Day 3 of DevCon: How cool is that?

I’m an early riser. That is just the way I’m wired. Yesterday was no exception. They have free continental breakfasts for DevCon, but I’m still on eastern time, and I was starving at 6:00 am. Too early for the free breakfast. So, I went to my favorite place near the hotel and had some breakfast. Afterwards, I’m walking along the sidewalk going back to the hotel, and at the corner, standing next to me is Filemaker CEO, Dominique Goupil. So, I told him how excited I was about the new features coming to FileMaker. He was very friendly and approachable. How cool is that? This guy is running this large company, and likely making more in a month than I make all year. He is just casually walking down the street with his coffee in hand. Which brings me to something that I want to say about FileMaker as a company.

This is my second DevCon. At the previous one, and at this one, I’ve been very impressed with the way that FileMaker employees mingle with the people attending DevCon. They are everywhere. All of them have been very friendly, and they are willing to answer your questions. Kudos to FileMaker, Inc. for seeing the value of talking to the people who use your products. There are many other large companies who could learn from your example.

Today was the first real day of DevCon. The first session that I went to was another one by Jonathan Stark (Jonathan Stark Consulting, Inc.)

Session Description (from the DevCon web site)

Securing Your FileMaker Web Applications

When publishing FileMaker data online, there are many considerations that need to be handled quite differently than in the normal FileMaker client/server world. Security is arguably at the top of the list. In this session, you will learn the big do’s and don’ts of web publishing with FileMaker.php, as well as recommendations and best practices.

I’m very impressed with Jonathan. He is a very smart man, and a good presenter. His presentation about web security will scare the crap out of you. I’m not so concerned about my own web site, but the sites that I go to that are run by others. He showed just how easy it is for a hacker to takeover a web form if it is not secured properly. This was some scary shit. If you are filling in a form for a web site, any web site, you better be certain that you are working with the site that you expected. If it suddenly tells you to put in your password, and you weren’t expecting that—don’t do it. Make certain, it really is the site, and not some hacker just taking over the form. Want to scare yourself? Do a Google search for session hijacking. This stuff is really easy to do folks.

There were two things from Jonathan’s presentation that were important. First, FileMaker is not susceptible to SQL Injection Attacks, that is a great thing. Second, you should be filtering your forms on your web site.

The next session that I went to was  by Steve Romig (FileMaker Inc.)

Session Description (from the DevCon web site)

Introduction to Script Triggers

Script triggers are one of the new, exciting features of FileMaker Pro 10. This session will explore how to get the most out of script triggers starting from the basics and what a script trigger is what it can do for you and your solutions to troubleshooting the usage of script triggers in your solutions. Each script trigger will be discussed in detail, including usage and how the different triggers interact with each other. If you are thinking about integrating script triggers into your solution, this session is for you.

This session was an intro to Script Triggers, so it was pretty basic. A good foundation for those who want to use the latest cool feature in FileMaker. I still learned some things.

For lunch I got together with my podcasting friend, Seth Harwood. Seth is the author of Jack Wakes Up. He picked me up at the hotel and we went out for a very good pizza. It was nice. Seth, and I haven’t really sat down like that for a nice quiet lunch before. He is a great guy, and a very good author.

Then it was back to DevCon for more sessions. This one was by Bill Heizer, Senior Consulting Engineer for FileMaker Inc.

Session Desctiption (from the DevCon web site)

Advanced Script Triggers

This session will explore some of the important behaviors of script triggers. We will examine the importance of script result, differentiating pre-event and post-event triggers, choosing the right trigger, the attributes of Install On-Timer Script, and revisit some of the triggers we’ve had prior to version 10. Through demonstration and discussion we will uncover the depths of script triggers. Check your regulator and fill your tanks before entering the water.

At first for this session, I was sitting there thinking that this guy talks way too fast. I still think he does, but wow, did he ever show us some great stuff with script triggers in FileMaker. He showed us many dynamic ways of manipulating FileMaker with script triggers. Even ways to make the arrow keys behave like Excel in table view. This was very cool. There was much more. The files that he showed us will be available for us attendees to download. I can’t wait to get a hold of that stuff. I saw many things that I will be able to use in my own FileMaker Solutions. I ended up being very excited about what he had to show us.

Next came a session by Rosemary Tietge (Systems Engineer for FileMaker Inc.)

Session Description (from the DevCon web site)

Empowering Users With FileMaker Pro

Empowered users are happy users. The user-focused features of the FileMaker Pro 10 family can make a developer’s life easier while improving the experience of solution users. In this session you will learn how to customize FileMaker 10’s status toolbar; the ins and outs of saved finds; how live summaries, persistent sort order, and simple script triggers work together to create powerful reports; and all about enhanced table view. By leveraging the modern toolbar in FileMaker Pro 10 and other new features, developers can spend less time building layouts and reports and more time enhancing the overall productivity of the workgroups they empower.

Rosemary showed us some really good stuff. The only problem was that she is not quite as strong of a presenter as the other people that I’ve seen here so far. It isn’t that she was bad, she just didn’t quite seem to have the confidence that some of the others have. I still enjoyed her presentation, and got some very good tips out of it. It was interesting to hear her talk so much about how developers shouldn’t hide the Status Tool Bar. Bill Heizer had said similar things. Rosemary was advocating using the navigation tools there instead of reinventing the wheel. She has some very good points. She also talked about how important user satisfaction is.

The final presentation that I went to for the day was by Kirk Bowman (Mighty Data LLC.)

Session Description (from the DevCon web site)

FileMaker 10 and the iPhone

The iPhone is the hottest mobile computing platform. Learn four different ways to integrate FileMaker with the iPhone: iPhone Theme and the PHP Site Assistant; synchronization with fmTouch; synchronization with Address Book, iCal and Outlook; and third-party iPhone web site tools. Learn the strength and weaknesses of each and what is necessary to deploy them.

Kirk showed us the PHP Site Assistant for FileMaker Server, how to sync Address Book and Outlook with FileMaker using plug-ins, and FM Touch.

The Site Assistant demonstration was very good. I haven’t tried using that yet on my server. Kirk convinced me that I should give it a try. I certainly can see how it can be useful with the iPhone. It is limited though by the fact that it doesn’t put the files on the iPhone. You have to be able to connect to the server to make it work.

The Address Book and Outlook plug-ins make it possible to synchronize information between those programs and FileMaker. His demonstration showed how quick and easy it can be.

Finally, he showed FM Touch. This program is very cool, because it can actually run FileMaker databases right on the iPhone, and then synchronize the data between a FileMaker workstation or even a FileMaker Server. It does have limitations at this time. It can only run certain functions and scripts. It still is a pretty nice program, and the guys at FM Touch are working hard to add more features to it all of the times.

Note: for me, the one big limitation for FM Touch is the fact that at this time, it can’t do summary fields. However, I talked a bit with Steven Knight of FM Touch, and he told me that they are working on a solution for that. Once they do that, I will like FM Touch more.

After the sessions, there was the Welcome Reception, with food and drinks. It was a great time to meet other people and just mingle. I do think the food was better at last years DevCon. Oh, and Mr. Goupil was even at this, just mingling with the crowd. So were all the other Keynote speakers. How cool is that?

The night ended with hanging out on the 46th floor during the Jam Session. Today, I met people from Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand, Phoenix, Chicago, and more. It was a good time. I’m sure day 4 will be just as busy.