I was just tasked with creating a script to export all the fields on a layout.  The layout, however, is non-trivial and contains fields from multiple different tables, and the relationship graph I inherited is very complicated and nearly impossible to decipher.  It would have taken me HOURS to identify the table occurrence and field name of every field on this layout and then set up the export in a script.

What I did instead was first perform the export manually. When exporting manually, the Specify Field Order for Export dialog defaults to showing you all the fields on the current layout, including the related fields (when writing a script, the same dialog only allows you to choose each table, since there is no “current layout” for the script to use).  I chose the Move All button to select all the fields on the layout, went back to editing the script, added the Export Records script step, and chose Specify export order. The last, just-performed export was already there by default.  I was done in minutes.

You can use the same idea to speed up specifying a sort order (where you can again choose the current layout’s fields) or search (where it’s easier to find fields laid out on the screen, rather than hunting around for them in the Edit Find Request dialog).

“That’s easy,” I said, and I proceeded to show the class by going into Layout Mode, selecting a large text field, turning on the text ruler and … uh… what?  I suddenly remembered that the indent tools (i.e., the “first line indent”, “left indent”, and “right indent” sliders) are only activated when a text object (or merge field) is being edited … but cannot be leveraged at all for edit boxes.

I looked up and saw the entire class staring at me, waiting, with that same smug look on their collective face: “Let’s see you explain this one, smart guy.”

After a good cry, I finally found the answer by playing with the Paragraph menu (located in Format > Line Spacing > Other… or, using the Inspector tool, on the Appearance tab > Paragraph).  By selecting the edit box and using this dialog, I set the “Left” indent to 8 pixels, and set the “First line” to -8 pixels.  This is how we tell FileMaker, “Indent by 8 pixels all lines in this word-wrapping edit box; except the first line, have that one start right up against the left margin.”

Whew.  Sometimes all we need is a good cry.

What are extended privileges?  Extended privileges are just permissions that can be attached to an existing access privilege set and are used to determine whether a user has access to certain elements within a system or not. The most common type of extended access privileges are used to determine if users can access files via FileMaker networking ([fmapp]), ODCJ/JDBC, or the web publishing options.

Why are they powerful?  FileMaker allows developers with the ability to create custom extended privileges, which are basically keywords, that can be called from any script, calculation or custom function in your file. This simple feature gives you the ability to setup access control groups.

Let’s say we are managing a system for a company that has three departments: Accounting, Production,  and Sales. Each department has three levels of user privileges that need to be setup: a Manager level, a Supervisor level and a User level access. That’s a total of nine different privilege sets, not including development accounts.

We have a set of financial reports that must be accessible to all managers and to the accounting supervisors. For simplicity purposes, let’s pretend we have a script that runs all reports and at the beginning of this script we run a test to determine if the user running the script has access to these report; if not, the script should stop.

Without the use of extended privileges we could just setup the following script steps:

# test access
Set Variable [ $privilege ; Value: Get ( AccountPrivilegeSetName ) ]
If [ $privilege ≠ "Accounting-Manager" and $privilege ≠ "Accounting-Supervisor" and $privilege ≠ "Production-Manager" and $privilege ≠ "Sales-Manager" ]
   # User doesn't have access
   Exit Script
End If
# User has access, continue with reports…

A problem here could be if at one point in the future the developer decides to change the names of the access privileges, add more levels or departments or maybe revoke access to these reports to a certain group. He would have go into all the scripts that handle this restriction and make the changes.

The solution: we can create an extended privilege set called FinancialReports and assign it to the privilege sets that should have access to the reports. Defining a new extended privilege is as simple as specifying a keyword, giving it some sort of description, and then checking off which privilege sets should have it.

