building custom database and productivity applications. He has overseen development of information management systems for more than 50 clients. Jason has given lectures to FileMaker’s inside and outside sales staff to educate them about the complexities of database projects in enterprise environments and has spoken at FileMaker’s annual developer conference.

For more information, please contact Katie Strock at katiestrock@solutionmakers.com or call (360) 668-4903.

SEATTLE FMPUG MEETING May 21, 2007

For more details, check out Vince’s bio and the session summary below:

Vince is best known for revolutionizing FileMaker development with the much-loved and widely-used Inspector, now in version 1.6. Vince has been working with FileMaker for over 15 years. He has presented numerous times at Dev Con and at Macworld. Vince is the President of FM Nexus, which builds and distributes a growing collection of powerful FileMaker Pro developer tools and solutions. He is also a senior developer/ project manager at Beezwax Datatools, Inc. Vince is the author of Inspector, a tool for debugging, documenting and diagnosing FileMaker solutions.

In this presentation, Vince will show current and future users of Inspector tips and tricks to make all your work in FileMaker easier, faster and more fun. He'll demonstrate his new Web Services Plugin (now in Beta), a FileMaker plug-in that allows you to access the wide world of WSDL-enabled web services as seamlessly and easily as you access FileMaker's built-in function library. With the thousands of WSDLs already available on the net, including many from major players like Amazon.com, Google, eBay and others, you can access a diverse range of data sources including real-time stock market data, census information, ZIP codes and phone books, auction information and many other very exciting data sources. Designed with FileMaker developers in mind, the Web Services Plugin brings a wide world of information to your desktop. Basically if you can work with FileMaker calculation functions then you can also interact with web services.

Vince will also present Account Manager 2.0, a complete user and access privilege management solution for streamlining and centralizing authentication management across multiple FileMaker databases. Account Manager is a top-notch solution currently in use by some of FileMaker's largest corporate clients. Learn how it can be helpful for you, too. If time permits Vince will also demonstrate the soon-to-be-released Dragon Web Surveys. Do you have clients who need to build surveys or web forms easily, with no programming whatsoever? Stop rebuilding the wheel. Feedback forms, customer support ticket intake, job applications and many other kinds of through-the-web data collection can be radically streamlined with this new tool.

All of these solutions are designed with the session model approach, a strategy for developing industry-strength FileMaker solutions. Vince will get under the hood on session model implementation and discuss some of its benefits and drawbacks.

SEATTLE FMPUG MEETING April 23, 2007

Dr. Matt Navarre will speak about searching FileMaker data in the age of Google. He will show techniques of using a search bar, such as found in a web browser, to enable flexible search to your solution. This method involves a single global field, and a single script, and can be easily added on to your existing search methods.

Dr. Matt Navarre is the co-founder of Pre1 Software (www.pre1.com.) He part of a regular FileMaker PodCast with Dan Weiss, President of Adatasol (http://podcast.buddysystems.com/FilemakerPodCast.xml.) Dr. Navarre spent eight years as President of MSN Media, a technology developer and consultant in Portland, Oregon specializing in providing solutions for the publishing industry. Clients have included Oregon Catholic Press, Oregon Business Media and Willamette Week. From 1995 to 1998, Matt was Webmaster and Software Developer for OCP Publications. He has a B.A. from Cal State Fullerton.

We hope to see all of you at this meeting. We will be serving refreshments and giving away lots of prizes as usual including a copy of FileMaker Pro 8.5. Visit (www.fmpug.com ) to register for the meeting. For any questions, please feel free to contact Katie Strock at katiestrock@solutionmakers.com.

SEATTLE FMPUG MEETING MARCH 26, 2007

The next Seattle FMPug meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 26, 2007 from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM at:

Washington Mutual Center
1301 2nd Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101

You must RSVP no later than Wednesday March 21, 2007. (If you are not pre-registered, you will not be admitted.)

Cris Ippolite is the President and founder of iSolutions, Inc. - a Los Angeles based custom software and web design firm. Cris is a certified FM8 developer, Authorized FileMaker Professional Trainer, and FSA Partner. He is also a speaker at several technology conferences including Flash-Forward, MacWorld, and was rated the #1 speaker at the 2006 FileMaker Developer Conference.

