Using proven technologies and industry best practices to develop robust, responsive web applications that integrate with a wide range of data sources, web services, APIs and backend technologies. 

There is not always an app for that. Despite the existence of millions of apps, there is still plenty of room for innovation and improvement. A custom app can put your product or service in the hands of new customers. 

Mobile development is not just for apps. A majority of your clients are likely interacting with your website and applications using their mobile devices. Responsive design, small screen-friendly functionality, and speed over cellular networks should be a part of the strategy when developing or designing any digital product.

Imagine a world where you log in to a single application that handles all your business needs. Integrating the disparate applications you use into a single functional application using pre-built or custom APIs can lead to this single app world. The bidirectional movement of data can happen seamlessly in the background of your application saving you time and money.

We bring you modern UX, design patterns and best practices because good design is always a goal, from how software looks to how it works for users.

Claris Connect is a powerful automation and integration platform designed to link various applications, databases, and cloud services. It enables businesses to create seamless workflows using prebuilt connectors and API integrations. With event-driven triggers, webhooks, and conditional logic, Claris Connect reduces manual data handling, enhances system interoperability, and accelerates digital transformation. It supports low-code and no-code development, making automation accessible while ensuring robust security, scalability, and efficiency across business operations. 

Claris Connect Available Apps

Marketing & Email: Active Campaign, Autopilot, Clearbit, Mailchimp, Mailgun, Mailparser, Sendgrid.

Education: Apple School Manager, Custom SIS.

Collaboration & Productivity: Asana, Calendly, Docparser, Dropbox, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Sheets, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 for Admins, Slack, Smmry, Trello, Zoom.

Developer Tools: AWS Lambda, AWS S3, AWS SES, AWS SNS, AWS SQS, Full Contact, Particle, PubNub.

Claris & Databases: Claris FileMaker Cloud, Claris FileMaker Cloud Admin API, Claris FileMaker Server, Claris FileMaker Server Admin API, Claris FileMaker Server On-Premise, Claris Studio, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL Database, MySQL Database On-Premise.

Cloud Storage: Box, Dropbox, Google Drive.

CRM & Support: Freshdesk, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zendesk.

Artificial Intelligence: Clarifai, Google Translate, MonkeyLearn, OpenAI.

Analytics: Mixpanel.

Project Management: Jira, Smartsheet.

Forms & Surveys: Formstack, SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Wufoo.

E-Commerce: Shopify, WooCommerce.

Electronic Signature: CloudSign, DocuSign, Dropbox Sign, iTrust.

Messaging: Chatwork, Media SMS, Slack, Twilio.

Payments & Accounting: QuickBooks, Stripe, Xero.

Device Management: Jamf Pro, Mosyle Manager.

Identity Management: Microsoft Entra ID.

Other Services: Ekispert, Eventbrite, Google Maps, NAVITIME API, PostcodeJP API, SmartHR, Wordpress.

claris-connect-connectors

We’re looking to hire another experienced FileMaker developer. We’re interested in someone who has tackled adventurous FileMaker development tasks, whether it’s architecting solution frameworks, building Custom Function libraries or Add-ons, Web Viewer integration with JavaScript, mobile solution sync, long-term system development, experience with Web integration, dashboarding using ExecuteSQL or Tableau, building financial models, MySQL or Oracle integration, actively participating in the developer community, commercial product development, cutting-edge UI design…OR anything else you’ve done beyond the limits of standard FileMaker development.

Web Services open up online systems for your solutions to interact with them, returning information as structured data (typically JSON or XML) through an API. Then the fun begins, as you make custom use of data, even mashing up information from multiple Web Services into a single set of customized content for your own use.

Beezwax's best and brightest professional FileMaker developers will help you get up to speed with training focused on frameworks, advanced concepts and hands-on skill building. We'll share our own strategies in FileMaker development, and help turn your already-excellent techniques into "Best-of-the-Best" practices.

Between the time we write this to the time you read it, technology has changed. Technology is constantly evolving, and yesterday's advanced skills might be today's basic skills. Staying on top of the changes can be difficult, so working with trainers is a great way to keep up with the pace of advances.

Our clients rely on us, not just as programmers, but also as consultants who understand business, technology and workflow dynamics from various perspectives. Our experience delivering applications helps your organization work better, operate more smoothly, and focus on those things you enjoy being best at.

Our team of FileMaker experts will utilize InspectorPro 8 to conduct audits of your FileMaker solutions, identifying inefficiencies, broken dependencies, and security risks. InspectorPro 8 is an advanced analysis tool designed for FileMaker, it utilizes DDR (Database Design Report) data to generate visual reports, highlighting schema relationships, script references, and security settings. Its ability to cross-reference dependencies makes it essential for managing complex FileMaker solutions efficiently.

Google Ads, a powerful digital advertising platform by Google, allows businesses to showcase their products and services to a vast online audience with remarkable precision. At its core, Google Ads operates on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, where advertisers bid on keywords relevant to their offerings. When users search for these keywords on Google, relevant ads appear, aiming for businesses to connect with potential customers actively seeking their products or services.

This platform provides various targeting options, allowing you to fine-tune their campaigns. You can specify geographical locations, demographics, and even device preferences to ensure your message reaches the right audience at the right time. Google Ads offers a robust suite of analytics tools, providing you with comprehensive insights into your campaign’s performance.

Christos Savva from Beezwax presents at Bay Area FileMaker Developer Meetup.

Join us for an informative and interactive meetup that explores the benefits of integrating Python with FileMaker. Learn how Python can enhance your Claris FileMaker solutions by enabling data and visual analytics, IT automation, and AI + Machine Learning integration.

We'll cover 'Getting Started' with Python (using FileMaker 2024 on macOS for the demo) and briefly review various integration methods, such as web viewers, plugins and serverless options. We'll demo an example FileMaker solution, bzPython-FM.

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Python with FileMaker®: Get Started with Analytics, Automation and AI

Speaker: Christos Savva, Senior Developer, Beezwax
Date: October 4, 2024
Time: 10:30 - 11:30am, PDT

Summary: Join us for an informative and interactive meetup that explores the benefits of integrating Python with FileMaker.

Learn how Python can enhance your Claris FileMaker solutions by enabling:

• data and visual analytics with tools like pandas
• fast data processing
• Excel exports
• system, file and network automation
• AI/ML integration
• and more.

We'll cover 'Getting Started' with Python (using FileMaker 2024 on macOS for the demo) and briefly review various integration methods, such as web viewers, plugins and serverless options. We'll demo an example FileMaker solution, bzPython-FM.

About the Speaker: Christos Savva, Beezwax

To start, Christos was simply fascinated by the power of the FileMaker platform, and what he was able to build over the course of a single weekend. That was back in 2012, and since then he has built numerous apps for companies across a wide range of industries.

Initially self-taught in software development, Christos earned a M.S. in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology, to go with his Maths degree and Master's in Accounting/Finance from the University of Bath (UK). Christos has worked as a Chartered Accountant, and held roles in international financial services handling audit, enterprise risk services, compliance and business process re-engineering. But since software engineering is just as much fun as financial accounting…

Christos has been a FileMaker certified developer from version 12 through current, as well as an AWS Certified Developer. He is enthusiastic about learning web and mobile technologies (including JavaScript and, especially, Python) in order integrate them with FileMaker and to better serve users.

Christos hails from Nicosia in Cyprus, and in his spare time, he is an avid astronomer. He was one of the co-founders of the Cyprus Astronomy Organization, a non-profit organization to promote astronomy on the island.

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Related content:

https://blog.beezwax.net/dotfmp-python-claris-filemaker-historical-data-aws-athena-sqs-s3-ux-dx-for-great-solutions/

https://blog.beezwax.net/leveraging-pandas-with-python-to-analyze-filemaker-data-sets/

https://blog.beezwax.net/bzpython-python-for-your-filemaker-apps/

bBox plug-in for FileMaker

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How can we help?

Beezwax is a Claris® Platinum Partner, AWS Partner and Tableau® Services & Technology Partner.

Please get in touch with us if you’re interested in Beezwax’s help with your FileMaker, Tableau, Web development or related design and integration projects.

Finding efficiencies within an organization increases effectiveness; however, these can not always be easy to discover. A fresh pair of experienced eyes can help find opportunities for improvement through streamlining and workflow automation.

FileMaker Pro is a cross-platform database program that allows developers to create a user interface and relational database for managing their data. FileMaker Pro development services encompass a range of services, including database architecture and application performance optimization, UI/UX design, development, and simple fixes. Those starting with the application may be looking for consulting services to help create a system that fits within the organization. Those who have already adopted FileMaker may want to upgrade, add more powerful integrations, add more robust workflows and automation, or even start a complete redesign.

Vince Menanno from Beezwax presents at FMDiSC (FileMaker Developers in Southern California).

You may have read on Claris’s blog that “Developers are excited to use Claris FileMaker 19.6!” As Vince Menanno from Beezwax said in an interview for that blog post:

"This FileMaker release is significant. There's a possibility to make solutions run faster if you're leveraging transactions, and for code to be more concise."

– Vincenzo Menanno, Beezwax

So, let’s talk about Claris® FileMaker® and script transactions in FileMaker 19.6!

Transacting Transactions in Claris FileMaker

Event link: https://www.meetup.com/fmdisc-filemaker-developers-in-southern-california/events/290746664/
Speaker: Vincenzo Menanno, Chief Innovation Officer, Beezwax Datatools
Date: Friday, January 13, 2023
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. PT

Summary: With the latest release of the Claris FileMaker Platform, we now have native script transaction support. We always had the ability to roll our own transactions, and it had a unique and particular way of working with the need to use dedicated relationships. The new script steps promise a whole new way of architecting solutions transactionally.

This talk focuses on the reasons one would want to embrace script transactions, how they work, and a look at the performance consideration, especially for solutions over a WAN. This next chapter of the Claris FileMaker Platform will usher in a new set of possibilities, in how solutions are architected by simplifying and reducing the code needed to implement transactions while providing possibilities to enhance performance.

About The Speaker: With 20+ years of full-time experience as a master consultant, as well as a dedicated creator of products for the Claris developer community, Vince Menanno is widely considered one of the leading FileMaker developers in the world. He’s been a speaker at industry events such as Claris Engage (formerly FileMaker DevCon), AutoEnter Live, EngageU, FM Conférence, dot.fmp, CQDF, and many Claris Developer Meetups. In addition to his work as Chief Innovation Officer for Beezwax Datatools, Vince is the author of InspectorPro, a leading development tool that provides in-depth solution analysis and advanced data visualizations.

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Need Help?

Beezwax is a Claris® Platinum Partner as a Claris/FileMaker Consultant, Reseller and Trainer, as well as a Tableau® Services Partner.

Please get in touch with us if you're interested in Beezwax's help with your FileMaker, Tableau, Web development or related design and integration projects.

BERLIN, Germany – Our senior developer Christos Savva attended the dotfmp.berlin 2022 “Unconference” held in June in Berlin. The conference was the first in-person opportunity in over two years for leading Claris FileMaker developers across Europe to meet, share their work, and explore what’s happening in the developer community.

At dotfmp.berlin 2022, more than 70 developers from eighteen countries talked through tools and techniques from their Claris playgrounds. Adding to that excitement was participation by Claris’s engineering and product management teams.

In the spirit of sharing, here are some of the highlights and insights we brought back from participating in the conference. You can also check out more details on the dotfmp.berlin website, as well as view presentation content, and even download demo files via the publicly-available dotfmp.berlin conference content.

What's new in the world of Claris? Part I

Claris Studio & The Future of Development

It's no secret that the launch of Claris Studio will bring new directions for the future for FileMaker. The Claris platform will also introduce ESS+, a way of connecting Claris Studio with FileMaker Pro (soon to be known as Claris Pro). While FileMaker integration via Claris Studio and ESS+ is still at a developer preview stage, at dotfmp.berlin several developers discussed how they’ve been working with MongoDB, as a prototype architecture.

Christos noted, “If using MongoDB, the ESS+ connection might use the mongo-bi-connector-odbc-driver. This is a fork of the mySQL-connector-odbc-driver, potentially allowing FileMaker to call MongoDB in a way that’s very similar (if not identical) to regular ESS using mySQL and ODBC.”

Some other potential tools for development, sync and migration between an RDBS (like FileMaker) and MongoDB include:

• AWS DB Migration Service
• Studio IT
• Altova Mapforce
• Compass (client app)
• MBS plug-in

There was also a demo by MonkeyBread Software about how to potentially use the MBS plug-in with ESS+ to allow client-side, field-level encryption.

Being Flexible with FileMaker

Turns out you can teach an old (or new) developer new tricks. Some innovative techniques we learned about at dotfmp.berlin include…

e-Signing Documents

Digitally-encrypted signatures are quickly replacing electronic signatures due to their ability to securely verify identities. Instead of creating an electronic signature in a FileMaker container field, Johan Hedman from Sweden demonstrated how developers can use a third-party application to encrypt document signatures for authenticity. Popular APIs for this include Scrive, Entrust, Digicert, or Docusign.