When it comes time to test for user access we can simplify our script steps with the following:

# test access 
Set Variable [ $privilege ; Value: Get ( AccountExtendedPrivileges ) ]
If [ IsEmpty ( FilterValues ( $privilege ; "FinancialReports" ) ) ]
   # User doesn't have access
   Exit Script
End If
# User has access, continue with reports…

The Get ( AccountExtendedPrivileges ) function returns a carriage return separated list of all the extended privileges associated with the privilege set the account is part of. In this case, if we were logged in as an accounting supervisor, it would return

[fmapp]
FinancialReports

The FilterValues function compares that list to the second input (“FinancialReports”), and shows all matching values. So, if the result of the FilterValues function is empty with no matches, the user does not have access to the reports, and the script aborts itself.

This way, if we rename, add, or remove privilege sets or revoke or grant access to certain groups, our test won’t have to change (unless we rename the extended privilege itself, so it will require some careful planning on your part). In this scenario we can control access to these reports using only the custom extended privileges we created.

The same solution could be applied to other scenarios were there we have access to areas of a system that overlap within different accounts. For example, you might want to show a Daily Production Report to users in either the Production-Manager, Production-Supervisor, or Sales-Manager privilege sets every time they log in into the system.

But… suppose you are tracking contacts that may have multiple emails.  Such a setup probably requires a relational system where emails are stored in a separate table, with a relationship defined from the contact table to the email table. On your contact detail screen, a portal can show you the many related email addresses for each person.

In this scenario, typing the equal sign in the (related) email field isn’t going to work. The problem is that we are no longer trying to find contacts records where an email field is empty. Instead, we’re looking for contact records that do no have a related email address record. In other words, it’s not that the email field is empty (using the equal operator will find contacts where a related email address record was created but not filled in); it’s that the email record doesn’t exist. And finding a non-existent record is kind of hard. I mean, you can’t… it doesn’t exist.

To find our records, we need to invert our original approach, in a way.  Start by finding contact records that do have a value — any value — in the related email field: enter Find mode and type an asterisk (*) into the email field, to find email addresses with any character. Next, before clicking the Perform Find button, comes the key step: in the toolbar, next to the label Matching Records, choose Omit instead of the default Include. FileMaker understands this as a request to subtract records that have any value in the related email field. Starting from the complete set of contacts, this leaves us with all those without an email address.

What if we need to perform a search for contacts where some fields are filled in and other, related fields are empty? For example, how do you find all email-less contacts that are also active (a field in the contacts table, in this case formatted as a checkbox). In this case, we need to first search for active contacts, and then omit from that group those with emails. Start by entering Find mode and select the Active checkbox, leaving the Matching Records option on the default Include. Next, from the Requests menu, choose New Request command, and repeat the above omit procedure (enter an asterisk in the related email field, and choose Omit). Finally, click Perform Find. FileMaker first finds the active contacts, subtracts those with emails, and leaves us with the remaining active contacts without emails.

Want to see more tips on searches with operators, multiple requests, and different actions?  Check out the Finding and Sorting Your Data webinar that our Chad Novotny, our Vice President of Technology, presented last year.

Mass Insight is a Boston-based group that works to benefit education and provide competitive advantages to schools on multiple levels. The organization is comprised of two segments: Mass Insight Global Partnerships, a consulting firm that unites schools, companies and government agencies for the purpose of building competitive advantage, and Mass Insight Education, a non-profit affiliate that works to improve public school performance in the maths and sciences as well as help to revive the schools themselves.

The organization uses a FileMaker Pro database to store every one of their contacts for both sides of the business. As of the spring of 2009 the system was still running on 5.0, the version it was originally built in. It was a single flat file that had grown haphazardly over the years and was now a mass of entry layouts and hard-coded checkboxes that the staff used to categorize their records. The system was confusing to use; some of the labels were so old that “no one knew what anything meant,” says Joanna Manikas, VP of Business & Information Systems. “There was no common language or identifiers.” Furthermore, accurate searches were nearly impossible for users that needed to be able to pull up a set of contacts at a moment’s notice. Manikas wanted to do a lot more with the system but it was clear that a massive overhaul was needed before any new functionality could be added.

