Product Description

Advice and techniques that you need to get the job done.

Looking for ways to streamline your work so that you can focus on maximizing your
time? In Depth provides specific, tested, and proven solutions to the problems you run
into every day–things other books ignore or oversimplify. This is the one book that you
can rely on to answer all the questions you have now and will have in the future.

In Depth offers:

• Comprehensive coverage, with detailed solutions
• Breakthrough techniques and shortcuts that are unavailable elsewhere
• Practical, real-world examples with nothing glossed over or left out
• Troubleshooting help for tough problems you can’t fix on your own
• Outstanding authors recognized worldwide for their expertise and teaching style
• Quick information via sidebars, tips, reminders, notes, and warnings
• In Depth is the only tool you need to get more done in less time!

CATEGORY:     Databases

COVERS:   FileMaker® Pro

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #173645 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 696 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780789739469
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author

Jesse Feiler has worked with FileMaker since its beginnings. He has written a number of books about FileMaker as well as Mac OS X, the Web, and new technologies; his books have been translated into Japanese, Chinese, Polish, German, Spanish, French, Arabic, and other languages. As director of North Country Consulting, he has designed and implemented a variety of FileMaker solutions for small businesses and nonprofits in fields such as production, marketing, the arts, printing and publishing, food service, and construction. His most recent book is The Bento Book: Beauty and Simplicity in Digital Organization. His website is www.northcountryconsulting.com; the website for the book is filemakerindepth.com. You can find updates and file downloads there.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction: Welcome to FileMaker Pro 10

Best of Three Worlds

Welcome to the world of FileMaker Pro 10. By simply browsing through this book, you’re sure to have seen the word database. We cover what databases are in the rest of this book, but one of the first things you need to understand about FileMaker Pro 10 is that it is far more than just a database application.

FileMaker Pro 10 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 people speak about FileMaker, keep in mind they might be viewing it from any one of these different perspectives. An IT professional likely sees FileMaker as a database engine that fits into a larger security and network infrastructure. An end user is probably thinking about a specific solution built in FileMaker Pro and how it helps make her work more efficient. A software developer might see FileMaker as one of many tools he employs in building a wide range of applications.

This book was written with an eye toward the FileMaker developer community. If you’re mostly interested in learning how to use the essential features of the FileMaker application, though, this book might not be for you. Although we’ve included some introductory chapters to be as comprehensive as possible, we’ve chosen to focus on an audience that we assume is largely familiar with the essential operations of FileMaker already and is interested mostly in topics for the beginning to advanced developer.

How This Book Is Organized

FileMaker Pro 10 In Depth is divided into five parts, organized into something like a tree. Part I, “Getting Started with FileMaker 10,” and Part II, “Developing Solutions with FileMaker,” constitute the “trunk” of the tree; they cover fundamental material that we recommend everyone read.

Subsequent parts branch out from this base. Part III, “Developer Techniques,” focuses on using FileMaker’s features to develop complete, robust database applications. Part IV, “Data Integration and Publishing,” covers getting data into and out of FileMaker. And Part V, “Deploying a FileMaker Solution,” covers options for making a FileMaker solution accessible to others.

The following sections describe the five parts of FileMaker Pro 10 In Depth and the topics they cover.

Part I: Getting Started with FileMaker 10

• The chapters in Part I introduce you to FileMaker and its uses and features, and get you started with the basics of defining databases.
• Chapter 1, “FileMaker Overview,” situates FileMaker Pro within the wider world of database and productivity software. It provides an overview of the new FileMaker 10 product line and mentions the most important new features in FileMaker 10. This chapter is appropriate both for those who are new to FileMaker Pro and for those who have used previous versions and want a quick tour of the major innovations.
• Chapter 2, “Using FileMaker Pro,” is intended as an introduction to the software from the perspective of a database user rather than a database developer. We introduce the major components and functions of the FileMaker interface, such as the status area, layouts, FileMaker’s modes, and the basics of record creation, editing, and deletion.
• Chapter 3, “Defining and Working with Fields and Tables,” provides a thorough overview of all of FileMaker’s field types and field options, including lookups, validation, storage types, and indexing. This chapter is intended to help lay the groundwork for talking about database development and to serve as a thorough reference on FileMaker field types and options.
• Chapter 4, “Working with Layouts,” covers all of FileMaker’s layout-building options in detail. We cover all aspects of layout building and offer guidelines for quicker and more efficient layout work.

Part II: Developing Solutions with FileMaker

Part II is intended to introduce you to the fundamental techniques of database application development using FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Pro Advanced. Chapters 5 through 7 cover the theory and practice of designing and building database systems with multiple data tables. Chapters 8 through 10 introduce you to foundational concepts in application and reporting logic.

