Adatasol FileMaker Podcast

00:00:Welcome 00:50: Apple Shareholder Conference Recap 04:30: Exciting news from DevCon! 04:50: FileMaker acquires Stamplay. Possibilities for integrations with Claris Connect! 05:55: FileMaker is rebranding as Claris 09:20: DevCon General Recap and Discussion

Dan goes back to the beginning of his FileMaker experience to explain why he’s so passionate about FileMaker, his frustration at its lack of acceptance and his audacious goal of attending the Apple shareholder’s meeting to question Tim Cook about FileMaker and Apple’s committment to the product.

00:00 - Intro: Cris Ippolite of iSolutions 01:30 - FMDiSC (FileMaker Developers in Southern California) - http://www.fmdisc.org/index.php 01:50 - DevCon 2018: Rebranding FileMaker, or clarifying its "Category Definition" 04:30 - DevCon 2018: iSolutions sent representatives to speak on Project Management and APIs 06:15 - API Proof of Concept: Inventory Books using FileMaker Go's native barcode capture and Google Books API 08:00 - APIs and IPAs - http://filemakerandapis.com - View and download a demo of the Books app 08:45 - https://medium.com/@isolutions/integrating-apis-into-filemaker-apps-85a821c814 - Read iSolutions' Medium.com article on the step-by-step procedure to integrate the Books app. 08:55 - 3rd Party APIs vs. the FileMaker Data API 10:11 - Postman | API Development Environment - https://www.getpostman.com 11:25 - Zapier - Automate workflows between different 3rd-Party apps and their respective APIs - https://zapier.com 12:50 - Google Charts API - https://developers.google.com/chart/ - create custom QR codes in FileMaker with a simple Insert from URL script step and a container field 13:47 - "I just need this little piece. FileMaker doesn't do it natively? Big deal. This other app does and they have an API I can connect to. Great! We're in business." 14:00 - If you know the Insert from URL script step, "you're already two thirds of the way there for integrating APIs into your FileMaker solution." 14:35 - Parsing JSON with native JSON Functions in FileMaker 16+ 17:35 - "Sure, you can't do that on the FileMaker platform alone... But if there's an API, you can do it." 19:18 - A lot of APIs are free! 21:08 - The FileMaker Data API has improved the way 3rd Parties connect with OUR data. 26:40 - FileMaker 17 Starter Solutions / Add-On Tables / Data Migration Tool / Deployment Assistant - all of this is happening through XML as part of the new schema portability paradigm

00:00 - Intro 00:20 - Today's Guest: HOnza Koudelka of 24U Software 00:49 - Dan's post-DevCon rant regarding FileMaker's marketing rebrand as a "Workplace Innovation Platform" 01:50 - "Why isn't FileMaker changing their name?" 03:30 - "'Workplace Innovation Platform' is giving the right name to what we are already doing." 07:25 - 24U @ Devcon 2018 - Plug-Ins 08:30 - "We often do things that no one else does and that's because we like crossing borders...We don't respect borders. We don't respect limitations...When the technology is limiting us, we extend it." 09:20 - "Where the borders of the are, there are typically also the borders of the software." 09:48 - 24U Phidgets Plug-In - https://www.24usoftware.com/Phidgets/ 10:35 - "[Hardware] is what we do in more than half of our solutions these days." 11:10 - Relying on native FileMaker tools for hardware integration needs vs. 24U Solutions 11:50 - Barcode scanning, for example 13:15 - Apple iOS SDK and Gonector (https://www.24usoftware.com/gonector/) to replace bluetooth keyboard emulation for better barcode scanning performance 15:00 - 24U Gonector Plug-In - https://www.24usoftware.com/gonector/ - iOS mobile hardware integration, including the qIDmini UHF RFID scanner (https://www.caenrfid.com/en/products/r1170i-qidmini/), Infinite Peripheral's barcode/NFC/magnetic-stripe iPhone case/enclosure reader, digital scales, and a bluetooth mobile receipt printer from Custom. 19:55 - There are no easily-integrated bluetooth-capable digital scales, so 24U uses the scale's RS-232 Serial Interface. 24:05 - Apple iOS SDK 25:05 - 24U Xgode Service - https://www.24usoftware.com/xgode/ - upload your FileMaker solution and download an iOS app! 31:43 - Adatasol's experience with native mobile applications 35:00 - "Mobile may just mean that you get [users] out of their chairs...to do their work in front of their desks instead of behind their desks and that is workplace innovation." 36:18 - "Every second solution we do somehow involves iPhones or iPads or tablets." 37:00 - HOnza on LiveCode for FM 43:00 - "FileMaker is not the only thing we do." 44:34 - "My experience with business apps is that on the Android market customers are less likely to pay for good software."