Automated Installation of FMS on Linux

Danish developer Claus Lavendt shared shell scripts he uses to automate the installation of FileMaker Server on Linux. Something noteworthy that resulted from the discussion was that if you use AWS AMIs with FileMaker Server pre-installed make sure that the SSL certificate isn’t installed when creating the image, otherwise it will fail when you spin up a new instance.

Printing in a Vertical Solution

To address the challenges of structure-driven PrintLayouts, German developer Phillip Puls demonstrated a new technique by packaging data and sending it to a single printing solution. He starts a script in a separate file, then uses MBS Quicklist to transfer a package of specific and ephemeral data to PrintLayout rather than the entire external data source. The result is more secure and less prone to issues with structural changes.

A Survey of AI Techniques

The fast-growing world of artificial intelligence has arrived to take its place in the field of FileMaker. British developer Ian Jempson provided an overview of the ways machine learning (ML) can have a seat at the table – developers can create native AI functions using tools like CoreML script steps, Javascript on web viewers, MBS plug-in, or Amazon Comprehend.

Protecting FileMaker Servers from Ransomware Attacks

Michigan developer Chris Moyer used Racketeer, a ransomware simulator, to demonstrate potential hijacking on FileMaker Servers (or FileMaker “servers”, lowercase, as many attacks target the lower levels of operating and file systems). Moyer showed how the r77 toolkit is able to cloak files on the server while allowing them to still function – "security by obscurity".

Anonymous functions in WebViewer

French developer Romain Dunand showed attendees ways to use Perform Javascript for anonymous functions in a web viewer – build web-scrapers, auto-fill forms, convert to PDFs… and more.

Data API Explorer Add-On

Using the Execute Data API script step, Dutch developer Menno van Beek showed attendees how they can build and run simple or complex queries with the Data API Explorer Add-on, available freely on the marketplace.

What's new in the world of Claris? Part II

Claris Products: "An In-Depth, Under-the-Hood Q&A"

Peter Nelson & Robert Holsey of Claris held a live Q&A session with dotfmp.berlin attendees – providing fresh answers to burning questions concerning the inner workings of Claris Studio, and FileMaker/Claris Pro:

Claris Studio will…

• Be cloud-based.
• Have one version, meaning no installation or rollbacks, similar to any current SaaS.
• Have no license limit to building entities.
• Have metadata fields shown before launch.
• Launch with multilingual support & analytics.
• Eventually have dynamic value lists – differently from FileMaker.
• Eventually be available as on-premise software.
• Begin its initial launch at the US West Coast with subsequent roll-outs.

More information from Claris included:

• Working on making ESS+ as fast as ESS for refresh on launch.
• Launching new features on FileMaker Pro and Claris Pro as they continue in parallel.
• Existing plugins & SDKs will work with Claris Pro just like FileMaker Pro.
• FileMaker Pro 18 & 19 will not connect to Claris Server 20, since the latter uses SSO with AWS Cognito for user authentication and not FileMaker’s native.
• Nested layouts for FileMaker Pro are still a work in progress.
• Claris document signing features are on the backlog.
• No current plans to bring MongoDB on-premise with Claris Pro.

dotfmp.berlin Conference Wrap-up

dotfmp.berlin was a valuable opportunity to connect with developers and expand the scope of what our FileMaker development teams can do. We're excited to learn about new developments with Claris as they continue to release information about the future of their platforms. Great events like these are happening all around the FileMaker community and we look forward to attending many more.

Thanks to Christos, and everyone at dotfmp.berlin for a fantastic and insightful conference!

In February, four Beez traveled to New York for PauseOnError, the annual winter gathering of FileMaker developers. PauseOnError runs as an “Unconference”; attendees organize the entire agenda, and work together to support presentations and ad-hoc discussions. This makes for a highly-relevant and participatory experience.

In the third year of PauseOnError, we saw the deepest range of discussion topics related to FileMaker development and consulting: agile, data modeling, testing, FileMaker Go, User Experience, recruiting, business marketing, the FOCUS framework, Web and SQL integration, and more.

 

Fortunately, there were plenty of the best, brightest and most generous FileMaker experts in attendance. Participants shared their time and tips, not only with other attendees, but also with the world — via Twitter, reports to FM User Groups, blog posts, the conference Wiki and other channels.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=104087

PauseOnError has turned into a much needed late-winter opportunity to connect with our peers in the FileMaker developer community. Our biggest industry conference, FileMaker DevCon, is always in late summer. Yet, as fast as technology moves, a year between major meetings with the FileMaker world would otherwise be an eternity without PauseOnError.

This year’s PauseOnError event even “sold out” — or rather, “ran out of space” since it’s a free event. That kind of crowd is a healthy sign for the FileMaker community. The biggest challenge might be accommodating the growth of interest in such a gathering.

Finally, even though PauseOnError is attendee-driven, there is a steering committee that worked hard to bring everyone together. Here’s a big “Thank You” to Molly Connolly, Ernest Koe, Andy Gaunt and John Sindelar. Can’t wait until next year’s event!

The Beezwax Team will be in Las Vegas July 20-23, 2015 for the FileMaker Developers Conference, which is celebrating its 20th Anniversary. While we still hotly debate when best to double down at blackjack, and can only hope an Elvis impersonator will insist we stay off his blue suede shoes, there is one sure bet about DevCon: It’s the place to collect a jackpot of information by attending some of the more than 70 sessions and unsessions covering the latest trends in FileMaker development.

We checked to see if you could convert this knowledge currency into poker chips, or FileMaker Certifications into tickets to the hottest shows on The Strip. Sorry, folks…no dice! Still, we hope you’ll join us and 1,200 other developers from around the world for what will be a fun, informative experience, as it is every year.

 

While many Beezwax team members will move about the conference sharing their tips and techniques for building best-of-breed custom FileMaker solutions, our Director of FileMaker Development Vincenzo Menanno and Senior Application Developer Brian Schick will lead conference sessions that dig deeper into technical topics:

Wednesday, July 22:

1:00 pm: Beyond Advanced: FileMaker Platform Analysis, Performance, and Visualizations 

Vincenzo Menanno will demonstrate InspectorPro as the perfect companion tool for FileMaker Pro Advanced, helping you detect problems, deal with references and dependencies, and optimize performance. He’ll show how to extend FileMaker’s Database Design Report (DDR) to provide more comprehensive analysis of schema, scripts and design elements in any FileMaker solution.

3:45 pm: Stored vs. Unstored Values When Designing a Solution

Vincenzo Menanno will look at what to pay attention to with stored values vs. unstored values when designing a solution. Best practices are not always obvious in this context, but being deliberate and focused can yield amazing results. He’ll also cover building and delivering asynchronous, cached reports and much more.

Thursday, July 23:

9:00 am: There’s an App … In Your Database! 

Brian Schick will explore how creating an “app” can take a different approach from building conventional data-centric solutions. Which features should we emphasize, and leave out, as we develop apps that are even more tied into the software we use for work? He’ll cover core techniques, use case examples, best practices, and plenty of open questions in this engaging session.

10:45 am: Localization – ABC

Vincenzo Menanno will discuss what goes into localizing a solution for multiple languages, including the benefits and drawbacks, calculations and scripting using example files, and working with vendors and partners on localization projects.

But that’s not all! The Beez will also be around to talk about all things cool and creative on the technical and business fronts, and we plan to once again host several conference “unsessions” on a range of topics. We look forward to sharing what we know and learning a few new tips and tricks to bring home. Because, after all, what happens at FileMaker DevCon can’t stay at FileMaker DevCon (although you can also follow what happens on Twitter via #FileMakerDevCon…).

Look for the Beezwax Team in sessions and in the exhibitor hall, where we’ll be busy buying free drinks during social hour, as well as showing off the latest version of InspectorPro.

See you in Vegas!

Christos Savva, Fabio Bosisio and Vince Menanno from Beezwax present at dotfmp Berlin, 2023.

This week we’re in Berlin… one of the stops on the Road to Claris Engage 2024 …gathering with the developer community, and highlighting innovation for the Claris FileMaker platform development. As conference speakers at dotfmp Berlin (June 1-3), Christos Savva, Fabio Bosisio and Vince Menanno from Beezwax present three sessions:

• Enhancing FileMaker with Python
• What do you do with all this historical data in your app? [AWS Athena Interactive SQL / Serverless / S3 with FileMaker]
• Elements for Building Great Solutions [FileMaker UX & DX]

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Enhancing FileMaker Development with Python

Speaker: Christos Savva, Senior Developer, Beezwax
Date: June 1, 2023
Time: 15:30 – 16:30, CEST

Summary: In this session, Christos Savva explores the benefits of integrating Python with Claris FileMaker. Python can enhance development by enabling data and visual analytics, fast data processing, Excel exports, AI/ML integration, and more.

Discover various integration methods for FileMaker, such as web viewers and serverless options.

What do you do with all this historical data in your app?

[AWS Athena Interactive SQL / Serverless Query and S3 with FileMaker]
Speaker: Fabio Bosisio, Senior Developer, Beezwax
Date: June 2, 2023
Time: 14:00 – 14:30, CEST

Summary:

In this presentation, Fabio Bosisio presents a technique to handle historical data in a Claris FileMaker solution, utilizing a combination of AWS services and the Serverless framework. Use cases include archiving, data mining, and reporting.

The objective of this technique is to achieve optimal performance when archiving historical data on AWS S3, then leveraging a Serverless Query service (Amazon Athena's “Interactive SQL”) to execute queries via a FileMaker app.

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Elements For Building Great Solutions

[FileMaker UX & DX]
Speaker: Vince Menanno, Chief Innovation Officer, Beezwax
Date: June 2, 2023
Time: 14:30 – 15:30, CEST

Summary:

Vince Menanno leads an exploration and discussion into three things that every developer should be paying attention to:

• User Experience
• Developer Experience
• Innovation

He’ll start with some inspirations and resources for building a great User Experience (UX), then focus on ways we can improve Developer Experience (DX), asking questions like:

• Which tools and techniques can we currently use better?
• What are areas that would benefit from improvements — from Claris and other platform builders, from the Community, and from ourselves?

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Need Help?

Beezwax is a Claris® Platinum Partner and Tableau® Services Partner.

Please get in touch with us if you're interested in Beezwax's help with your FileMaker, Tableau, Web development or related design and integration projects.

Alec Gregory from Beezwax presents at DIGFM & Bay Area FileMaker Developer Meetup.

Let’s talk about building web UIs and JavaScript functions using Claris FileMaker.

Web UI and JavaScript with Claris® FileMaker®

Event link: https://www.meetup.com/bay-area-filemaker-developer-group/events/291456156/
Speaker: Alec Gregory, Senior Engineering Manager, Beezwax Datatools
Date: Thursday, February 9, 2023
Time: 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. PT
[**ADDED 2/15/23***] Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8ifQf59M1I

Summary: The Claris FileMaker platform can leverage modern web technologies to integrate new UI elements and JavaScript-based functionality. Several built-in and third party tools use web viewers to enable powerful, flexible web integrations. As our methods have evolved, we're able to consider using new technologies for microservices and web components in building FileMaker solutions.

bzBond, open source toolset for FileMaker web integrations

This presentation highlights bzBond, an open source toolset for web integrations. It works with the latest versions of FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Server, as well as Claris Pro and Claris Server.

bzBond features include:

• 😎 Reliably run web UIs and JavaScript libraries in web viewers with an end-to-end approach
• ⏩ Speed up FileMaker scripts with JavaScript functions
• 💾 Store and deploy web code
• 🎉 Keep the JavaScript party going server-side with an extensible microservice

This presentation will cover how, when and why to use bzBond, with development examples and pointers to more resources. It will also mention other tools and libraries building on Claris Platform web viewer technology. Q&A and general discussion around FileMaker web integrations will be encouraged.

[NOTE – FEB 15, 2023]: A recording of this presentation, WebUI and JavaScript for Claris FileMaker, featuring bzBond is now available [DIGFM YouTube Channel].

About The Speaker

Alec Gregory is a Senior Engineering Manager at Beezwax, managing interdisciplinary development teams and architecting new tools to support successful project delivery. He has been a Claris FileMaker developer for 15 years and has a solid record of integrating FileMaker systems with other platforms, data formats and technologies. He has a particular interest in core web technologies, building an understanding of front-end web development which effectively complements and extends his FileMaker work.

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Need Help?

Beezwax is a Claris® Platinum Partner as a Claris/FileMaker Consultant, Reseller and Trainer, as well as a Tableau® Services Partner.

Please get in touch with us if you're interested in Beezwax's help with your FileMaker, Tableau, Web development or related design and integration projects.

I collected some thoughts and observations from EngageU 2023, the European Claris / FileMaker Developer Conference held Nov 12-14 in Antwerp. Beezwax was proud to be a sponsor. There were plenty of technical discussions, a few described here, and even moreso, plenty of things that should make us all inspired heading toward 2024. If last year’s conference were the “Biggest Claris FileMaker Conference of 2022“, this year’s EngageU was the Most Inspiring, as well as the Biggest of 2023.

