FileMaker: Explore

Welcome to The Support Group's blog, where we hope we can contribute to the FileMaker community — experienced developers and beginners alike. We believe that whatever we're doing — whether it's designing a new system or teaching a training class — everything starts with dialog. We welcome your feedback and ideas.

Purchase FileMaker Pro 12 and Learn As-You-Go!

by Chad Novotny on May 15, 2013, filed under: Announcements

A special message from our friends at FileMaker:

Purchase either FileMaker Pro 12 or FileMaker Pro 12 Advanced directly from FileMaker, Inc. or from your preferred reseller and receive an electronic copy of the FileMaker Training Series at no extra cost!

Don’t miss your opportunity to master the essentials of FileMaker 12. This self-paced curriculum provides step-by-step exercises, examples, and videos to improve your development skills and help you create more professional FileMaker solutions.

Terms and conditions apply.

Get Innovative at FileMaker DevCon 2013!

by Chad Novotny on Mar 13, 2013, filed under: Announcements

The 2013 FileMaker Developer Conference is back in San Diego, which runs from Monday, August 12th through Thursday, August 15th.  The beautiful Hilton San Diego BayFront is within walking distance from the Gaslamp District and across the street from PETCO Park.

This year, yours truly (Chad Novotny, Vice President of Technology) will be presenting two sessions on reporting. In the first, I’ll be teaching material from Module 7: Reporting of the FileMaker Training Series, introducing attendees to summary reports and charting. Later in the week, Reporting Outside the Box will cover advanced techniques for reporting with tricky relationships, using web viewers, ExecuteSQL, and the like.

Register by June 18th to save $300, and be sure to book your hotel room early to reserve your space. Get all the details at FileMaker’s DevCon site.

If you’ll be in San Diego this year, we hope to see you there!

0 comments

Talking About Risks

by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on Nov 29, 2012, filed under: Reflections

Every project of any kind faces risks: future events and possibilities that threaten to undermine it by preventing it from coming to completion or by reducing the benefits it offers. For example, in custom database development, misunderstandings about what the client needs for a report or feature, political conflict in an organization, differences in personal styles, and a hundred other things can slow the project’s momentum or create obstacles such as conflicts or technical hurdles.

As a project manager for custom development projects, I find myself increasingly naming risks, presenting them in bulleted lists so no one misses them. You might wonder why I do this. After all, aren’t risks the bad news, the worst-case scenarios? If everything is going well—the client and the development team understand what the database needs to do, there are plenty of hours left in the budget, and the deadline for completion is weeks away—why accentuate the negative by bringing up pitfalls, gray areas, and uncertainties?

Read more ►

FileMaker Training Series: Advanced Training for FileMaker 12

by Chad Novotny on Jun 12, 2012, filed under: Announcements

The Support Group is excited to announce our new Advanced FileMaker classes for FileMaker 12, using the FileMaker Training Series!

The Support Group’s Advanced FileMaker I and Advanced FileMaker II classes are arranged as two separate, two-day sessions. Scheduled back-to-back to make it convenient to attend both, our Advanced training will immerse you in the essential information you need to be highly proficient in FileMaker and helps prepare you for the FileMaker 12 Certification exam by covering a number of advanced topics. These classes are taught by experienced FileMaker Authorized Trainers who themselves are also FileMaker Certified Developers.

Read more ►