00:00 - Intro 00:45 - David Case interviews LiveCode CEO Kevin Miller 01:10 - Turn an existing FileMaker solution into a native application for Android, iOS, Mac, Windows and Linux (Android and Mac now available in Beta 1)! 02:20 - "The Android operating system...is 86% of the mobile market and FileMaker doesn't deploy to that platform." 03:20 - LiveCode for FM Beta 1 - filemaker.livecode.com for Live Chat and Contact Details 06:30 - LiveCode for FM can compile native apps that work locally, that sync, and that connect to a FileMaker solution deployed with FileMaker Server. 07:00 - With FileMaker Pro Runtime deprecated, LiveCode for FM is all the more useful. 07:50 - Extended Script Steps (post-Beta) - access data and tools available to the operating system, such as the Health App on iOS, from within the FileMaker Script Workspace. 09:00 - LiveCode for FM "opens up more ways and easier ways to deploy to our clients." 09:22 - David Case interviews LiveCode Chief Engineer Mark Waddingham 09:49 - How FileMaker works: syntax of the "Choose" function 11:15 - "We enable people who wouldn't ordinarily consider themselves programmers to build quite complex software solutions." 12:14 - For FileMaker developers, the Android market is inaccessible. 14:05 - Adatasol is beta-testing LiveCode for FM with our FrameReady FileMaker solution. 17:45 - LiveCode for FM goes far beyond Android...

00:00 - Intro 00:34 - Adatasol @ DevCon 2018 02:55 - DevCon vs. PauseOnError 04:33 - What we expect to hear and see DevCon 2018 06:17 - User-based licensing 13:38 - First ever publicly broadcasted session at DevCon 14:44 - Unfortunately, we can't send our whole team. How effective are we at bringing the lessons of DevCon home? 16:33 - Adam and David are guest- hosting the Adatasol Podcast while at DevCon!

00:00 - Intro 01:15 - D Works and Angel City Data 03:45 - The importance of staff retention and client retention 04:20 - The three focuses of Angel City Data's business are 1) strong attention to design, 2) strong attention to the business impact of a decision (does the software solve a problem), and 3) customer support. 05:00 - How does David Knight hire? 05:17 - "If the companies that you're working for [have a high amount of employee turnover], they're doing it wrong." 07:23 - "We're slow to hire and quick to fire." 08:03 - Angel City Data's office culture and the importance of physical proximity 10:00 - "I have always felt there's great synergy when we have a vibrant team of people working in the same space." 11:09 - Dan describes Adatasol's more "virtual" team culture, by contrast 11:53 - Using third-party communication and task management tools vs. building in-house systems using FileMaker 12:30 - "We eat our own dog food here." 13:31 - "When you have a piece of your business that really is a secret sauce or has a DNA that follows the way you want to work, having that in something owned by another company is not a good place to be." 18:40 - Where does David Knight see Angel City Data in 5 years. 19:23 - "More and more custom web development...and mobile design." 20:00 - Rapid Application Development tools that play in our space 22:22 - "We like to look at ourselves like a Swiff Army knife." 23:29 - Android? 27:44 - In 5 years, what percentage of your business will be non-FileMaker? 28:50 - "It's a good thing to have other things you're working on that are not only FileMaker." 29:38 - David Knight @ DevCon 2018: One-To-Many: Growing Your Consulting Firm 30:12 - "You need to focus on the machinery of your business just as much, at times, as you need to focus on the technology you use for your craft."