Enter The Support Group, Inc.‘s J Caprioli, who took over as Mass Insight’s lead developer and continues to work with them to this day. J’s first order of business was to upgrade the system to FileMaker 10, and then begin a complete restructuring of the file. He condensed the 50+ category fields (along with their 50+ matching value lists) into a much more manageable four - for program, sector, type/level of school, and district - and converted all of their data to related records so that users could enter more relevant categories and perform more targeted searches. He streamlined the data entry process and created more flexible reporting tools. Once the initial work was completed many new features were added as well, including the ability to log notes for each contact, track fundraising efforts, and schedule meetings with multiple attendees. The meeting component in particular “has been huge,” says Manikas. “We can now facilitate gatherings of leaders and track the invitees with ease, as well as record if they accepted, declined, or attended. We can easily pull attendance lists, send emails to a group of attendees, and see all meetings for a contact and all attendees for a meeting. I love it.”

Manikas says she is “thrilled” with J’s work and everyone she’s dealt with at The Support Group. “The relationship has been great right from the start. Every touch with company has been terrific - whether I’m going to a training, working with J, or just contacting their sales team to put together a proposal for another project. J has done a great job; I haven’t thrown him any curve balls that he hasn’t been able to figure out for us, and very quickly. He goes right at it and immediately understands what we’re trying to do.” Manikas looks forward to the relationship continuing and says there are already plans in the works for additional modules.

Most importantly, says Manikas, the team at The Support Group has been “extremely responsive and helpful in getting us to think about how we use data and what data can do. A lot of times people have a hard time knowing what they want. These guys ask the right questions.”

You see, for years, I’ve had an old LG 9900 ENV.  Those that know me have always wondered why I’ve never upgraded my phone.  The reason I did not upgrade to an iPhone years ago was simple: I never warmed up to the onscreen keyboard.  It just didn’t seem the same as the “real” keyboard on my trusty old Env 9900, with real buttons to push.  Text messages have become the primary method of communication with my three kids (their choice, not mine).  I quickly realized they would generally reply to a text message and ignore all other forms of communication.  Sometimes you’ve gotta go with the flow.  But it made a real keyboard that much more important to me.

But with the iPhone 4S, it’s no longer an issue, because of Siri.  I can get things done via voice command and control.  I can add items to my calendar, make phone calls, send text messages, get stock quotes, and my new best friend: I can set reminders and timers.  Which has me yelling OMG!!!, but in a good way.

I spend 60 to 90 minutes a day in the car, and sometimes more.  It’s my downtime, when I can both collect my thoughts and break out in a panic over the things I’ve forgotten to do.  But now, while tooling around on old New England roads, I can actually DO something about those gremlins that slipped through the cracks, like set a reminder to do them in the morning.  I can even set a location-based reminder to do them when I get home.  Or, if I realize that I need to call someone next week, I can set a reminder for that too.  All via voice.  All without looking at the iPhone screen at all; all without a keyboard!  The iPhone 4S takes a time during my day when I’m most alone with my thoughts, and allows me to capture and schedule it.  OMG!!!

Apple recently announced that 70% of their revenues came from iOS.  Here’s an industry that’s only five years old, yet already it provides many tens of billions in revenue for Apple.  Some claim that iOS devices are supplanting their desktop/laptop counterparts.  For personal and business communications and basic day-to-day organization that is likely true.  I’m using my trusty MacBook Pro to write this article; iOS devices aren’t designed as well as a tool for the creation of larger documents… authoring so to speak.  Well, not yet anyway.

During the great Halloween storm of 2011, pretty much all of New England lost power to one degree or another. My daughter’s a junior at Mount Holyoke College out in Western Mass, where they had lots of trees, power lines and branches down across campus.  She texted one morning after a full day without power that her phone was almost out of juice.  Later that day she texted that she was charging her phone off her MacBook.  What does that tell us?  She finds her phone more important than her laptop, particularly when there’s no Internet access.  The phone is her lifeline, and limited power resources are going to go to the device that keeps her connected.