“Greetings from Antwerp!” (Let’s pretend the postcard I sent last week has just arrived!)
And..actually, I’m now back home, which for me is slightly sunnier climes, but I’m still reminiscing about EngageU 2023. We all enjoyed the chilled Belgian weather last week. It was perfect for eating frites with sauce, sipping red ale and gathering together with more than 200 of our peers in the Claris FileMaker developer community.

First off it was great seeing some old friends and making some new ones. I put together this collage of sorts…

Claris, an Apple company

Claris, an Apple company, was very well-represented at EngageU, both as a chief sponsor and with several product managers and engineering folks in attendance. Claris is truly a global company, and their participation in privately-organized events underscores their stated commitment to their Partner, customer and developer ecosystem.

I want to give a big Congratulations to Marie Normand at Claris, who recently became their Global Partner Manager. Marie made plenty of time to talk with me, as well as with many other Claris Partners attending EngageU. She shared how she is very excited to take on her new role and challenge. In Partner keynotes and technical presentations from Marie and Douglas Wallis, they both made it clear Claris is focused on growth heading into 2024.

Clay Maeckel, a long-time architect of the Claris FileMaker platform, made the trip to EngageU. Clay is continually surrounded by developers, discussing new ideas and sometimes how to resolve or improve upon existing issues. On the first night where we were at the brewery tour Clay was in a deep technical discussion with several developers. Along came some people to greet Clay: “Hi, we are relatively new to FileMaker and just wanted to say hello and…Thank You”. Clay switched from a deep technical discussion to welcoming them with a smile, a greeting and a wish to get their feedback. Clay was very generous with his time talking with so many developers, and a few customers, and listening to everyone’s ideas.

EngageU Sessions

There were many great talks and the organizers of the conference had three rooms filled with parallel conference sessions. Scattered amongst the session topics were also some vendor sessions, except for when it was time for the Claris Technical Session and the closing session. To find out all of the topics and sessions that were covered, you can find them here.

https://engageu.eu/agenda/

The majority of the sessions were technical with a few non-technical sessions. All the sessions were recorded and should be made public soon so you can tune in and watch them.

A lot is going on with the Claris Platform. Since Claris has moved to an “Agile” engineering and product management approach, focused on continual improvement and innovation, I feel like the community still has a plenty to chew on with every product release. Even though some releases are not major versions in number, they include some pretty major features. Don't let the version number fool you into believing a new release is not significant.

In the room where AI discussion happens

It is almost impossible to go to a conference these days and not discuss the elephant in the room: AI. With bigger and bigger AI waves that continue to land on our developer beaches, there will only be larger and larger impact in a lot of different domains. The software domain, in Claris / FileMaker development, is one where we are already seeing significant impacts.

Claris mentioned and showed some work in progress on integration with LLMs. As a developer and business community, I would suggest that we can’t wait to learn more how to harness Generative AI and AI in general. Two sessions at EngageU focused on AI: 1) Leveraging Language Models for Automated… by Nicolas Franco Cerame and 2) Let’s chat! by Joris Aarts.

Technical learning, past and future

HOnza from 24U gave a talk titled "24U’s Greatest Mistakes and Recent Successes.” Rather than mistakes, maybe a better way to look at it would be lessons learned. It's a great talk so if you get a chance, I’d recommend watching it.

We love the promise of OData for the FileMaker platform, and John Renfrew has been another Claris developer community leader on this subject. He shared his journey in a talk called "OData and the Data Bridge Model…" He mentioned that he will also be giving this talk at Claris Engage 2024 in Austin. Definitely worth checking out.

Note: We’ll try to update this posts if/when session videos from EngageU are published.

I was inspired to present at EngageU….

"Elements for Building Great Solutions"

I presented again this year at EngageU. Rather than focus on a technical session, I wanted to deliver more of an inspirational session, which I titled "Elements For Building Great Solutions".

Thank you to the number of people came up to me afterwards to say it was a great talk particularly because they were in need of inspiration. If you watch it and have comments about it, I would love to hear from you.

Previewing InspectorPro 8

At Claris EngageU was also the first time we publicly previewed InspectorPro 8. People who attended were thrilled about it and signed up to be notified when a beta version becomes available for testing out. If you have tried or seen InspectorPro 7 it has a brand new foundation and takes a different approach. If you want to sign up for news about the InspectorPro 8 beta, we'll notify you as soon as it is ready.

Community, looking forward to Claris Engage 2024

There was a EngageU Slack channel so attendees could chat and post about various topics, which was great to have. Overall it was wonderful to meet in person and spend a few days together in Antwerp. The venue was excellent, and only felt crowded in the hallways during the breaks. Food was great and there were many excellent restaurants nearby.

I talked with a number of our peers during and after the event and they all really enjoyed the conference. Antwerp is a great location and the facility was fantastic. Perhaps the lighting could have been improved by putting the lights on the presenter, not the screen. Regardless, altogether every year of EngageU is inspiring and I left Antwerp with great optimism. An excellent time was had by many, and it was a great way to wrap up the year and head into what is going to look like a very, very busy 2024 ahead for the Claris / FileMaker Community.

Onwards to Claris Engage in Austin… I hope to see you there, and stop by our booth to find out what is new with InspectorPro 8.

Fabio Bosisio and Vince Menanno from Beezwax present at dotfmp Berlin, 2024.

If it's June, we must be in Berlin for dotFMP ...gathering with the developer community, and celebrating the launch of Claris FileMaker 2024, especially AI with FileMaker functionality.

As conference presenters, Fabio Bosisio and Vince Menanno from Beezwax will lead two sessions:

• Chatbot in FileMaker 2024 {From Amazon Lex to the new GenAI}
• 'Til Technical Debt Do Us Part

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Chatbot in FileMaker 2024

{From Amazon Lex to the new GenAI}

Speaker: Fabio Bosisio, Senior Developer, Beezwax
Date: June 7, 2024
Time: 16:00 - 17:00, CEST

Summary:

In this presentation, we will explore how to create advanced chatbots that can interact smartly with FileMaker's Data API, enhancing efficiency and the quality of user-system interactions.

We'll begin with a legacy chatbot created using Amazon Lex and compare it to a modern solution that leverages the advanced capabilities of GenAI.

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'Til Technical Debt Do Us Part

Speaker: Vince Menanno, Chief Innovation Officer, Beezwax
Date: June 7, 2024
Time: 14:00 - 15:00, CEST

Summary:

FileMaker enables rapid development and modifications, a quality that serves as both a blessing and a potential pitfall. In the early stages of a project, this ability to progress swiftly is invaluable. However, as solutions mature and persist over the years, the need for diligent maintenance and adaptation to evolving business workflows becomes critical. Without this, solutions can accumulate technical debt, becoming cumbersome and less adaptable to new requirements.

Managing code effectively involves continuous evaluation and simplification, ensuring it can rapidly adapt to changing business needs. Explore how leveraging new features in FileMaker can simplify the codebase, reduce technical debt, and preserve the original investment in the solution.

Join Vince to understand the concept of technical debt, its impact on your projects, and strategies to mitigate its effects. Discover how maintaining a low technical debt enhances your team's agility and helps adapt quickly to business changes, and safeguarding your investments in FileMaker solutions.

Optional Listening:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXyNZYDO07Q&t=1196s
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2RdwmPqBvQ&t=2488s
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRwa02Vac1U&t=106s

---

Need Help?

Beezwax is a Claris® Platinum Partner, AWS Partner and Tableau® Services Partner.

Please get in touch with us if you’re interested in Beezwax’s help with your FileMaker, Tableau, Web development and related design, machine learning or integration projects.

Beezwax’s Vincenzo (Vince) Menanno is presenting to audiences of FileMaker developers at meetups and conferences, on the topic of “InspectorPro 8 for FileMaker: Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate”.

At the March FM BUG (FileMaker — Brighton UK User Group) meeting, Vince shares the latest research, development best practices, and product offerings. Vince has a number of surprises up his sleeves that he can't wait to show. If you’re a FileMaker Developer attending, we hope to see you there!

InspectorPro for FileMaker – Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate

Event: FM-BUG (FileMaker – Brighton UK User Group)
Speaker: Vincenzo (Vince) Menanno, Chief Innovation Officer, Beezwax
Date: Monday, March 4th, 2024
Time: 6:30pm, GMT [10:30am PST]

Summary: For years, developers have leaned on the Database Design Report (DDR) to collect, analyze, and report metadata from FileMaker solutions. Now, InspectorPro 8 brings a new approach to this process via "Save a Copy as XML". InspectorPro has the ability to accelerate analysis, with seamless API integration for automated processing at specified intervals, allowing teams to maintain focus on their tasks. Staying in the zone is the focus, while the tool discreetly runs in the background, minimizing disruption, and includes attribution, notes, and Slack integration for FileMaker development team collaboration.

Presentation: InspectorPro for FileMaker – Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate

InspectorPro’s mission is to stand as the most comprehensive tool available for debugging and troubleshooting your FileMaker solutions.

Farewell DDR — hello Save a Copy as XML!

For years, developers have leaned on the Database Design Report (DDR) to collect, analyze, and report metadata from FileMaker solutions. InspectorPro has always been built using the latest version of FileMaker itself, and takes advantage of new features in our favorite custom app development platform.

InspectorPro 8 marks a significant shift as it now utilizes the Save a Copy as XML format for a multitude of compelling reasons:

A) We now have a new script step "Save a Copy as XML", which means that we can automate the generation of the XML.
B) It is server-friendly, allowing automatic generation and using it in a script schedule.
C) The structure includes top-level catalog information.
D) It introduces new areas not present in the DDR.
E) This lays the foundation for future capabilities and innovations.

Investigate = Developer Insight

Why use a tool like InspectorPro for FileMaker development? To gain insight from answers to questions like:

• How can I clean up an inherited FileMaker solution, or my older databases
• What are best practices for inspecting references and dependencies?
• How can I look for problems across…
  …scripts?
  …calcs?
  …layouts?
  …security?
  …schema?
  …and more!

Whether you have a solution you've been building for years, or are just getting started, there are plenty of important details that analyzing your FileMaker solution can provide insight into.

HOW much faster?!

Performance is a key highlight of InspectorPro 8. An initial analysis baseline is impressively 3x to 5x faster than InspectorPro 7. But where the new architecture truly excels is during incremental analysis, boasting speeds ranging from 10x to an astounding 100x faster.

Discover the seamless and automated ways to trigger the analysis process, whether scheduled or scripted, enabling you and your team to focus on development without missing a beat.

Collaboration, more and more…

Development projects involve more than just the solo “citizen developer”. These days you may have multiple developers building different parts, modules or versions of a solution, and other stakeholders who want visibility into work being done.

How do you improve collaboration between more contributors whose hands are touching code, as well as those observing from not too far off? Let’s look at InspectorPro as a solution running on FileMaker Server, and feature like attribution, notes, and Slack integration to improve team collaboration.

Key Takeaways:

• Stay in the development zone with minimal interruption.
• Identify and locate problems quickly and easily.
• Track changes, including when and by whom they were made.
• Integrate InspectorPro into your files or solutions effortlessly.
• Gain detailed version history with attribution for any item.
• Keep your team informed through Slack integration on analysis runs.

Explore the history of InspectorPro and understand the groundbreaking foundation it sets. Delve into the engineering journey that led to this point and, more crucially, learn how this tool can elevate your day-to-day workflow as a FileMaker Developer.

I am thrilled to unveil the exciting features of this new product and demonstrate how it can empower you and your team to build exceptional solutions. Join me in exploring how InspectorPro can become an indispensable tool for your team’s development workflow.

– Vince Menanno

About The Presenter: Vincenzo (Vince) Menanno

With 30 years of full-time experience as a master consultant, as well as a dedicated developer of FileMaker-related products, Vince Menanno has been a featured speaker at many industry events including Claris Engage, FileMaker DevCon, FM Conférence, CQDF, dotFMP, EngageU and dozens of FileMaker Developer meetups.

As a community leader, Vince prioritizes innovation and knowledge-sharing through research, mentoring and presentations. He’s received the Claris Excellence Award for Lifetime Achievement, and helped Beezwax earn a Claris Excellence Award for Advocacy.

In addition to his work as Chief Innovation Officer at Beezwax, Vince is the author of InspectorPro, a leading FileMaker development tool that provides in-depth FileMaker solution analysis.

Born to an Italian family and having grown up in Montreal, Vince now splits time between the Oakland hills and Florida shores, along with his wife, son and daughter. His ongoing passions include innovation, architecture, data visualization, sharp knives and vehicles in space.

---

Presentations at FileMaker Conferences & Meetups

Here’s a schedule of events and dates for Vince Menanno sharing “InspectorPro 8 for FileMaker: Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate” — and a Big Thanks to Meetup organizers for your help in hosting Vince’s presentations.

