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FileMaker Developer Conference 2006

ADV 304 – Advanced FileMaker Pro Techniques
Presented By: Scott Love

This session will present a series of concrete, hands-on examples of day-to-day techniques that will help developers deliver more advanced functionality in their FileMaker Pro solutions. This session assumes that audience members are familiar with most of the standard functionality within FileMaker: calculations, scripting, how to work with portals and tab controls, etc., and quickly move into more in-depth techniques. Highlights from previous developers conference sessions have included dynamic portal sorting, portal row highlighting, programmatic control of tool tips, audit trails, and more. This session will focus on portals (youâ€™ll explore the problems of “rectangular data” , for example calendars), and highlight some advanced “deep drilling” techniques with the relationships graph.

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ADV 309 – Custom Function Junction
Presented By: Scott Love

Custom functions are a fantastic feature in FileMaker Pro 8. Attend this session to learn why and when theyâ€™re used, how to write recursive and branching functions, and how to interweave variables into functions. Most importantly, this session presents a series of concrete examples of custom functions that should be in every developerâ€™s library. Even if youâ€™ve got the mechanics of custom functions down cold, you’re guaranteed to learn something new. These examples have been culled from real-world experience and range from fairly straightforward to fairly complex.

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WEB 305 – FileMaker/PHP Hybridsâ€”Pick the Right Tools for the Right Job
Presented by: Jeremiah Small

Hybrid FileMaker/Web systems offer the best of two worlds, simultaneously serving the needs of internal staff with a rich, complete FileMaker interface, and the needs of external constituents using portions of the system tied to the Web for easy access. In this session, we will trace the process of creating a solution from start to finish, showing the process of creating a full-featured FileMaker Pro 8 solution with a PHP-based Web interface. The demo solution lets applicants submit data directly into the database for processing by staff in the “back office” using FileMaker Pro 8. It also gives applicants the ability to track their submissions as it progresses. Find out what types of problems are best solved with a PHP-based Web interface, and how to decide where to split the solution. Find out how to go about gathering requirements for a hybrid FileMaker/PHP solution and how to plan for inevitable requirements changes along the way. This session will explore architecture and strategy, but will not go into coding details.

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WOR 405 – Produce User Documentation for Your Solutionsâ€”From Afterthought to Advantage
Presented by: Lee Lukehart

It’s often the case that producing user documentation is considered a drudgery, or a time-consuming activity with little return on effort. But this deliverable need not be a huge resource drain if it is planned for and executed during the development process. This workshop will provide a framework to explore how developers produce the various forms of user documentation, and determine which forms to provide with a particular solution. Come learn best practices on the subject, and discuss the pros and cons with other developers.

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