00:00 - Intro 01:00 - Our guest today: Dave Ramsey, developer of FM Perception 01:28 - What is FM Perception? What are Database Design Reports (DDR)? What were the precursors to FM Perception (fmXRaySpecs)? 08:30 - Dave discusses some of the other environments, languagues and tools that he uses in his development (AppleScript, Swift, .NET, etc.). 11:10 - "It was kind of a, 'Hey, I wonder if I can do this,' and unfortunately that's been the start of a lot of the weird projects that I've done." 11:25 - How long did it take to develop FM Perception? 12:30 - "I didn't set out trying to make a DDR tool, I set out trying to learn a little bit more about the way XML parsing works...and ended up with a DDR tool because there was no other choice." 13:20 - When did you realize that this was a marketable product? 15:30 - Nick talks about how he uses FM perception and how the program has become best-practice at Adatasol. 19:05 - "[FM Perception] just removes all the head-wind, any pressure that tries to say, 'I don't really want to run another DDR and do another analysis,'—it's trivial." 20:58 - FileMaker and XML: a look toward the future of FM Perception 24:35 - "The ability to slice up the XML,...manipulate the XML and do something with that XML—there's no end...We can just keep doing neater and neater stuff pretty much forever." 25:09 - The benefits, theoretically speaking, of bidirectional XML in FileMaker. 26:33 - FileMaker 17 - the potential of new "Add-On" features 29:22 - Indirection, Script Triggers, and other dangers of creative liberty. Has FM Perception emboldened developers to use these tools haphazardly? 35:48 - Feature Highlight: Text Search - you can perform a free-form text search across the entirety of your DDR and then search among the results. 38:44 - Feature Highlight: Flagged Functions (Preferences) - add additional calculation functions to look for in the DDR and flag it. 43:04 - FM Perception and Geist Interactive at DevCon 2018

00:00 - Intro; Lessons learned presenting at PauseOnError 2018 05:40 - Susan Fennema - Chaos Eradicating Officer at Beyond the Chaos and Lead Facilitator for Women of FileMaker 06:50 - Women made up 40% of the attendees and 60% of the speakers at PauseOnError 2018! 08:22 - How Susan became involved with the FileMaker platform and the FileMaker community 10:16 - Tackling gender disparity in tech (and FileMaker) - The Women of FileMaker organization created four scholarships to DevCon this year for first-time female attendees. 12:50 - "[FileMaker development] is a great part-time job, that you can work from home, and have this great lifestyle—it's a lifestyle job. So, come. Join the community!...You don't have to be a scientific genius to do it!" 13:18 - The value of the FileMaker community and the unique experience of PauseOnError events. 16:08 - Susan's advice for young FileMaker developers. 18:27 - Jessie Nicely of Nicely Done Solutions grew up in tech and learned FileMaker working with her father. But that hasn't stopped her from pursuing her myriad interests—in fact, Jessie explains that it has enhanced her other pursuits. 20:35 - Compound Butter - Jessie's Food & Art quarterly publication 21:33 - "Realistically, I'll probably always still be working in FileMaker, at least a little bit." 22:15 - One of Jessie's favorite sessions featured concepts and techniques in Project Management , by Karen Craig of iSolutions. She explains how lessons learned at PauseOnError have broad application, even beyond FileMaker development. 23:25 - The FileMaker Community Values 26:43 - Jessie's advice to young women interested in breaking into the tech industry. 27:45 - NicelyDone.com - School District and Film Festival products 28:04 - Newest issue of Compound Butter magazine out this month! Link in description.

00:00 - Intro 00:35 - Where does Todd Geist find his inspiration? 04:28 - Database Transactions 07:09 - Consulting vs. Products at Geist Interactive 08:09 - Barcode Creator 08:35 - FM Perception 09:30 - One Spark Academy 11:00 - Custom Software vs. SaaS - "I think that every business, if they could pull it off, if they could find a way, that they would have custom software." 12:21 - "People want their own processes and their own workflows." 15:39 - "Our number one mission today is to help people and businesses have their own software." 17:35 - The Challenges of Selling Custom Software 19:45 - The Constraints of Multitenancy 20:00 - Privacy & Control 23:33 - FM Perception 28:16 - JavaScript & Node.js 30:55 - "We have FileMaker to do 90% of what we need to do and we have JavaScript to do everything else. There isn't anything we can't do with those two tools." 31:50 - Go Draw: Markup Photographs in FileMaker using JavaScript in Web Viewer. 37:30 - Geist Interactive @ DevCon 2018