EVENTS

• Nov. 12th-14th, 2023 – EngageU (Antwerp)
• Dec. 14, 2023 – FileMaker Show & Tell (hosted by Square Moon)
• Feb 7th-8th, 2024 – Claris Engage (Austin / Beezwax booth)
• February 12th, 2024, Houston FMDUT
• Monday, March 4th, 2024, FM-BUG [UK] (online)
• Wednesday, March 6, 2024, FMburgh (Pittsburgh, PA and online)
• Thursday, March 7th, 2024, CPUG-MN (online)
• Friday, March 8th, 2024, FM-DiSC (online)
• Monday, March 11th, 2024, FM for Research User Group (online)
• Monday, March 11th, 2024, Claris Developers Bridge Network (Oregon City)
• Thursday, March 14th, 2024, DIGFM / Bay Area FileMaker Dev group (online)
• Wednesday, March 13th, 2024, WITfm (online)
• Tuesday, March 19th, 2024, Ann Arbor FileMaker (online)
• Tuesday, March 19th, 2024, Milwaukee Area FileMaker Devs (online)
• Wednesday, March 20th, 2024, Claris Beyond (online)
• Tuesday, March 26th, 2024, Kentuckiana FileMaker
• le jeudi 28 mars 2024, Adeptes francophones de Claris
• June 6-8, 2024, dotFMP (Berlin)
• les 18-19 juin 2024, CQDF (Montréal)

Beezwax's Vincenzo (Vince) Menanno is presenting to audiences of FileMaker developers at meetups and conferences, on the topic of 'InspectorPro 8 for FileMaker: Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate'.

At the March Meetup for FM-DiSC (FileMaker Developers in Southern California), Vince shares the latest research, development best practices, and product offerings. Vince has a number of surprises up his sleeves that he can’t wait to show. If you're a FileMaker Developer attending, we hope to see you there!

InspectorPro for FileMaker - Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate

Event: FM-DiSC (FileMaker Developers in Southern California | online)
Speaker: Vincenzo (Vince) Menanno, Chief Innovation Officer, Beezwax
Date: Friday, March 8th, 2024
Time: 9:30am, PST

Summary: For years, developers have leaned on the Database Design Report (DDR) to collect, analyze, and report metadata from FileMaker solutions. Now, InspectorPro 8 brings a new approach to this process via “Save a Copy as XML”. InspectorPro has the ability to accelerate analysis, with seamless API integration for automated processing at specified intervals, allowing teams to maintain focus on their tasks. Staying in the zone is the focus, while the tool discreetly runs in the background, minimizing disruption, and includes attribution, notes, and Slack integration for FileMaker development team collaboration.

Presentation: InspectorPro for FileMaker - Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate

InspectorPro's mission is to stand as the most comprehensive tool available for debugging and troubleshooting your FileMaker solutions.

Farewell DDR — hello Save a Copy as XML!

For years, developers have leaned on the Database Design Report (DDR) to collect, analyze, and report metadata from FileMaker solutions. InspectorPro has always been built using the latest version of FileMaker itself, and takes advantage of new features in our favorite custom app development platform.

InspectorPro 8 marks a significant shift as it now utilizes the Save a Copy as XML format for a multitude of compelling reasons:

A) We now have a new script step “Save a Copy as XML”, which means that we can automate the generation of the XML.
B) It is server-friendly, allowing automatic generation and using it in a script schedule.
C) The structure includes top-level catalog information.
D) It introduces new areas not present in the DDR.
E) This lays the foundation for future capabilities and innovations.

Investigate = Developer Insight

Why use a tool like InspectorPro for FileMaker development? To gain insight from answers to questions like:

• How can I clean up an inherited FileMaker solution, or my older databases
• What are best practices for inspecting references and dependencies?
• How can I look for problems across...
  ...scripts?
  ...calcs?
  …layouts?
  …security?
  …schema?
  …and more!

Whether you have a solution you’ve been building for years, or are just getting started, there are plenty of important details that analyzing your FileMaker solution can provide insight into.

HOW much faster?!

Performance is a key highlight of InspectorPro 8. An initial analysis baseline is impressively 3x to 5x faster than InspectorPro 7. But where the new architecture truly excels is during incremental analysis, boasting speeds ranging from 10x to an astounding 100x faster.

Discover the seamless and automated ways to trigger the analysis process, whether scheduled or scripted, enabling you and your team to focus on development without missing a beat.

Collaboration, more and more...

Development projects involve more than just the solo 'citizen developer'. These days you may have multiple developers building different parts, modules or versions of a solution, and other stakeholders who want visibility into work being done.

How do you improve collaboration between more contributors whose hands are touching code, as well as those observing from not too far off? Let's look at InspectorPro as a solution running on FileMaker Server, and feature like attribution, notes, and Slack integration to improve team collaboration.

Key Takeaways:

• Stay in the development zone with minimal interruption.
• Identify and locate problems quickly and easily.
• Track changes, including when and by whom they were made.
• Integrate InspectorPro into your files or solutions effortlessly.
• Gain detailed version history with attribution for any item.
• Keep your team informed through Slack integration on analysis runs.

Explore the history of InspectorPro and understand the groundbreaking foundation it sets. Delve into the engineering journey that led to this point and, more crucially, learn how this tool can elevate your day-to-day workflow as a FileMaker Developer.

I am thrilled to unveil the exciting features of this new product and demonstrate how it can empower you and your team to build exceptional solutions. Join me in exploring how InspectorPro can become an indispensable tool for your team's development workflow.

- Vince Menanno

About The Presenter: Vincenzo (Vince) Menanno

With 30 years of full-time experience as a master consultant, as well as a dedicated developer of FileMaker-related products, Vince Menanno has been a featured speaker at many industry events including Claris Engage, FileMaker DevCon, FM Conférence, CQDF, dotFMP, EngageU and dozens of FileMaker Developer meetups.

As a community leader, Vince prioritizes innovation and knowledge-sharing through research, mentoring and presentations. He's received the Claris Excellence Award for Lifetime Achievement, and helped Beezwax earn a Claris Excellence Award for Advocacy.

In addition to his work as Chief Innovation Officer at Beezwax, Vince is the author of InspectorPro, a leading FileMaker development tool that provides in-depth FileMaker solution analysis.

Born to an Italian family and having grown up in Montreal, Vince now splits time between the Oakland hills and Florida shores, along with his wife, son and daughter. His ongoing passions include innovation, architecture, data visualization, sharp knives and vehicles in space.

---

Presentations at FileMaker Conferences & Meetups

Here's a schedule of events and dates for Vince Menanno sharing 'InspectorPro 8 for FileMaker: Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate' -- and a Big Thanks to Meetup organizers for your help in hosting Vince's presentations.

EVENTS

• Nov. 12th-14th, 2023 – EngageU (Antwerp)
• Dec. 14, 2023 – FileMaker Show & Tell (hosted by Square Moon)
• Feb 7th-8th, 2024 – Claris Engage (Austin / Beezwax booth)
• February 12th, 2024, Houston FMDUT (online)
• Monday, March 4th, 2024, FM-BUG (UK / online)
• Wednesday, March 6, 2024, FMburgh (Pittsburgh, PA and online)
• Thursday, March 7th, 2024, CPUG-MN (online)
• Friday, March 8th, 2024, FM-DiSC (online)
• Monday, March 11th, 2024, FM for Research User Group (online)
• Monday, March 11th, 2024, Claris Developers Bridge Network (Oregon City)
• Wednesday, March 13th, 2024, WITfm (online)
• Thursday, March 14th, 2024, DIGFM / Bay Area FileMaker Dev Group (online)
• Tuesday, March 19th, 2024, Ann Arbor FileMaker (online)
• Tuesday, March 19th, 2024, Milwaukee Area FileMaker Devs (online)
• Wednesday, March 20th, 2024, Claris Beyond (online)
• Tuesday, March 26th, 2024, Kentuckiana FileMaker
• le jeudi 28 mars 2024, Adeptes francophones de Claris
• June 6-8, 2024, dotFMP (Berlin)
• les 18-19 juin 2024, CQDF (Montréal)

Fabio Bosisio from Beezwax demonstrates handling historical data in a Claris® FileMaker® solution, utilizing a combination of AWS services including AWS Serverless, AWS S3, and Amazon Athena’s Interactive SQL. Use cases include archiving, data mining, and reporting.

Handling Historical FileMaker Data – A Hybrid Approach

[AWS Athena Interactive SQL / Serverless Query and S3 with FileMaker]
Speaker: Fabio Bosisio, Senior Developer, Beezwax
Date: July 14, 2023
Time: During July 2023 FM-DiSC Meeting (9:30am – 1:00pm, PDT)

Summary:

Businesses are collecting data at unprecedented, historic levels*.

At the July 2023 meeting for FM-DiSC (FileMaker Developers in Southern California), Fabio Bosisio from Beezwax demonstrates a clever approach to handle historical data in a FileMaker solution, utilizing a combination of AWS services and AWS Serverless framework. Use cases include archiving, data mining, and reporting.

Learn how to achieve optimal performance when archiving historical data on AWS S3, and how to leverage Amazon Athena's Interactive SQL to execute queries via a FileMaker Pro app.

* For example, what will you do with all of that FileMaker 2023 audit log data?

---

If Beezwax sounds like the perfect place for you but our open jobs don't fit your skills, tell us about yourself and what you do best!

The 8th FileMaker Konferenz is happening October 12 - 14, 2017 at the Crowne Plaza Pitter Event Center in Salzburg, Austria. At the konferenz Vincenzo Menanno, director of FileMaker Development for Beezwax presents two sessions on advanced FileMaker development:

FileMaker and Tableau

Saturday, October 14, 2017 With the introduction of FileMaker 16 and the Data API, we now have a direct, native way to integrate Tableau, an enterprise level business intelligence application. Once you set up the Web Data Connector from Tableau to FileMaker Server, a range of possibilities opens up — publish from FileMaker and allow Tableau to pull data into visualizations and dashboards. You can even make this interactive, via Tableau Actions and FileMaker 16. We’ll cover the steps it takes to set up this type of connection, and how to build and publish your dashboards. And we’ll take a look at what gives FileMaker an exclusive advantage when it comes to embedded dashboards. Finally, we'll look at how adding Tableau Actions can enable self-service interactivity with FileMaker data, revealing underlying data trends.

FileMaker Collaboration, Performance & Insight with InspectorPro

Saturday, October 14, 2017 If you have a solution you've been building for years, or are just getting started, this session will show you how InspectorPro can help keep your FileMaker solutions problem-free. InspectorPro collects, analyzes and reports on data from the FileMaker DDR (Database Design Report), including new data visualizations which give you advanced insight into your FileMaker solutions. The latest version of InspectorPro also offers new ways of collaborating with other members of your project team, via FileMaker Server and third-party integrations. Whether you develop alone, or as part of a team, InspectorPro lets you analyze your solutions blazing-fast using PDoS (Process DDR on Server). InspectorPro's mission is to be the most comprehensive tool that exists to debug and troubleshoot your FileMaker apps. Come and get a peak at what we have been working on in the InspectorPro laboratory, and how it can help you and your team build some of the best-in-class FileMaker solutions.

It's FileMaker Developer Conference time, with 8 Beez in San Antonio for DevCon. We're studying new development techniques from FileMaker Inc. and our industry peers, sharing a few methods of our own and even riding a few mechanical bulls at a real live cattle ranch!

Several members of Beezwax’s development team are featured presenters at FileMaker DevCon 2014, in the following sessions:

 

• FileMaker Platform Performance Panel — Vince Menanno with industry experts and members of the FileMaker engineering team.
• Location in Depth — Jeremy Bante
• Engaging Design, Snappy UX and Creative User Interaction — Vince Menanno
• Security Fundamentals — Alexei Folger
• InspectorPro, A Behind The Scenes Look — Vince Menanno and Beezwax product team.

Also, this year several Beez are hosting and facilitating sessions as “Unconference Workshops”, which is FileMaker's official DevCon program that enables presentations and group discussions to be organized by conference attendees:

• Git: Version Control for FileMaker Developers — co-hosted by Brian Schick of Beezwax and Darren Burgess of Mighty Data
• #Agile: An Open Discussion — facilitated by Jay Gonzales and Ryan Simms
• Idiomatic FileMaker — co-hosted by Perren Smith of Beezwax and Chris Irvine of ScaleFM

hello InspectorPro. hello Universe.

In our exhibitor booth at FileMaker DevCon, we’re highlighting a universe of new tools, technologies, and techniques that professional developers can use in building FileMaker solutions. There's a “technology preview” of InspectorPro 5, our developer tool for analyzing FileMaker 13 databases.

InspectorPro’s unique data visualizations (built using using JavaScript, d3.js with FileMaker) enable developers to discover more about their FileMaker solutions, via the software’s Script Tree, Field Index scatterplot, and Script Universe visualizations.

We’ll have more news from DevCon soon. Stay tuned, and follow #FileMakerDevCon on Twitter.

Vincenzo Menanno and Fabio Bosisio from Beezwax present at Rome FileMaker Week.