In a conversation recently with one of my managers, I noted that iPhone reminds me of the early days of the Macintosh.  I worked at Apple in 1984 and 1985 and was there to witness the beginning.  Here’s the thing: the Mac’s interface was revolutionary; it changed the way we worked with computers.  It kindled a flame deep inside, making technology accessible to the masses without their having to type long, ugly, syntactically sensitive strings of DOS commands.  And that’s what Siri and the iPhone 4S are doing too… it’s the next revolution in technology that will drive major innovation.

Certainly Apple did not invent voice recognition.  They didn’t invent the graphic user interface either.  Instead what Apple has done is taken existing technologies, smoothed off the rough edges, and made them available to the masses.  Yes, Android had this ability earlier, and yes, I tried it.  But I just never warmed up to Android’s implementation.  It didn’t work as smoothly or elegantly for me.  And that’s what Apple does best.

Although Siri isn’t available on older iPhones nor iPads, we’ve seen a staggering increase in businesses using these devices to improve their productivity.  Wherever there is a distributed workforce, there’s an opportunity to use these portable technologies to review or collect information outside the office.  Our clients are using iPads and FileMaker Go to collect inspection information for ships, to review and enter information on sales activities, and to check in guests for bus trips and tours.  The future is here!  And hey, you can even use voice dictation on the iPhone 4S with FileMaker Go too!

Years ago the late, great journalist Don Crabb was at our home for a party.  At one point I asked Don if my kids would ever use a keyboard in their business careers.  He felt that they would, but not forever.  He said the keyboard was a very crude method of getting our thoughts and words into a computer.  But it was the best we had.

Well, Don, I wish you were here to see this and to read your thoughts and insights, ‘cause the new revolution has just started.

OMG!!!

The Support Group is one of the largest and most successful FileMaker consulting companies in the world, with offices in Boston, New York, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.  We’re looking for seasoned FileMaker developers in our Boston-area headquarters in Natick, Los Angeles, and San Mateo

Our team consists of full time, salaried professionals who design and implement attractive and functional FileMaker systems for our clients in business, education and government.  We have some leading, industry-recognized FileMaker gurus on staff here, who work with ALL our developers as part of a team of true, high-caliber, FileMaker experts.

Interested?  Head over to our Employment Opportunities page to learn more.

Well… no.  Not with a field.  But... yes.  With a web viewer.

There’s no way to stop the virtual keyboard from appearing as soon as a user clicks into a field in FileMaker Go. On top of that, the cursor will jump to the end of the text in the field; if you’re trying to present a large amount of text with many paragraphs (such as one of those End-user License Agreements I’m always skimming over), the user will have to scroll back to the top. We need a way to allow the user to scroll through the field contents without actually entering the field.  Adjusting the field in Layout mode to prevent entry in Browse mode gets you part of the way there. But if the amount of text exceeds the size of the field, you end up with hidden and inaccessable text, as there’s no way to scroll the field contents if you can’t enter it.

But there’s a simple workaround to create a scrollable, non editable area displaying text field contents.  Enter the Swiss Army knife of layout objects: the web viewer. Pages in a web viewer can be scrolled through, and even copied from, without ever invoking the iOS keyboard.

We normally think of the web viewer as a tool to display web pages.  But you can also feed a web viewer raw HTML for it to display using a data URI. If the web viewer’s web address starts with “data:text/html,”, whatever HTML follows will be parsed and displayed.

So, don’t use a field to display your form’s text; use a web viewer.  To get our field’s contents as HTML, we can use the GetAsCSS() function.  Our web viewer’s calcuated web “address” is a simple:

"data:text/html," & GetAsCSS ( formTable::textField )

This is a trick we use both in FileMaker Go and on the desktop in FileMaker Pro when we need to present a “field” that can be scrolled or from which one can copy (meaning we have to allow entry in Browse mode), and where using access privileges to restrict editing isn’t the right solution (if, for example, they can edit the field on other layouts).