00:00 - Intro 00:30 - Eat your vegetables, FileMaker. 01:20 - "On a daily basis, I fight for an understanding of why we develop using FileMaker." 02:26 - What's grinding your gears, Dan? 03:13 - 1) Leaders in the FileMaker community are mostly old, white men. 04:18 - 2) "If you're a general consultant trying to solve everyone's problems using FileMaker, you need to pivot." 06:11 - Dan's suggestions: 06:14 - 1) "Pick something to be an expert at...I think being market-specific is better than being product-specific." 06:42 - 2) "The goal of your business should be creating a product." 07:10 - Gaining marketable skills, beyond FileMaker development skills, related to specific industries by specializing in products for a market or segment. 07:54 - "Trying to be everything to everyone—it just doesn't work anymore." 09:34 - "FileMaker can't lead the way [in low-code / no-code environments]. Another product that's based on FileMaker technology could lead the way. An Apple-driven product could lead the way. But FileMaker will never lead the way." 10:22 - What is FileMaker afraid of? What are their values? Is Apple part of the equation? 13:23 - "Apple is a consumer company, and FileMaker is business software, and Apple doesn't do business!" 14:50 - FileMaker's Two Choices: 1) Get the buy-in from Apple that they need and 2) Develop an Android version of their platform. 15:52 - FileMaker Sales vs. Marketing vs. Engineering 21:31 - What would you do differently if you were in the driver seat at FileMaker? 24:37 - "If you are consulting based on a platform and that platform goes away, you're out of business very quickly." 26:47 - Dan imagines Adatasol without FileMaker. 29:54 - Outro

Dan and Nick welcome Adam Fetrow, Senior FileMaker Developer at Adatasol, to the podcast to discuss systems-level thinking. Adam draws on his experience studying engineering and chemistry when developing in FileMaker to ensure that new features or bug fixes fit into the big picture. We discuss techniques for improving your own systems-level thinking and provide examples of situations that can quickly become problematic if not considered as part of a greater system. Finally, we discuss internally established systems and protocols for management and how systems-level thinking is crucial to the burgeoning web-development team at Adatasol.

Dan and Nick welcome Bridget Brown, Senior FileMaker Developer at Adatasol, to the podcast to discuss one of Adatasol's core values: Be a Hero. Bridget shares tips on how to go the extra mile, eliminate pain points the client doesn't even know they have, and build solid relationships.

00:00 - Introduction 00:50 - Background on TourTools Res Site and its primary architect, Adatasol's Director of Web Development, EJ Sexton. 02:48 - The first iteration of the Res Site 03:26 - Selecting a Framework - Frameworks vs. Languages vs. End Result. How do Frameworks compare to developing in FileMaker? 06:42 - Yii PHP Framework 08:23 - Model View Controller Design Pattern 9:55 - Use FileMaker as a backend for a website? 10:49 - How does FileMaker handle high volume sites? 12:40 - Temporary Tables to improve back end performance 14:18 - What makes using a temporary table better than the using the primary table? 15:50 - Multi-machine vs single-machine web server deployment. How does FileMaker 16 and features like JSON change things for TourTools web development. 19:26 - The future of the Res Site 20:14 - Composer Dependency Manager

Dan and Nick welcome guest Matt Navarre of AppWorks back to the podcast to discuss business at Adatasol and Appworks, consulting versus vertical product development, FileMaker licensing, and FIleMaker evangelism, education and community.

00:00 - Introduction 01:51 - How Adatasol and Seedcode have changed in the past several years ("Getting Out of the Business" of your business). 03:48 - DayBack Calendar by Seedcode - https://www.seedcode.com/filemaker-calendar/ 04:25 - "It feels like we are sitting out the greatest revolution in software deployment ever." 08:16 - Building systems for business management. 10:11 - The Money 10:51 - "Your Business Has A Number" 13:00 - Software as a service (SaaS), product development vs. consulting, acquisitions and other strategies for recurring revenue 19:56 - "When you're small, everything has an opportunity cost... You want to find those customers where YOUR offering is CRITICAL to the growth of their business." 26:12 - Developers can be salespeople too: Tweaking your sales language and asking the right questions. 29:33 - If your product has real value, marketing is simply getting your customers help faster. 31:13 - The Vision 33:20 - Tour Tools: Aquisition, Update and Deployment 38:27 - Where does FileMaker fit into the "revolution in software deployment?" 41:42 - What additional skills does a FileMaker developer need today? 47:40 - What is Adatasol working on now?

Dan and Nick discuss the need for experts in disparate technologies, specifically web development technologies, in order to meet customer needs and stay on the cutting edge.

Dan and Nick discuss FileMaker's effective bug fix in update 16.3, other "low-code" development environments and competing technologies, and Adatasol's push into web.