• Chapter 5, “Relational Database Design,” introduces you to relational database design concepts. We proceed by working on paper, without specific reference to FileMaker, and introduce you to the fundamental vocabulary and techniques of relational database design (keys and relationships).
• Chapter 6, “Working with Multiple Tables,” begins the task of translating the generic database design concepts of Chapter 5 into specific FileMaker techniques. We show how to translate a paper diagram into an actual FileMaker table structure. We show how to model different relationship types in FileMaker using multiple data tables and how to create fields that function effectively as relational keys.
• Chapter 7, “Working with Relationships,” builds on the concepts of Chapter 6. Rather than focusing on FileMaker’s relationships from the standpoint of database design, we focus on their practical implementation in FileMaker programming. We look in detail at the new capabilities of FileMaker 10 and discuss nonequality join conditions, file references, and some strategies for organizing a multitable system.
• Chapter 8, “Getting Started with Calculations,” introduces FileMaker’s calculation engine. The chapter delves into the major types of FileMaker calculations. We cover a number of the most important functions and discuss general strategies and techniques for writing calculations.
• Chapter 9, “Getting Started with Scripting,” introduces FileMaker’s scripting engine. Like the preceding chapter, this one covers the fundamentals of an important skill for FileMaker developers. We cover some common scripting techniques and show how to use event-driven scripts to add interactivity to a user interface.
• Chapter 10, “Getting Started with Reporting,” illustrates the fundamental techniques of FileMaker Pro reporting, such as list views and subsummary reports, as well as some more advanced subsummary techniques, and some design techniques for improving the look and usability of your reporting layouts.

Part III: Developer Techniques

The chapters in Part III delve deeper into individual topics in advanced FileMaker application development. We build on earlier chapters by exploring more complex uses of portals, calculations, and scripts. We also offer chapters that help you ready your FileMaker solutions for multiuser deployment, and we examine the still-important issue of conversion from previous versions.

• Chapter 11, “Developing for Multiuser Deployment,” explores the issues and challenges of designing FileMaker systems that will be used by several people at once. We discuss how FileMaker handles concurrent access to data and discuss the concept of user sessions.
• Chapter 12, “Implementing Security,” is a thorough overview of the FileMaker 10 security model. We cover the role-based accounts feature, extended privileges, and many of the complexities of server-based external authentication against Windows or Mac OS X user directories, for example.
• Chapter 13, “Using the Web Viewer,” explores one of the interesting recent features of FileMaker Pro. You can incorporate live web pages into your FileMaker layouts, and you can use data from the FileMaker database to construct the URLs that are displayed.
• Chapter 14, “Advanced Interface Techniques,” provides detailed explanations of a number of more complex, applied techniques for working with layouts and data presentation in a FileMaker application.
• Chapter 15, “Advanced Calculation Techniques,” looks closely at some of the more advanced or specialized types of FileMaker calculations, as well as the functions for text formatting and for list manipulation.
• Chapter 16, “Advanced Scripting Techniques,” like the preceding chapter, is full of information specific to features of FileMaker 10 scripting. Here, we cover programming with script parameters, the significant feature of script variables, programming in a multiwindow system, and the complexities of scripted navigation among multiple tables and recordsets.
• Chapter 17, “Working with FileMaker Triggers,” examines one of the most important new features of FileMaker Pro 10. Triggers let you set up automatic behaviors that occur whenever certain events happen. They let you exercise more control over the user interface with less programming in many cases.
• Chapter 18, “Advanced FileMaker Solution Architecture,” is the last of the chapters in the Advanced series. It presents a variety of features and solutions that integrate and expand some of the techniques in the previous chapters. You will find information on window management, multiwindow interfaces, and selection portals, among other topic...

Customer Reviews

Fantastic knowledge and ability to share that knowledge
I have been using FileMaker Pro since version 5 and have read tons of books on the subject plus watched even more training videos. This book really took me by surprise.

Not being a novice user I anticipated that a lot of the book would review skills I already have. Instead, starting from the very first chapter, I began to understand those skills at a deeper level, which helped some more advanced topics become easier to tackle.

The author, Jesse Feiler, wrote a FileMaker Pro 8 book, which was good, but this book is so much better, it is hard to believe the same person wrote both! Whether you are new to FileMaker or are a hard core user, you will benefit from this book.

Not a normally good QUE book
I purchased both the Missing Manual Filemaker 9& 10, and this In Depth, and I have to say the Missing Manual series is definitely easier to read and absorb. What's missing in In Depth is the following along of an application build, and the In Depth seems rushed like its trying to cram in information that doesn't tie to a flowing thought track.

In Depth, really.
I was looking for a book that would take me away from trying to introduce me to FileMaker. I have been programming in FileMaker for years and version is the best one yet, runs neck in neck with the Bible version. The language is easy to understand and easy to recall. It will definitely open your eyes to the basics and the technical. Finally a book that I can reread.