First, a little background: last year we started doing FileMaker Go presentations here in our offices.  Since we didn’t have Steve Jobs’s magic iPad that could display it’s contents on a scree in keynote presentations, we were faced with the problem of how to show a solution in FileMaker Go.  One solution is to use a webcam pointed at an iPhone, display the video on our desktop Mac or PC, and then mirror the desktop to our classroom screen.  The IPEVO Point 2 View USB camera is an excellent model for this.  Going a step further, we used an ELMO (electronic light-modulated overhead), which provides video out to connect to a projector for presentations.  We bought a couple for our offices, using the much better projection to display FileMaker Go on the iPad on our classroom screens and switching back to FileMaker Pro on a Mac or PC using the ELMO’s built-in video switch.

Then came the iPad 2, and it’s ability to do video mirroring. Just plug a VGA adapter into the iPad, connect it to a KVM switch connected to a projector, and BOOM: the iPad, and FileMaker Go, visible to all on the screen.  This setup works perfectly for in-person presentations with a projector, where we can switch between the iPad and desktop video sources.

In a webinar, though, we can’t share through WebEx the iPad screen or FileMaker Go. The only solution is to somehow show the iPad screen in a window on the desktop, and then share the desktop in the webinar.  The webcam method will work for this, but the video quality is only adequate, and it’s tricky to set up the lighting properly.  What we really wanted was to use the iPad’s video mirroring capabilities, and capture the video output.

To do this, you need a VGA or DVI video capture card. After researching various setups, I took John Sindelar’s suggestion of the Epiphan VGA2USB, easily usable with my MacBook Pro (or any other Mac or PC).  It is, however, a bit pricey: the base model is $300, capturing 10 frames per second for the iPad’s 1024x768 resolution.  I connected the VGA adapter to the iPad, another cable from the adapter to the VGA2USB, and connected the VGA2USB to my MacBook’s USB port.  I used the WhackedTV application recommended by Epiphan to display the captured video, and then shared my desktop via WebEx.  Overall, it worked well, though WebEx viewers saw the video flash occasionally.

Want to see the results?  Check out the webinar.

“iPhones and iPads have changed the way people work with information. When developing solutions using FileMaker Go, you’ll want to design your workflows and user experience to fit the way people create and consume mobile data. This session will cover useful tips and techniques to optimize FileMaker for mobile use. We will explore FileMaker development with an eye to adapting workflow patterns and user interaction to the mobile paradigm, as well as the new opportunities mobile devices present, such as geolocation.”

Here is the sample file used in the demo (though without the “student” photos).  You will need to be signed in as a registered visitor to download this file.

Several people asked how I was able to display the iPad screen on my desktop. I’ll have a new entry up later this week describing the process.

Lastly, here are the useful links listed at the end of the presentation:

• FileMaker Go Development Guide
• “Slide a block” layouts for iPad
• My previous geolocation article for this blog
• iOS graphics from Theme Studio
• Various iOS patterns sites:
  
  • mobile-patterns.com
  • pttrns.com
  • www.lovelyui.com
  • landingpad.org

Our recommendation is to hold off on upgrading to Lion until FileMaker has released necessary updates for FileMaker 11. As tempting as the shiny and new Lion features may be, if you rely on FileMaker for critical business systems, patience is a virtue.

UPDATE 2: FileMaker has released the 11.0v4 update for Pro and Pro advanced. You can grab it here.

UPDATE: FileMaker has released information regarding Lion compatibility with FileMaker Pro 11 and Server 11.  FileMaker Pro (and Pro Advanced) 11 has issues with formatting dates and using the inspector to set number formatting, for which an update is due in August.  FileMaker Server (and Server Advanced) 11 is compatible with Lion, EXCEPT for all web publishing (IWP, PHP, XML, and XSLT); an update for Server is due in October.

Another issue impacting FileMaker Pro on Lion is exporting to pre-2007 Excel documents (.xls). This requires Rosetta, and will not be supported on Lion.  You can still export to the newer, .xslx Excel format.

As for earlier versions, FileMaker Pro 10 has the same issues as FileMaker Pro 11, plus issues with PDFs in web viewers. FileMaker Server 10, and FileMaker Pro 9 and Server 9, are not compatible or supported with Lion.

