San Francisco Day 2: PreCon and Tweetup

My second day at the FileMaker DevCon 2009 was just about as tiring as the first. I’ve adjusted to the time better than I usually do on trips like this. I’m waking up at relatively the same time that I would back home.

My day started great. I found this awesome cafe just around the corner. Cafe Mason, is nice and the food was excellent. I saw some reviews on the web about it having bad service, but that wasn’t my experience at all. They took good care of me, and best of all, they are open 24-hours.

Today was the day for PreCon sessions. These are special classes that you have to pay extra for. I was reluctant to pay the extra. Now, I’m glad I did. I attended three sessions, and they were all very good.

The first PreCon session was “Introduction to PHP” by Jonathan Stark (Jonathan Stark Consulting, Inc.)

Session Description (from the FileMaker DevCon web site)
PHP is arguably the most popular and ubiquitous scripting language on the web. FileMaker Server 10 supports Custom Web Publishing with PHP natively, so it’s time to get to know PHP.

This session was great. It was two hours of learning just how little I really know about PHP. It has inspired me to get reading and learn much more. I really can see how my company can use it.

Jonathan knows his stuff. I’ve been receiving his email newsletters for a while now, and I like what he has to say about FileMaker. Now, I’m buying his book. I’m really looking forward to reading it.

The next two sessions that I attended were “Philosophy of Scripting 101 – part 1 & part 2” by John Mark Osborne (Database Pros)

Session Description (from the FileMaker DevCon web site)
Scripting is much more than navigating between layouts. This session will uncover the philosophy of scripting in order to develop a completely scripted interface for your FileMaker solution. With techniques like the Ultimate Find, you’ll learn the importance of scripting to create a professional solution.

Holly crap! Talk about information overload. This was four hours of intense scripting stuff. The first two hours were all spent on scripting what John called the “Ultimate Find.” I’m really glad he had handouts, because there was so much information here. I have to take advantage of this and use it in my own solutions.

His second session was about “Dynamic Scripting.” More great stuff here. John showed us many ways to make scripts more generic so that they can be used in multiple FileMaker solutions. Once again, things that I need to use.

Over all, the six hours that I spent in those three sessions was well worth the extra cost. Both men really know FileMaker. If you are into FileMaker, then you want to check these guys out. They have a lot to share.

Then came the FileMaker DevCon Keynote. Because of the non-disclosure agreement, I really can’t say much about that. What I can say is that the future of FileMaker looks awesome. I can’t wait to have the great new stuff that I saw there.

The final thing of the day was the FileMaker Tweetup. This was a gathering of FileMaker DevCon attendees who are also on Twitter. It was arranged by Chuck Melton. It was a gathering of a couple dozen people at a bar called Rye. Combining that with the regular crowd made for a loud experience. It was fun meeting more people who are into FileMaker and who are on Twitter. It was great putting faces to the names.

Well, that pretty much covers Day 2. Now, it is time for DevCon to get started for real. Everything so far was just building up to it.