This week we’re in Italy… formazione, condivisione e ancora divertimento [training, sharing and more fun] …with the focus on innovations in Claris® FileMaker platform development. As realtori [conference speakers] at Rome FileMaker Week (October 6-8), Vince Menanno and Fabio Bosisio from Beezwax present three sessions:

• Local FileMaker Development with Docker and Node-RED
• The New Horizon: Native Script Transactions in FileMaker
• Chatbot

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Sviluppare in locale con Docker e Node-RED

[Local FileMaker Development with Docker and Node-RED]
Speaker: Fabio Bosisio, Senior Developer, Beezwax
Date: October 7, 2022
Time: 10:00 – 11:00, CEST

Summary: Have you ever been traveling for work or pleasure and have to work on a new feature or fix a bug for your FileMaker application that maybe uses the Data API but you realize you don’t have a good internet connection? In this presentation you will learn how to use Docker locally, to create a client / server environment for developing your FileMaker applications, and to use Node-RED to simulate HTTP calls to the FileMaker Data API.

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Nuovo orizzonte: Script transazionali nativi in FileMaker

[The New Horizon: Native Script Transactions in FileMaker]
Speaker: Vincenzo Menanno, Chief Innovation Officer, Beezwax
Date: October 7, 2022
Time: 16:30 – 17:30, CEST

Summary: With Claris FileMaker we look forward to native script transactions. We always had the ability to roll our own transactions, and it had a unique and particular way of working with the need to use dedicated relationships. New script steps promise a whole new way of architecting solutions transactionally. This talk focuses on the reasons one would want to embrace script transactions, how they work, and a look at the performance considerations, especially for solutions over a WAN. A new chapter of FileMaker will usher in a new set of possibilities, in how solutions are architected by simplifying and reducing the code needed to implement transactions while providing possibilities to enhance performance.

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Chatbot

[Chatbot]
Speaker: Fabio Bosisio, Senior Developer, Beezwax
Date: October 8, 2022
Time: 11:30 – 12:30, CEST

Summary: In this presentation, Fabio Bosisio will show you how you can "talk" and ask your FileMaker application for information using a BOT. With this type of integration you can make requests to your database or create information using Siri Shortcuts and voice commands (even from your smart watch) or simply type your request into a messaging system such as Slack or Facebook Messenger.

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Need Help?

Beezwax is a Claris® Platinum Partner and Tableau® Services Partner.

Please get in touch with us if you're interested in Beezwax's help with your FileMaker, Tableau, Web development or related design and integration projects.

Katherine Russell and Vince Menanno from Beezwax present at Reconnect in Brisbane, Australia.

Beezwax is proud to sponsor and present at Reconnect.Brisbane, one of the biggest Claris FileMaker Developer conferences in the Asia-Pacific region this year. We're excited to gather with our peers in the Claris community, and for the chance to engage in presentations and discussions on the latest development trends, especially AI with FileMaker.

At Reconnect 2024, Katherine Russell and Vince Menanno from Beezwax will kick off developer presentations with two sessions:

• AI with FileMaker 2024: Get More Out of Your Data and Apps
• The Collaborative Journey: Evolving Through Code, Teams, and Technology

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AI with FileMaker 2024

Get More Out of Your Data and Apps

Speaker: Katherine Russell, Senior Developer, Beezwax
Date: September 5, 2024
Time: 12:00 - 12:45, AEST

Summary:

• Introduction to semantic search and its benefits in FileMaker 2024
• Overview of native AI script steps and calculations
• Practical demos of how to implement semantic search and optimise embeddings for speed and cost-effectiveness
• Real-World Applications: Adding natural language search, making PDFs searchable and getting real-time summaries of scripts

FileMaker 2024's AI and semantic search capabilities benefit users as well as developers, providing more meaningful insights into solutions. Without changing data or workflows, you can enhance search accuracy, improve search relevance and report semantic outliers for users. And as a dev, you can even get a descriptive summary of that long string of sub-scripts in that file you just inherited. This session is a zippy introduction to the new functions as well as the concepts behind them – semantics and embeddings.

About The Speaker

Katherine Russell is a Claris/FileMaker Certified Developer specialising in initial project design, complete production, and adaptation of existing systems to new business goals. She also has expertise in hardware, networking and FileMaker integration issues, while more recently exploring the emergence of AI. She is a Senior Developer at Beezwax Datatools and previously worked with NightWing Enterprises in Melbourne, as well as in her own FileMaker consultancy in the US. One of her missions is to save the world from bad robots by supporting ethical AI research and development.

Katherine has been working with FileMaker since 1993, authored the FileMaker Sync Guide and the DIY Guide “Taking Control of Your Inventory” and has presented multiple years at worldwide FileMaker Developer Conferences, including Claris developer community events in Australia.

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The Collaborative Journey

Evolving Through Code, Teams, and Technology

Speaker: Vince Menanno, Chief Innovation Officer, Beezwax
Date: September 5, 2024
Time: 11:15 - 12:00, AEST

Summary:

• Collaboration – with our work and with others
• Using AI to collaborate and enhance development
• Experiences and insights to inspire collaborative approaches

Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do, whether we're refining our own code, working within a team, or engaging with clients to solve their challenges. It starts with our relationship with our work, including managing the technical debt we accumulate over time – 'my own code from 5 years ago'. This extends to team collaborations across coding, design, quality assurance, and project management, forming the backbone of successful teamwork.

As technology evolves, AI plays an increasingly significant role in this process, enhancing how we develop code and creating tools that empower clients to collaborate more effectively.

This talk reflects on the experiences that have shaped me as a consultant and explores the future of collaboration at the intersection of code, teams, and technology. Together, we'll uncover insights that inspire and guide us toward building a more collaborative future.

About The Speaker

Vince Menanno, with over 30 years as a master consultant and developer of FileMaker products, has spoken at numerous industry events including Claris Engage and FileMaker DevCon. A community leader and Chief Innovation Officer at Beezwax, he's known for his commitment to innovation and knowledge-sharing, earning a Claris Excellence Award for Lifetime Achievement and aiding Beezwax in receiving an Claris Excellence Award for Advocacy award. Vince, is the author of InspectorPro, a leading FileMaker development tool that provides in-depth solution analysis.

Vince was born to an Italian family in Montreal and now lives in Florida with his family (wife and 2 kids). His interests include architecture, data visualization, and space technology.

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Need Help?

Beezwax is a Claris® Platinum Partner, AWS Partner and Tableau® Services Partner.

Please get in touch with us if you’re interested in Beezwax’s help with your FileMaker, Tableau, Web development and related design, machine learning or integration projects.

Pause (née “PauseOnError”) this week, highlighted by FileMaker Summer Camp in the northern Georgia hills.

Within the Claris FileMaker developer community, Pause is colloquially known as the (un)conference that was created by the community for the community.

Attending Pause is a great way to get a pulse on how the community as a whole is doing, from large firms to solo devs. Attendees typically include individuals from Claris Partners, in-house developers, independent consultants, and a few folks from Claris. True to the natural setting in which it currently resides, Pause invites organic conversations, not just during (un)sessions, but while hiking, at the campfire, over dinner, travel to/from the airport, or in between sessions. These flow into some of the most enlightening moments of the (un)conference. Connection with others offers us quite literally a way out of the forest-for-the-trees rut we sometimes find ourselves in.

Unlike structured, larger tech conferences, those who attend Pause return home with a look into the future of what may be coming on the horizon and how everyone is preparing for it. It also provides a greater perspective on their personal impact, and the impact their business can have on others. Companies like Beezwax recognize we are only as strong as the community in which we live and work.

“I have a great deal of fondness for Pause,” said Kimberly Carlson of Beezwax. She shared more about her first foray into the FileMaker community with PauseOnError, “It was 2012 in Portland, where people were hunkering down in bathtubs and taking up stairway space to hold conversations. It's evolved into a ‘pause’ from our daily existence, where we can get a bird's eye view of how the larger community is doing while re-evaluating our current practices and ideologies.”

Kimberly is facilitating a session at Pause 2023, entitled “Intuitive Consciousness”.

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Intuitive Consciousness

@ Pause, FileMaker Summer Camp 2023

Facilitated by: Kimberly Carlson, Beezwax
Date: October 4, 2023
Time: 1:45pm EST
Summary: A philosophical conversation around consciousness with a reminder to listen to our intuition and balance our heavily-coded world with our internal creativity: highlighting the benefits of doing so as a business owner/freelancer/manager as well as a developer and a human. Potential Questions: Do you know the difference between your intuition and your ego? Do you bring enough creativity into your work? Does Al have a place here?

One of the most valuable aspects of 2011's FileMaker Developers Conference in San Diego was a far-reaching discussion about the role of design in the FileMaker world. Design wasn't the official theme of this year's conference; but it was certainly among the most popular topics. A large number of sessions focused exclusively on design issues:

• Ernest Koe of The Proof Group offered two sessions on Interface Design Patterns in FileMaker (Go and Pro), providing numerous examples of innovative, inspiring real-world FileMaker interface design.
• Don Levan of Vanguard Solutions presented a detailed session evaluating form design, and a groundbreaking session, "The Fundamentals of Exceptional Interface Design", an overview of formal design-centered development methodology.
• Heather Winkle and Ryan Shelby of FileMaker Inc. led a hands-on "Guerrilla User Research Session" demonstrating real-world techniques for testing user responses to design.
• Heather and Ryan also moderated the "Panel of Design Enthusiasts", offering a lively round table discussion of design issues from the standpoint of 7 accomplished FileMaker developers.
• 11 additional sessions in the Design track explored an ambitious array of design issues across the FileMaker platform.

 

These sessions presented valuable techniques from a broad range of perspectives. Even better, by the end of DevCon the discussion coalesced into a new, inclusive view of design that opens this essential aspect of our craft to all of us, developers and users alike. Echoing the official DevCon tagline: How can we “Go Farther” with design?

FileMaker DevCon 2011 Keynote – via @FilemakerPR on Flickr

Varied Approach, Broad Agreement

At DevCon, there were clear differences in how the session speakers articulated their approach to design. Some developers focused more on "philosophical" meta questions of design's goals, purpose, and even meaning; others took a more pragmatic, business- and results-oriented path, explaining how good design is simply good business, benefiting their costs, profitability, and ensuring long-term client satisfaction.

But it was interesting to see these surface differences give way to a deeper sense of agreement. The more I listened, the clearer it became that these speakers share a deep belief that good design is central to their development practice and their business.

Design as Central

Amidst this consensus was a shared sense that design lies at the very heart of our work as developers. For example, Don Levan's session "The Fundamentals of Exceptional Interface Design" described a formal development process in which design is present from the very outset of the process — from initial client conversations and early and ongoing sketches of design possibilities shared with clients — all the way to the final delivered product. This approach was reiterated by a broad range of developers.

Design was also seen as essential to how solutions are conceived, refined, and communicated.

"Design is so closely wrapped up in every solution I build that it is not a separate conversation." — Bob Shockey

Design was again at the heart of how we create satisfying solutions our users will love to use. Even profitability was directly tied to design.

"Design is a differentiator. It shows well. It leads to user success. It attracts more business. Every company in Silicon Valley has seen a strongly positive ROI on hiring designers and improving their design." — Heather Winkle

Sunrise on San Diego Harbor – via @PDPhotocom

A Polarizing Issue?

The audacity of these developers' claims was initially surprising. Design, after all, can be a contentious subject, and has often been cast as expensive eye candy or simply unnecessary "fluff". This raised some interesting questions:

• Are these speakers elevating design-oriented developers above "serious" developers (i.e., coders)?
• Are they suggesting that every solution needs an "additional" overlay of design to make it "prettier"?
• Are they placing surface beauty ahead of "real" programmatic issues, like performance, speed, or data integrity?
• Are we expected to spend all our time worrying about pixels, colors, and fonts?

All We Are Saying…

The more I reflected on these sessions, the more confident I became that the old battle lines don't apply to this new conception of design. In some ways, this is because the industry itself has changed, and many of the old "rules" have changed with the ascendency of web and mobile technologies.

"A minimum level of design used to be enough … The overwhelming success of iOS, the growing acceptance of web standards, and the sophistication of the user base has significantly raised what is considered acceptable. Indeed, applications and websites that look amateurish or are broken are viewed with contempt and distrust." — Don Levan

On a deeper level, the old battle lines between "design" and "code" may no longer apply because these speakers are in fact suggesting something more profound than at first meets the eye. Yes, design is now brought into the heart of our process. But at the same time, design itself is fundamentally changed in the process. The "design" at the heart of this new process is not the same design we thought we knew.