Previous coverage:

Right now, no version of FileMaker Pro or Server is supported with Mac OS X Lion, although it is a safe assumption that FileMaker 11 will be. In a Knowledge Base article, FileMaker has stated:

In past major OS releases, FileMaker updates have nearly always been required to resolve issues — often merely annoying, although sometimes serious.  We should expect a similar patch will be necessary with FileMaker 11 and Lion.

If you are using an earlier version of FileMaker, upgrading to FileMaker 11 may be necessary to work with Lion. We can say with certainty that FileMaker 8 and earlier definitely will not work OS X 10.7. As older PowerPC applications, they require the Rosetta translation layer to be compatible with Intel-based Macs, and Lion will no longer support Rosetta.

Upgrading from FileMaker 7 or 8 to FileMaker 11 is fairly painless.  If you’re using FileMaker 6 or earlier, it’s finally time to upgrade to the modern FileMaker platform.  Converting files from these earlier versions may be more difficult for complex solutions (though often not as difficult as it was made out to be). Please feel free to contact us for assistance with any upgrades.

Again, it’s best to wait to upgrade to a new OS until your critical applications officially support it. We expect FileMaker to support Mac OS X 10.7 Lion with a patch for FileMaker 11, but until then, hold off on installing that new big cat.

“Yes we can!” (my son has been watching a lot of Bob the Builder). We need the Get ( WindowContentHeight ) and Get ( WindowContentWidth ) functions.

There are several other functions that can be used to get screen and window dimensions, but for some reason only the WindowContent functions actually return different values depending on whether the iOS device is in portrait or landscape orientation.  On my iPad, here’s what these functions return:

So, if Get ( WindowContentWidth ) > Get ( WindowContentHeight ), your device is in landscape orientation, otherwise it’s in portrait orientation.  Your script should test for this and do the appropriate thing:

If [Get ( WindowContentWidth ) > Get ( WindowContentHeight )]
  # it's in landscape…
Else
  # it's in portrait…
End If

Our plans are geared towards FileMaker users who expect to need adjustments to their system multiple times a year and are willing to buy a block of hours in return for a discount.  Very often, they don’t yet know exactly what they will do with those hours, but they do know that their FileMaker system is an important part of their operations and they want to keep it updated and even expand it as the business grows and changes.  Additionally, with many companies and schools facing a June 30th fiscal year-end, we’re finding some have unspent budget money they would like to use now for FileMaker services in the coming year.  Hours purchased at a discount through the plan can be used for any of our FileMaker services such as design, development, and one-on-one mentoring. 

Our Sapphire Maintenance Plan starts at about $3K because we tried to make it a low cost option for people who are not sure how much work they may have.  So if you’d like to have FileMaker consulting services “tucked away” for when you need them, please ask us about it.

“Smart people learn from their own mistakes; really smart people learn from the mistakes of others.”

I’d expand that to include learning from one’s successes and the successes of others, as I’ve endeavored to teach my children many times over.

I’ve been in this business over 25 years and worked at Apple for a few years before that. Over that time, I’ve seen a lot of interesting customer experiences, good and bad, with some providing major life lessons the hard way. Most of these are simple in nature but reinforce what many of us know intuitively. The stories I want to share today relate to backing up.

I have a good friend who does great work with folks with disabilities. That is her life and passion. Early on, her department dedicated a computer for creating applications for the grants that were their primary funding source. There were years of grants on that computer that they often referred to or copied, using the same language or approach in the creation of new grants.

One night their computer was stolen, and along with it years of valuable intellectual property. I remember asking gingerly if she had a backup. Well, they certainly had intended to back up, but just never got around to it.

Lesson learned: Living without a backup is living dangerously. Sometimes you don’t realize the pain until the bad stuff happens.

A few years later, we were working with the accounting department of a smaller company. They were quite dutiful about backing up, actually. I find accounting folks are generally good about details like this. However, they kept the backups in a box right beside the computer so as not to forget. Again a theft occurred, and they lost their computer along with their box of backup disks.