Presentation Topic:
By combining the rich features of Flash and FileMaker, users can create applications with significantly increased capabilities and more robust design. Strong Flash vector-based client-server applications become stronger when featuring a dynamic FileMaker back-end, while embedded vector graphics add usability and depth of content to FileMaker databases. Both Flash experts and FileMaker developers will benefit from the step-by-step approach Cris employs when integrating these two programs. Cris will also demonstrate real world examples of these technologies in use.

Phil Smith and Alexei Folger from FileMaker will also be present for this meeting. SolutionMakers will be sponsoring the food and drinks.

You won't want to miss out! RSVP early as space may be limited.

RSVP at http://www.fmpug.com/rsvp.php.

If you have any questions, please contact Katie Stock (katiestrock@solutionmakers.com) or call 360-668-4903 x-101.

SEATTLE FMPUG MEETING JANUARY 29, 2007

ANDREW LECATES TO SPEAK AT SEATTLE FMPUG MEETING JANUARY 29, 2007

Seattle FMPug Chapter Coordinator, Laura Bowyer is excited to announce that Andrew LeCates, Manager of the North American Systems Engineers for FileMaker, Inc. will be speaking on uses for the FileMaker 8.5 Web Viewer and Layout Object Names. In addition, FileMaker has graciously offered to provide appetizers to attendees of the session. Phil Smith, Regional Sales Manager and Alexei Folger, Senior Systems Engineer of FileMaker will also attend this January meeting.

Pre-registration is required to attend this meeting, so visit the FMPug website http://www.fmpug.com/rsvp.php and sign up before the Tuesday, January 23, 2007 deadline.

Session Summary:
The Web Viewer is the standout feature of version 8.5, promising a variety of applications in FileMaker solutions. Obvious benefits of the Web Viewer come as a result of harnessing valuable web content that was originally designed for a traditional browser, and which increases in relevance when driven by the context of the user's data. More subtle benefits may accrue your application if as a developer you take control of the web content, building it specifically for the FileMaker Web Viewer and for your application. Andrew will explore an example or two that may suggest new design options for old school practices.

Layout Object Names, and their related script steps and functions also offer tremendous potential to the developer. Drawing from some files shown only briefly at this years FileMaker Developer Conference, Andrew will dig more deeply to thoroughly explain some layout design techniques that might dramatically change the way you approach your next FileMaker project.

Andrew is Manager of the North American Systems Engineers for FileMaker Inc. from Atlanta, GA. He's a long time FileMaker user, employed over the last 18 years in roles related to FileMaker as an in-house developer, trainer, FSA consultant, project manager, IT administrator, author, and evangelist.

Date/Time:
Monday, January 29, 2007 from 7 PM until 9 PM
**(All attendees must sign in and receive a badge at the front desk, so please arrive 30 minutes early to ensure the meeting will start on time.)**

Location:
Washington Mutual Building, 42nd Floor, 1301 2nd Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101
Registration:
To sign up for this meeting visit, http://www.fmpug.com/rsvp.php. All attendees must pre-register by Tuesday, January 23, 2007.

Contact Information:
Katie Strock

Project Coordinator

SolutionMakers Inc.

(360) 668-4903 ext. 109

Toll Free (800) 237-3975

Welcome To The Seattle FileMaker PUG

There is no better way to learn more about FileMaker than by sharing tips and techniques with your peers. FMPug provides its members with opportunities for incredible giveaways, exclusive discounts, chances to receive free products, hear top-notch speakers and take advantage of great training opportunities. If you're and advanced Filemaker developer, or just getting started, you'll hear beneficial information.



Come and join the fun! FM Pug meetings are usually on the 4th Monday of each month from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Locations vary, so check for the specific meeting you wish to attend.

FMPug provides its members with opportunities for incredible giveaways, exclusive discounts, chances to receive free products, hear top-notch speakers and take advantage of great training opportunities – and that’s only the beginning. FMPUG offers a unique membership that continually imparts something new and different including:

Great networking opportunities
Incredible monthly giveaways
Unprecedented discounts on training, seminars & products
Free books, plug-ins and applications
Exceptional limited-time offers
Learning tricks-of-the-trade from renowned experts in their field
Reviewing the hottest books, plug-ins and applications
Access to the newest products at “Pug-Only Prices”
Exchanging solutions, tips, tricks & know-how with fellow members
And much more...come and be a part of this exciting FileMaker group! If you're not already a member of FMPug, visit the FMPug website for information on becoming a member.

If you're looking for a way to expand your FileMaker knowledge and to learn from others like yourself, you won't want to miss a meeting!