<!–<!–

–>–>

Redefining Design

Listening to these speakers, I heard several good examples of what this new conception of design is not. Design is no longer:

• A solitary activity based primarily on a "designer's" individual inspirations, likes, and tastes
• A product to be "presented" to users as finished and complete at the end of a development cycle
• An optional "nicety" that can be "added onto" a project a la carte

Instead, the new definition of design points towards something much more conversational, informal, a shared process of exploration between developers and users. A new kind of process was described that is:

• Flexible and adaptable
• Inexpensive and "lo fi", with drawings providing "only as much detail as we have certainty"
• Based directly on established design patterns
• Aimed directly at well-defined user personas, scenarios, and requirements
• Encouraging refinement, changes of direction, until we arrive at exactly what meets our users' needs

"Design is the business of creating an optimal user experience within a set of constraints." — Ernest Koe

FileMaker as a Craft

It was particularly intriguing to hear FileMaker design described as a craft. This wasn't a mere figure of speech: As described by Don Levan and Ernest Koe, FileMaker design is a genuine craft. FileMaker development can — and should — be conducted through a formal methodology, using defined tools and a known, repeatable process. This vision of formalized craft offers several benefits:

• A repeatable way for a developer to design satisfying, effective solutions
• A known process that removes the mystery from the design process
• A means of recasting design from a product into a process and conversation with users
• A core discipline offering developers and users a common language and a framework for achieving success

"If a potential client doesn't want time spent on the design of the project, it's not just that we don't do the project, it's that we wouldn't know how to do the project." — Doug Gardner

We Are Designers

One final aspect I particularly liked about this vision is how it seeks to democratize design. In DevCon sessions, there were constant, explicit reminders that design is all around us — in our architecture, our food, in print, in the natural world. And, of course, design is present in the computing tools we use and build daily.

"Design is everywhere. Good, excellent, bad, horrifyingly bad. I can learn from any of these." — Bob Shockey

The most revolutionary claim of these speakers may be that, as developers, we cannot avoid this simple fact: Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are designers. Every solution we create is already a design. The question is:

Will our designs create beauty and solve our users' problems beautifully and elegantly? Or will we develop solutions based on our own long-established preferences and habits, expecting our users to just "get it"?

This vision removes the capital "D" from "Design". Design ceases to be a product, and becomes a process shared by developers and users alike. And the result of this transformation, as several DevCon speakers frequently reminded us, is empathy for our users: The pursuit of design excellence becomes a pursuit of creating solutions that fit our users' real-world needs as closely and simply as possible.

"Design is an intentional process in which you elicit, derive, decide, clarify, and plan the solution to a given problem. Sketches, prototypes, technical plans, and finished solutions are the artifacts that result from a design process." — Don LevanSan Diego Harbor – via @PDPhotocom

The Road Ahead

The conversation about design begun at this year's DevCon was exciting and full of inspiring possibilities. I left with several questions to ponder:

• How will this vision help us develop solutions that are more transparent, intuitive, and effective to our users?
• How can we merge FileMaker's strengths and the insights of the wider design and web communities?
• How will the application of these principles affect the evolution of the FileMaker product line itself?

In the weeks and months ahead, I anticipate that my fellow developers at Beezwax and the broader FileMaker community will continue to explore many of these ideas about design and ask how we can integrate them into our development process to “Go Farther” with FileMaker. What do you think?

– Brian

Special thanks to Don Levan for kindly providing detailed speaker notes from the Panel of Design Enthusiasts session.

Beezwax’s Vincenzo (Vince) Menanno is presenting to audiences of FileMaker developers at meetups and conferences, on the topic of “InspectorPro 8 for FileMaker: Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate”.

At the February 2024 Houston FMDUT (FileMaker Developer, Users, Trainers) meeting, Vince shares the latest research, development best practices, and product offerings. Vince has a number of surprises up his sleeves that he can't wait to show. If you’re a FileMaker Developer attending, we hope to see you there!

InspectorPro for FileMaker – Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate

Event: Houston FMDUT (FileMaker Developers, Users, Trainers)
Speaker: Vincenzo (Vince) Menanno, Chief Innovation Officer, Beezwax
Date: Monday, February 12th, 2024
Time: 5:00pm, CST

Summary: For years, developers have leaned on the Database Design Report (DDR) to collect, analyze, and report metadata from FileMaker solutions. Now, InspectorPro 8 brings a new approach to this process via "Save a Copy as XML". InspectorPro has the ability to accelerate analysis, with seamless API integration for automated processing at specified intervals, allowing teams to maintain focus on their tasks. Staying in the zone is the focus, while the tool discreetly runs in the background, minimizing disruption, and includes attribution, notes, and Slack integration for FileMaker development team collaboration.

Note: Claris Engage 2024 was last week, where Vince was honored with the Claris Excellence Award for Lifetime Achievement. Looking forward to discussing news and information from the conference at this Houston FMDUT meeting.

Presentation: InspectorPro for FileMaker – Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate

InspectorPro’s mission is to stand as the most comprehensive tool available for debugging and troubleshooting your FileMaker solutions.

Farewell DDR — hello Save a Copy as XML!

For years, developers have leaned on the Database Design Report (DDR) to collect, analyze, and report metadata from FileMaker solutions. InspectorPro has always been built using the latest version of FileMaker itself, and takes advantage of new features in our favorite custom app development platform.

InspectorPro 8 marks a significant shift as it now utilizes the Save a Copy as XML format for a multitude of compelling reasons:

A) We now have a new script step "Save a Copy as XML", which means that we can automate the generation of the XML.
B) It is server-friendly, allowing automatic generation and using it in a script schedule.
C) The structure includes top-level catalog information.
D) It introduces new areas not present in the DDR.
E) This lays the foundation for future capabilities and innovations.

Investigate = Developer Insight

Why use a tool like InspectorPro for FileMaker development? To gain insight from answers to questions like:

• How can I clean up an inherited FileMaker solution, or my older databases
• What are best practices for inspecting references and dependencies?
• How can I look for problems across…
  …scripts?
  …calcs?
  …layouts?
  …security?
  …schema?
  …and more!

Whether you have a solution you've been building for years, or are just getting started, there are plenty of important details that analyzing your FileMaker solution can provide insight into.

HOW much faster?!

Performance is a key highlight of InspectorPro 8. An initial analysis baseline is impressively 3x to 5x faster than InspectorPro 7. But where the new architecture truly excels is during incremental analysis, boasting speeds ranging from 10x to an astounding 100x faster.

Discover the seamless and automated ways to trigger the analysis process, whether scheduled or scripted, enabling you and your team to focus on development without missing a beat.

Collaboration, more and more…

Development projects involve more than just the solo “citizen developer”. These days you may have multiple developers building different parts, modules or versions of a solution, and other stakeholders who want visibility into work being done.

How do you improve collaboration between more contributors whose hands are touching code, as well as those observing from not too far off? Let’s look at InspectorPro as a solution running on FileMaker Server, and feature like attribution, notes, and Slack integration to improve team collaboration.

Key Takeaways:

• Stay in the development zone with minimal interruption.
• Identify and locate problems quickly and easily.
• Track changes, including when and by whom they were made.
• Integrate InspectorPro into your files or solutions effortlessly.
• Gain detailed version history with attribution for any item.
• Keep your team informed through Slack integration on analysis runs.

Explore the history of InspectorPro and understand the groundbreaking foundation it sets. Delve into the engineering journey that led to this point and, more crucially, learn how this tool can elevate your day-to-day workflow as a FileMaker Developer.

I am thrilled to unveil the exciting features of this new product and demonstrate how it can empower you and your team to build exceptional solutions. Join me in exploring how InspectorPro can become an indispensable tool for your team’s development workflow.

– Vince Menanno

About The Presenter: Vincenzo (Vince) Menanno

With 30 years of full-time experience as a master consultant, as well as a dedicated developer of FileMaker-related products, Vince Menanno has been a featured speaker at many industry events including Claris Engage, FileMaker DevCon, FM Conférence, CQDF, dotFMP, EngageU and dozens of FileMaker Developer meetups.

As a community leader, Vince prioritizes innovation and knowledge-sharing through research, mentoring and presentations. He’s received the Claris Excellence Award for Lifetime Achievement, and helped Beezwax earn a Claris Excellence Award for Advocacy.

In addition to his work as Chief Innovation Officer at Beezwax, Vince is the author of InspectorPro, a leading FileMaker development tool that provides in-depth FileMaker solution analysis.

Born to an Italian family and having grown up in Montreal, Vince now splits time between the Oakland hills and Florida shores, along with his wife, son and daughter. His ongoing passions include innovation, architecture, data visualization, sharp knives and vehicles in space.

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Presentations at FileMaker Conferences & Meetups

Here’s a schedule of events and dates for Vince Menanno sharing “InspectorPro 8 for FileMaker: Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate” — and a Big Thanks to Meetup organizers for your help in hosting Vince’s presentations.

EVENTS

• Nov. 12th-14th, 2023 – EngageU (Antwerp)
• Dec. 14, 2023 – FileMaker Show & Tell (hosted by Square Moon)
• Feb 7th-8th, 2024 – Claris Engage (Austin / Beezwax booth)
• February 12th, 2024, Houston FMDUT
• Monday, March 4th, 2024, FM-Bug (UK)
• Wednesday, March 6, 2024, FMburgh (Pittsburgh, PA and online)
• Thursday, March 7th, 2024, CPUG-MN (online)
• Friday, March 8th, 2024, FM-DiSC (online)
• Monday, March 11th, 2024, FM for Research User Group (online)
• Monday, March 11th, 2024, Claris Developers Bridge Network (Oregon City)
• Wednesday, March 13th, 2024, WITfm (online)
• Thursday, March 14th, 2024, DIGFM / Bay Area FileMaker Dev Group (online)
• Tuesday, March 19th, 2024, Ann Arbor FileMaker (online)
• Wednesday, March 20th, 2024, Claris Beyond (online)
• Tuesday, March 26th, 2024, Kentuckiana FileMaker
• le jeudi 28 mars 2024, Adeptes francophones de Claris
• June 6-8, 2024, dotFMP (Berlin)
• les 18-19 juin 2024, CQDF (Montréal)

The Beezwax Team is in Dallas, Texas on August 6-9, 2018 for the FileMaker Developers Conference. DevCon is always a perfect time to wrangle the best FileMaker insights, training, and connections across the global FileMaker developer community in attendance.

While Beezwax team members will move about the conference discussing tips and techniques for building best-of-breed custom FileMaker solutions, we will also lead conference presentations that dig deeper into technical and business topics:

Wednesday, August 8:

9:00 am: Tableau + FileMaker, a Match Made in Data Heaven!

Tableau allows you to build world-class data visualizations from your FileMaker data, but that's just the start.

Vincenzo Menanno will cover:

• Connecting to Tableau’s Web Data Connector with FileMaker's Data API
• Embedding dashboards into your custom FileMaker apps
• Using Tableau Actions to enable interactivity with FileMaker clients

Thursday, August 9:

2:30 pm: Risk and Financial Management for Developers

Christos Savva will cover how to understand and apply risk management principles to managing financial data, including some examples of handling this in a custom FileMaker solution. He’ll discuss processes for finance decision making, and even provide a quick educational overview on key accounting principles, cost estimations, cash flow, billing methods, KPIs, contracts and how to learn more.

Monday – Thursday

@ our Exhibitor booth InspectorPro: FileMaker Platform Analysis, Performance, and Visualizations

Vincenzo Menanno will demonstrate InspectorPro as the perfect companion tool for FileMaker Pro Advanced, helping you detect problems, evaluate references and dependencies, and optimize performance. Vince shows how to extend FileMaker’s Database Design Report (DDR) to provide more comprehensive analysis of schema, scripts and design elements in any FileMaker solution.

Look for the Beezwax Team in sessions and in the exhibitor hall, where we’ll be busy buying free drinks during social hour (😉), as well as showing off the latest versions of InspectorPro, LOgiCATOR, bBox plugin and more.

See you in Texas!

Beezwax's Vincenzo (Vince) Menanno is presenting to audiences of FileMaker developers at meetups and conferences, on the topic of 'InspectorPro 8 for FileMaker: Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate'.

At the FMburgh (Pittsburgh / online) March Meetup, Vince shares the latest research, development best practices, and product offerings. Vince has a number of surprises up his sleeves that he can’t wait to show. If you're a FileMaker Developer attending, we hope to see you there!

InspectorPro for FileMaker - Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate

Event: FMburgh (FileMaker - Pittsburgh / online)
Speaker: Vincenzo (Vince) Menanno, Chief Innovation Officer, Beezwax
Date: Wednesday, March 6th, 2024
Time: 7:00pm, EST [4:00pm PST]

Summary: For years, developers have leaned on the Database Design Report (DDR) to collect, analyze, and report metadata from FileMaker solutions. Now, InspectorPro 8 brings a new approach to this process via “Save a Copy as XML”. InspectorPro has the ability to accelerate analysis, with seamless API integration for automated processing at specified intervals, allowing teams to maintain focus on their tasks. Staying in the zone is the focus, while the tool discreetly runs in the background, minimizing disruption, and includes attribution, notes, and Slack integration for FileMaker development team collaboration.

Presentation: InspectorPro for FileMaker - Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate

InspectorPro's mission is to stand as the most comprehensive tool available for debugging and troubleshooting your FileMaker solutions.

Farewell DDR — hello Save a Copy as XML!