Dan and Nick discuss strategies for growth and scalability, including "getting out of the business" and the processes and tools we use for developer and project management.

Dan and Nick get technical with barcode scanning, discussing strategies to optimize inventory management, how to handle different barcode symbologies and the benefits of creating your own internal SKU system.

Dan and Nick get back to discussing the Filemaker side of Filemaker, including the Filemaker Road Map, features coming in future releases, Database Design Reports (DDR) and DEVCON 2018.

David, Scott, James, and Nick join Dan at the office to discuss growth strategy, hiring and onboarding new developers.

Dan and Nick discuss Adatasol's growth by acquisition plans and their first acquisition. They also discuss the lil' miracle that is WebDirect.

Dan and one of his developers Nick discuss the return of the Podcast and how it's changing for the better. They also review FileMaker DevCon 2017.

Dan and Mike discuss Mike's experience with other programming technologies and how they compare to FileMaker which he is the subject of his PauseOnError discussion.

Dan and Gerald Change of Eight2 discuss the upcoming PauseOnError in Cleveland.

Dan discusses how design imapacts FileMaker solutions with Alexis Allen of www.designingfilemaker.com.

Dan and three of his developers speak about what it's like to find a career doing FileMaker development.

Dan speaks briefly about what's been going on these past three years and what motivated him to return.

Dan reviews DevCon 2012, the good, the bad, and the incredibly expensive. He also talks to some attendees, show vendors, and of course, Don Levan.

Dan welcomes back John Sindelar to discuss FileMaker 12, some interesting consulting stories, and prep for the upcoming FileMaker Developer's Conference.

Dan and Chris discuss Chris' plugin development, especially the amazing FM Developer Assistant.

Dan and Marshall discuss Pause on Error, FileMaker's licensing and consider FileMaker's position within Apple.

Dan learns about version control options from Mark Richman of Skeleton Key.

Dan interviews John Sindelar and they discuss FileMaker's amazing new product for the iPhone and Ipad, FileMaker Go.

John interviews Dan on the things he's been working on recently. They discuss projects involving modifications to John's SeedCode Calendar Complete, proposing new work, and Quickbooks integration.

Dan speaks to John Overton, the founder of eConnectix. eCoonectix normally develops servers for the supercomputer market, but they have developed a version of their server, the Xpress server for FileMaker. It overs extremely high levels of availability and performance, and we discuss the features and benefits.

Dan speaks to Molly about impressions of DevCon, and also regarding her consulting and advising business.

A recording of the Unconference session regarding different consulting practices. Thanks to the speakers in this session for permission to broadcast this.

Dan speaks to various people at DevCon, including trade show exhibitors and attendees.

Dan speaks to various people at DevCon, including 24U software and Don Levan (good to see you Don!).

Kirk is speaking this year on HTML Email technologies, and on FileMaker on the iPhone. He is also part of a unconference session discussing different consulting methods.

As head of Information Technology for his company, Scott has become an expert at virtualization and virtualizing FileMaker Client and Server. He will be speaking on Virtualizing both at DevCon 2009.

Jesse and Dan discuss their plans for DevCon and 360 Works new products.

Dan and Theo have a rousing discussion with the amazing technical minds at Excelisys, including President Geoff Ryle, Andy Persons, and Mike Duncan. We talk in depth about their recent open source frameworks and whitepapers for Search and Drag-and-Drop. Industry direction and challenges, and FileMaker future platform evolution are covered, and some of our wishlist items. We tease Dan about "discovering" a tip about a feature that was already in FM v9.

Dan and Theo discuss recent and upcoming podcast episodes, reported FileMaker issues, how to handle transitioning from another developer, and other various items.

World-renowned "Philosophy of Scripting" trainer and author John Mark Osborne of DatabasePros.com talks in depth with Dan and Theo about the new features in FileMaker Pro and Pro Advanced version 10. This is our first enhanced podcast with embedded photos and links.

Dan talks to Jesse Barnum of 360Works.com about their business relationship and recent FileMaker experience.

Dan talks to David about .com's FMProMigrator solution.

Dan talks to Jonn about HIS experience, and the upcoming FileMaker Bootcamp - a great event for developers to get in depth knowledge regarding database technology.

Dan talks to Doug Gardner of Exoteric about his business and development process. Then he speaks to another Canadian Developer, Mike Leishman.