Lesson learned: Keep your backups in a safe place. A backup is useless if stolen or destroyed. Keep backups in a secure place, free from harm, and consider keeping extra backups offsite. Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket.

One of our clients was incredibly dutiful about backing up. This was a large company who had every computer backed up every night over their network. Sounds good so far, right? Sometimes you seem to do everything right yet still have a poor outcome.

The hard drive on the server died. They called IT to ask for the most recent copy of their backup. “Absolutely,” IT responded, “it will take a couple of weeks to get it.” This system and its data were the lifeblood of the department, used constantly by a group of fifty people. Two weeks without this system meant two weeks of lost work.

As fastidious as IT was about backing up, they really had not thought about the importance of prompt file retrieval for their departments and users. The backups were stored offsite in a very secure environment, and it took time to get the proper storage medium and to retrieve the needed file.

Lesson learned: Make sure your backups are accessible, particularly those that are not under your direct control and those that you can’t live without.

We’ve all heard stories of backups gone bad. It happens. Backup tapes go bad, or the tape drives fail or go on the fritz, and the backups—although reported as successful—fail. Unfortunately, most folks discover these failures when they need the backups most, after a hardware failure of some sort. We’ve also seen examples of database files experiencing corruption but not exhibiting any symptoms of problems for weeks or months. When the administrator retrieves all the most recent backups, they are in fact corrupt as well. We’ve seen clients reverting to files as old as a month or more in order to find a good copy.

Lesson learned: Verify your backups from time to time. Restore your database file from a backup and test it. Make sure it works. Make sure the data is there. Personally, I think this is the most frustrating of situations. You do everything right and still get bit by a painful failure.

I’m writing this article because, yes, I recently heard yet another story of a lack of a backup. It was very painful for the person and company who contacted us, hoping we could magically retrieve their important business data from a failed hard drive. They likely have paper records from which they can recreate much of the info, but certainly not all.

Sometimes I’m asked how often a client should back up. My best answer is, “How much are you willing to lose?” It’s all about risk and reward. Think about how much pain your business will be in if you lost a week’s worth of data. What about if your database system disappeared completely? These are painful thoughts that require consideration.

Most of all, consider these questions now. Don’t wait for the bad stuff to happen. It’s too late then.

This company had a person who generated these reports by hand.  At the end of each month she would spend almost two weeks carefully crafting and crosschecking these reports in Excel for distribution to their entire management team.  Should an error be found it could take days to locate and update all relevant data.

After this system was in place they were able to enter all transaction information by hand and generate reports within hours.  Should an error be found in a report, they’d trace the error back, edit the proper records and run the reports again.  As simple as this system was, it was incredibly productive for them.

At a later follow-up visit, the CEO of this business said something interesting:

“Why should a human do this when a computer can do it?”

And that is the point…

Earlier today I participated in a conference call with a new client to discuss their needs.  They have a very specialized FileMaker system that runs their business. But they’re finding a need to enter data multiple times in disparate systems that collect course registrations on the web and produce course catalogs.  I was reminded of that old piece of wisdom “Why should a human do this when a computer can do it?”

There are certain tasks that computers and FileMaker database systems do very well.  They’ve always allowed us to find and sort records quickly, calculate accurately and at lightning speed, and produce complex reports in the blink of an eye.

FileMaker has come a very long way since those early versions, and can make us productive in so many more ways.  There are many tasks previously requiring human intervention that now can be automated.  These include:

• Sending and receiving emails
• Creating PDF documents
• Interacting with web services
• Updating and retrieving data from SQL database systems
• Communicating with disparate systems via XML
• Client interfaces for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches
• Creating native Word and Excel documents
• Creating web interfaces to FileMaker database systems

I recently ran into the gentleman who made that profound statement years ago. He has long since retired and sold his business.  But he was back here taking our Introduction to FileMaker course to sharpen his skills.  You see, in retirement he’s helping a number of non-profit organizations with the business side of their operations, and he’s still looking for places where computers and database software can help.