For years, developers have leaned on the Database Design Report (DDR) to collect, analyze, and report metadata from FileMaker solutions. InspectorPro has always been built using the latest version of FileMaker itself, and takes advantage of new features in our favorite custom app development platform.

InspectorPro 8 marks a significant shift as it now utilizes the Save a Copy as XML format for a multitude of compelling reasons:

A) We now have a new script step “Save a Copy as XML”, which means that we can automate the generation of the XML.
B) It is server-friendly, allowing automatic generation and using it in a script schedule.
C) The structure includes top-level catalog information.
D) It introduces new areas not present in the DDR.
E) This lays the foundation for future capabilities and innovations.

Investigate = Developer Insight

Why use a tool like InspectorPro for FileMaker development? To gain insight from answers to questions like:

• How can I clean up an inherited FileMaker solution, or my older databases
• What are best practices for inspecting references and dependencies?
• How can I look for problems across...
  ...scripts?
  ...calcs?
  …layouts?
  …security?
  …schema?
  …and more!

Whether you have a solution you’ve been building for years, or are just getting started, there are plenty of important details that analyzing your FileMaker solution can provide insight into.

HOW much faster?!

Performance is a key highlight of InspectorPro 8. An initial analysis baseline is impressively 3x to 5x faster than InspectorPro 7. But where the new architecture truly excels is during incremental analysis, boasting speeds ranging from 10x to an astounding 100x faster.

Discover the seamless and automated ways to trigger the analysis process, whether scheduled or scripted, enabling you and your team to focus on development without missing a beat.

Collaboration, more and more...

Development projects involve more than just the solo 'citizen developer'. These days you may have multiple developers building different parts, modules or versions of a solution, and other stakeholders who want visibility into work being done.

How do you improve collaboration between more contributors whose hands are touching code, as well as those observing from not too far off? Let's look at InspectorPro as a solution running on FileMaker Server, and feature like attribution, notes, and Slack integration to improve team collaboration.

Key Takeaways:

• Stay in the development zone with minimal interruption.
• Identify and locate problems quickly and easily.
• Track changes, including when and by whom they were made.
• Integrate InspectorPro into your files or solutions effortlessly.
• Gain detailed version history with attribution for any item.
• Keep your team informed through Slack integration on analysis runs.

Explore the history of InspectorPro and understand the groundbreaking foundation it sets. Delve into the engineering journey that led to this point and, more crucially, learn how this tool can elevate your day-to-day workflow as a FileMaker Developer.

I am thrilled to unveil the exciting features of this new product and demonstrate how it can empower you and your team to build exceptional solutions. Join me in exploring how InspectorPro can become an indispensable tool for your team's development workflow.

- Vince Menanno

About The Presenter: Vincenzo (Vince) Menanno

With 30 years of full-time experience as a master consultant, as well as a dedicated developer of FileMaker-related products, Vince Menanno has been a featured speaker at many industry events including Claris Engage, FileMaker DevCon, FM Conférence, CQDF, dotFMP, EngageU and dozens of FileMaker Developer meetups.

As a community leader, Vince prioritizes innovation and knowledge-sharing through research, mentoring and presentations. He's received the Claris Excellence Award for Lifetime Achievement, and helped Beezwax earn a Claris Excellence Award for Advocacy.

In addition to his work as Chief Innovation Officer at Beezwax, Vince is the author of InspectorPro, a leading FileMaker development tool that provides in-depth FileMaker solution analysis.

Born to an Italian family and having grown up in Montreal, Vince now splits time between the Oakland hills and Florida shores, along with his wife, son and daughter. His ongoing passions include innovation, architecture, data visualization, sharp knives and vehicles in space.

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Presentations at FileMaker Conferences & Meetups

Here's a schedule of events and dates for Vince Menanno sharing 'InspectorPro 8 for FileMaker: Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate' -- and a Big Thanks to Meetup organizers for your help in hosting Vince's presentations.

EVENTS

• Nov. 12th-14th, 2023 – EngageU (Antwerp)
• Dec. 14, 2023 – FileMaker Show & Tell (hosted by Square Moon)
• Feb 7th-8th, 2024 – Claris Engage (Austin / Beezwax booth)
• February 12th, 2024, Houston FMDUT (online)
• Monday, March 4th, 2024, FM-BUG (UK / online)
• Wednesday, March 6, 2024, FMburgh (Pittsburgh, PA and online)
• Thursday, March 7th, 2024, CPUG-MN (online)
• Friday, March 8th, 2024, FM-DiSC (online)
• Monday, March 11th, 2024, FM for Research User Group (online)
• Monday, March 11th, 2024, Claris Developers Bridge Network (Oregon City)
• Wednesday, March 13th, 2024, WITfm (online)
• Thursday, March 14th, 2024, DIGFM / Bay Area FileMaker Dev Group (online)
• Tuesday, March 19th, 2024, Ann Arbor FileMaker (online)
• Tuesday, March 19th, 2024, Milwaukee Area FileMaker Devs (online)
• Wednesday, March 20th, 2024, Claris Beyond (online)
• Tuesday, March 26th, 2024, Kentuckiana FileMaker
• le jeudi 28 mars 2024, Adeptes francophones de Claris
• June 6-8, 2024, dotFMP (Berlin)
• les 18-19 juin 2024, CQDF (Montréal)

 

FileMaker Meetups: Seattle, Portland, Santa Clara & LA

Beezwax’s Vincenzo Menanno is hitting the road this week to visit our FileMaker colleagues across the West Coast, talking about “FileMaker Collaboration, Performance and Insight with InspectorPro”. Vince will be presenting our latest research, development and product offerings to FileMaker Developer Meetups in Seattle, Portland, Santa Clara and Los Angeles.

If it weren’t a 4-day work week, who knows what other cities we’d be visiting!

Here’s a schedule of events, dates and times — and a Big Thanks to Meetup organizers for your help in hosting Vince’s presentations.

• Tuesday, September 6th, 2016, 6:00pm – FileMaker Seattle
• Wednesday, September 7th, 2016, 6:00pm – PDXFM (Portland)
• Thursday, September 8th, 2016, 6:30pm – DIGFM (Santa Clara)
• Friday, September 9th, 2016, 9:30am – FMDiSC (Los Angeles)

We have a number of surprises up our sleeves that we can't wait to show. If you’re a FileMaker Developer in any of these metropolitan areas, we hope to see you there!

Presentation: FileMaker Collaboration, Performance, and Insight with InspectorPro

InspectorPro is designed to be the perfect companion tool for FileMaker Pro Advanced, extending the Database Design Report (DDR) to provide more comprehensive analysis of the schema, scripts and design elements in your FileMaker solutions. Every new version of InspectorPro is built using the latest version of FileMaker itself, and takes advantage of new features in our favorite custom app development platform.

In this presentation, we’ll cover the newest iteration of InspectorPro, both as a developer tool and as a case study in building modern FileMaker solutions:

Team Collaboration

Heading into the future, FileMaker development often involves more than just the solo “Citizen Developer”. These days you may have multiple developers building different parts or versions of a solution, and other stakeholders who want visibility into work being done. How do you improve collaboration between those whose hands are touching code, as well as those observing from not too far off? We'll examine InspectorPro as a solution running on FileMaker Server, and some ways to improve team collaboration.

Server-side Performance

InspectorPro introduced a new feature called “Perform DDR on Server”, leveraging the power of FileMaker Server to offload processing from your local copy of FileMaker Pro. The key is FileMaker’s PSoS (Perform Script on Server) — we’ll look at the results of this method, and how InspectorPro is crunching large DDRs.

Detailed Insight

• How can I clean up an inherited FileMaker solution, or my older databases
• What are best practices for inspecting references and dependencies?
• How can I look for problems across scripts, calcs, layouts, security, schema, and more?

Whether you have a solution you've been building for years, or are just getting started, there are plenty of important details that analyzing your FileMaker solution can provide insight into.

Discussion: Auditing at the intersection of PSoS + Transactions + Popovers (of all things):

With these 3 tools and techniques (Perform Script on Server, Transactions and Popovers), one can do some pretty amazing things when it comes to auditing. It's something that we have been using more lately with great results. We'll open up for discussion on using these techniques in your solutions.

About The Presenter: Vincenzo Menanno

With over 20 years of full-time experience as a master consultant, as well as a dedicated developer of FileMaker-related products, Vince Menanno has been a featured speaker at many industry events including FileMaker Developer Conference (DevCon), FM Conférence, CQDF, and dozens of FileMaker Developer meetups.

In addition to his work as Director of FileMaker development at Beezwax, Vince is the author of InspectorPro, a leading FileMaker development tool that provides in-depth FileMaker solution analysis and advanced data visualizations.

Born to an Italian family and having grown up in Montreal, Vince now lives in the hills of Oakland, with his wife, son and daughter. His most recent passions lately include visualizations, sharp knives, organization and architecture. Look forward to sharing these presentations to your group.

As you may know FileMaker DevCon 2011 is just around the corner. In honor of 2011...and FileMaker Pro 11, here's our list of Top 11 Tips for DevCon '11:

1. Bring a sweater

Those hotels are known for cranking up the A/C. Take a comfortable layer that you can slip on and off easily to ward off the shivers as you're sitting all morning.

2. Don't expect to find any outlets in the conference rooms

If you're lucky enough to have a second battery, bring it! Maybe you're thinking of bringing an extension cord. I'm not going to discourage you, but don't tell the fire marshall it was my idea.

3. Get a schedule

You can get a copy of the schedule in several forms. There's the conference binder, of course. But, c'mon ... this is a technology conference! Try downloading the schedule in iCal format from SeedCode or download FileMaker's official DevCon2Go Scheduler for, you guessed it, FileMaker Go or FileMaker Pro. DevCon2Go boasts schedule filters, presenter-based views, in-system evaluation forms and even Twitter integration!

4. Tackle one or two big questions

It's easy to leave a conference with way too much information and nothing to do with it. Determine ahead of time what you're going to tackle — something important or exciting to you right now — and learn everything you can about that topic. You're also likely to find a vendor or fellow developer who has encountered the same issue you're mulling over. Have your questions and ideas ready!

5. Don't feel like you have to go to every session

There's so many exciting ideas being presented at DevCon, it can be tempting to pack your schedule with session after session. Don't do it! You're not likely to remember half of what you hear. You're much better off focusing on a few primary themes and building relationships. Those relationships may carry on long after you've forgotten what you heard in the last session. Plus, you're likely to learn even more from one great discussion than you are from a generic presentation.

6. Find out who the popular speakers are

You may still be interested in particular topics, which is great. But make a point to find some speakers that interest you as well. Some people have enough knowledge and/or teaching ability that the topic is irrelevant; you're sure to learn either way. Ask around if you're not sure who those people might be for you.

7. Seek conversations

The FileMaker community is incredibly friendly. Don't be afraid to say 'Hi', even to the people who appear to be the big shots. This conference is as much about establishing relationships as it is about sharing information. And remember your business cards. Another great resource is the topic tables. Sometimes they'll have signs posted on the tables indicating that everyone who sits there is interested in a given topic. They're a great way to meet people with common interests.

8. Embrace the Law of Two Feet

Wikipedia defines the Law of Two Feet:

If at any time you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing: Give greetings, use your two feet and go do something useful. Responsibility resides with you.

That isn't intended to imply that it's not worth sticking around through difficult situations and awkward conversations. The point is that we all bear personal responsibility for making the most out of this conference. If you find yourself in a session that isn't exactly what you expected, politely walk out and find something else to do. This may be a controversial idea, but it's not a new one. In all fairness to the presenters, please sit near the back if you're not sure that you'll be staying. And fill out an evaluation to provide proper feedback, even if it's just to clarify why they saw someone walking out on them (e.g., was the session description misleading?).

9. Fill out your evaluations

This is a great way to say thank you to your presenters and help make the conference better. Be sure to fill out the survey before the session ends and it's time to dash out to the next session. If the session is timed well, the right time to evaluate will be just as the presentation moves into Q&A.

10. Use Twitter to keep up on current happenings

FileMaker's official hashtag is #FileMakerDevCon. You'll see people sharing cool ideas, sparking informal sessions and announcing meetups at local restaurants. You can even use DevCon2Go to track Twitter hashtags. Jump in and join the conversation, and tweet what you learn. When the conference is done and everyone has gone home, Twitter will still be there connecting you!

11. Exhibitors are your friends

Let's be honest, exhibitors are trying to make money ... naturally. But you'll find that many of their products are designed to solve your problems. And almost all of them are at DevCon because they love FileMaker and its community. So find someone that could help you and strike up a conversation. @HOnza24U has some great tips below for how to get the most out of exhibitors. Our beez would love to see you at the Beezwax booth. You might be interested to see what's cooking in the next release of Inspector.

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There you go. Hopefully we'll see you at the Beezwax booth at DevCon. As always, drop a line in the comments (or via Twitter), especially if you have a tip of your own. See you at DevCon!

• @BeezwaxTeam

À la conférence Rendez-Vous::FM 2024, 31 mai et 1er juin 2024 à Nantes, France, Vincenzo Menanno de Beezwax (sponsor or de la conférence), présente “Utilisations créatives et gains de performance grâce au fichier local, avec Claris FileMaker“, et “Enquêter, accélérer et collaborer avec InspectorPro 8“.

Utilisations créatives et gains de performance grâce au fichier local avec Claris® FileMaker®

1ER JUIN 2024

Ce qui est vraiment captivant à propos de FileMaker, c’est son mélange homogène de simplicité et d’élégance, ce qui rend son utilisation agréable. Ceci dit, sous la surface se trouve l’immense pouvoir de créer des solutions personnalisées robustes qui dépassent les attentes.

Tout comme FileMaker incarne cette dualité, notre technique de fichier local suit les mêmes traces. Débloquer le potentiel du fichier local est une révélation en soi – ce n’est pas seulement facile, c’est habilitant. Si vous pouvez écrire des scripts, vous pouvez façonner vos solutions avec les méthodes faisant appel à un fichier local. Rejoignez-nous alors que nous nous plongeons dans sa mise en œuvre, son déploiement et sa gestion. Découvrez l’art des mises à jour transparentes et explorez le domaine des expériences d’interface utilisateur créatives qui attendent d’être conçues.

Mais attendez, il y a plus ! Avec des données résidant localement, préparez-vous à des performances inégalées, même sur le réseau WAN. Et quand il s’agit de transactions, préparez-vous à assister à la magie du stockage de données dénormalisées, accélérant la livraison à vos utilisateurs comme jamais auparavant. Rejoignez-moi dans ce voyage de découverte et voyez par vous-même pourquoi la technique du fichier local est à la fois un jeu d’enfant à saisir et une force sans pareil !

Enquêter, accélérer et collaborer avec InspectorPro 8

31 MAI 2024

La mission d’InspectorPro est d’être l’outil le plus complet disponible pour le débogage et le dépannage de vos solutions FileMaker.

Pendant des années, les développeurs se sont appuyés sur le rapport de conception de base de données (DDR) pour collecter, analyser et rapporter les métadonnées des solutions FileMaker. Cependant, InspectorPro 8 marque un changement important car il utilise maintenant le format Enregistrer en tant que XML pour une multitude de raisons impérieuses :

A) Nous avons maintenant une nouvelle étape de script “Enregistrer une copie en tant que XML”, ce qui signifie que nous pouvons automatiser la génération du XML.
B) Il est convivial pour le serveur, ce qui permet de générer automatiquement et de l’utiliser dans un calendrier de script.
C) La structure comprend des informations de catalogue de haut niveau.
D) Il introduit de nouveaux domaines non présents dans la DDR.
E) Cela jette les bases de capacités et d’innovations futures.

La performance est un point culminant clé d’InspectorPro 8. La ligne de base de l’analyse initiale est impressionnantement 3 à 5 fois plus rapide que celle d’InspectocteurPro 7. Là où la nouvelle architecture excelle vraiment, c’est lors de l’analyse incrémentielle, avec des vitesses allant de 10x à 100x plus rapides. Découvrez les moyens transparents et automatisés de déclencher le processus d’analyse, qu’il soit programmé ou scénarisé, ce qui vous permet, à vous et à votre équipe, de vous concentrer sur le développement sans manquer un rythme.

Explorez l’histoire d’InspectorPro et comprenez les bases révolutionnaires qu’il jette. Plongez dans le parcours d’ingénierie qui a conduit à ce point et, plus important encore, découvrez comment cet outil peut améliorer votre flux de travail quotidien en tant que développeur FileMaker.

Principaux points à retenir :

• Restez dans la zone de développement avec une interruption minimale.
• Identifier et localiser les problèmes rapidement et facilement.
• Suivre les changements, y compris quand et par qui ils ont été effectués.
• Intégrez InspectorPro dans vos fichiers ou solutions sans effort.
• Obtenez un historique de version détaillé avec attribution pour n’importe quel article.
• Tenez votre équipe informée grâce à l’intégration de Slack sur les analyses.

Je suis ravi de dévoiler les fonctionnalités passionnantes de cette nouvelle version et de démontrer comment elle peut vous permettre, à vous et à votre équipe, de créer des solutions exceptionnelles.

Joignez-vous à moi pour explorer comment InspectorPro peut devenir un outil indispensable pour le flux de travail de développement de votre équipe….

À propos de Vincenzo Menanno – Beezwax

Avec 30 ans d’expérience à temps plein en tant que consultant principal, ainsi qu’un développeur dévoué de produits liés à FileMaker, Vince Menanno a été un conférencier vedette lors de nombreux événements de l’industrie, y compris Claris Engage, FileMaker DevCon, FM Conférence, CQDF, dotFMP, EngageU et des dizaines de rencontres de développeurs FileMaker.

En tant que leader communautaire, Vince donne la priorité à l’innovation et au partage des connaissances par le biais de la recherche, du mentorat et des présentations. Il a reçu le Claris Excellence Award for Lifetime Achievement et a aidé Beezwax à obtenir un Claris Excellence Award for Advocacy.
En plus de son travail en tant que directeur de l’innovation chez Beezwax, Vince est l’auteur d’InspectorPro, un outil de développement FileMaker de premier plan qui fournit une analyse approfondie des solutions FileMaker.

Né dans une famille italienne et ayant grandi à Montréal, Vince partage maintenant le temps entre les collines d’Oakland et les côtes de la Floride, avec sa femme, son fils et sa fille. Ses passions continues comprennent l’innovation, l’architecture, la visualisation des données, les couteaux tranchants et les véhicules dans l’espace.

Hello again from Tableau Conference 2019 in sunny Las Vegas! Here at Beezwax, we had 5 attendees this year with a diverse set of sessions between us. I wanted to give a rundown of what I went through and some of my takeaways.

How to “Excel” with Tableau

This session was primarily a more basic lecture regarding importing Excel into Tableau and the ways in which you can interpret the data to get the information that you need. The example was fun based on data regarding Bigfoot sightings and the desire to see Bigfoot. Slicing and dicing the data, we were able to see sightings by state, per capita sightings, sightings by county, trending and forecast data with time of year, and word clouds based on descriptions.

Excel is a popular tool that many of us use on a daily basis, but in the end, that’s just raw data. Following my post from yesterday, it’s up to you to take that data and determine what you’re trying to interpret from it.

Lies, Distortions, and Misrepresentations in Visualization

This was a very fascinating lecture on how we can take data and dictate the narrative in disingenuous ways — whether purposefully or accidentally. We looked specifically at bar charts, maps, and histograms and the biases that can occur as a result. Great new terminology, some book recommendations, and academic papers (I love academic papers) to add to the toolbox.

Biggest thing: When you’re looking at a viz and have a “wow” moment, that’s not the conclusion of your research — this is only the beginning.

Shoot the Moon! Small Steps and Giant Leaps Towards a Modern Culture of Data

Very interesting talk where we went over several micro case studies and the fundamentals on how to tie data with business practices. The possibilities are endless here, and we should all strive to make our businesses more data-driven in an accurate and responsible way.

From Degas to Dashboards: Lessons of the Great Masters

Tableau can create some beautiful dashboards, and there’s so much we can learn from some of the greatest artists in the past. We went through lessons on how to create vizzes with inspiration from impressionists, cubists, pointalists… all quite fascinating and can stretch how design can be applied to Tableau. Lots of great resources to use in the future as well.

Iron Viz 2019

While not a seminar, this was recently fun to watch! Tableau put together a competition where three viz masters compete to see who can put together the best viz in 20 minutes live. The results were very impressive, and the production was outstanding. The vizzes should be available soon (if not now) on the Tableau Public site. All three were winners in my book.

Can’t wait to see what we have for tomorrow!

Looking for the Latest? InspectorPro 8 Has Arrived: Upgrade Your Workflow Now!

Better collaboration, performance, and insight for your FileMaker teams.

Using InspectorPro, FileMaker developers can analyze their solutions to gain insight into performance. It can detect problems and warnings, identify references and dependencies for any element, compare differences between solutions, and review security privileges. InspectorPro allows you to share development progress with your team. This can help you to stay organized and to work more efficiently.

Use InspectorPro to analyze your FileMaker solutions:

• Detect problems and warnings
• Identify references and dependencies
• Compare differences between solutions
• Process DDR on Server (PDoS)
• Share development progress with your team
• And so much more...

Video Resources:

• Registering InspectorPro
• Generating XML DDR
• Importing a DDR
• Adding Accounts
• Navigation
• Search with LOgiCATOR
• Comparisons
• References
• Manual References
• Problem Reports
• Global Search
• Dependencies
• Notes
• Tags
• Slack integration
• Targets
• Styles
• Security Perspective
• Table Distance
• Script Monitor
• Extra Information

InspectorPro Consultation:

InspectorPro builds better collaboration, performance and insight for FileMaker teams. We can help you learn from InspectorPro’s insights to see how best to make improvements.

A consultation will help you maximize InspectorPro's capabilities and make the most of its reports. Learn More

 

Andrew “Red” Witschonke from Beezwax presents at Claris Engage 2024, the premier event for the FileMaker development community, held at Apple’s Austin Campus and hosted by Claris, an Apple company.

User's Sandbox: Opening new performance, data, and UI/UX possibilities.

Speaker: Andrew “Red Witschonke, Director of Engineering, Beezwax
Date: February 7, 2024
Time: At Claris Engage, 10:30am, CST

Summary: Maintaining usability, performance, and data integrity is a difficult balancing act when trying to deliver the best applications for your users. The “local file” technique goes a long way to maximize all three of these areas in applications. In this session, we will share how to implement this technique and some of the novel uses we came up with over the last six years.

This technique is like using super global fields, adding all the power of relationships, calculations, and summaries while still being session-bound. With this added flexibility and power, there are countless things that suddenly become possible. By adopting this technique, we have been able to build more performant, more accurate, better looking, and more functional applications.

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At Beezwax, we often work on FileMaker projects that intersect with other technologies near and dear to our hearts, including JavaScript, Python, Swift and of course Ruby. This allows us to build robust web applications in Ruby on Rails, integrated with data sources from FileMaker solutions. 

Since Claris introduced the FileMaker Data API, there was no off-the-shelf Ruby library for us to simply gem install, so we decided to roll up our sleeves and build one. Thus, fmrest-ruby was born, renamed to bzREST-ruby as a “bzModule", for use as a modular part of a custom software applications.

bzAuditLog is a comprehensive auditing solution that allows you to easily track changes made to your data. With just two tables, one field, and one script, you can log all modifications made to your database, as well as schema changes.

With bzAuditLog, you can have peace of mind knowing that all data modifications are being tracked, giving you a clear picture of who is making changes to your database and when.

Bulletproof your organization by protecting your vital business data.

SyncServer Pro is a background database synchronization engine, supporting a variety of use cases for Claris® FileMaker® and other SQL engines.

The most comprehensive approach to data protection includes everything from backups to disaster recovery, as well as adopting a perimeter approach to secure data wherever it resides.

SyncServer Pro arms you with an effective and efficient solution that caters to business processes. SyncServer Pro is optimized for pain-free integration yet powerful enough to accommodate even the most intricate syncing requirements. SyncServer Pro ensures your data is secure and available when and where you need it most.

Learn about how to install and use bBox on our Wiki. 

Additional Resources 

• Documentation wiki
• Function List
• bzPython - Python with FileMaker
• pandas with Python for FileMaker data analysis
• XML parsing with FileMaker and bBox
• curl HTTP post from FileMaker
• Installing xhtml2pdf on OS X
• JavaScript for FileMaker with bBox
• bBox 1.04 with updates for FM DAPI, XPath, SQLite 
• bBox v0.99 with JavaScript, Python 3 and M1 Apple silicon support 
• bBox for FileMaker v0.98 with M1, GraphicsMagick & Sips

LOgiCATOR is:

• the modern, powerful yet intuitive search UI your FileMaker apps need 
• fully modular and easy to integrate highly customizable 
• a pioneering example of a new way to add lightweight, modular functionality to FileMaker solutions 
• a great tool for learning how to use FileMaker card windows and JSON functions 
• totally free!

bzBond takes Claris FileMaker web integrations to the next level, providing tools to support you on your web technology journey.

From dynamic and responsive user experiences to ultra-focused server-side microservices, bzBond blends web and FileMaker best practices to help you create, deploy, and enhance reliable web-powered solutions.

End-to-end web integration tools:

• bzBond-js - JavaScript API for getting FileMaker/Claris Pro script results to web viewers using JavaScript promises
• bzBond-claris - FileMaker/Claris Pro assets for managing bzBond-js interactions and storing, deploying and testing web code
• bzBond-server - extensible server-based microservice that enables JavaScript in the FileMaker/Claris Server script engine

Also includes:

• create-bzbond-app - create new bzBond-integrations with a single command
• bzBondRelay - run JavaScript code right from FileMaker/Claris Pro scripts on client or server
• bzBond-web-template - the core of bzBond web integrations, including bzBond-js and build tools for seamless deployment in solutions