FileMaker Pro 9 Bible Now Shipping!

[CobaltSky]

Some of you already know the reason why I haven't been quite as active a forum participant in recent times: it's because I agreed to contribute the bulk of the content for a new book about FileMaker. As you can imagine, it's been a huge project - and much of the contribution I might otherwise have been able to make online is now available all at once, and in a rather different format.

The book is an entirely new (total rewrite) edition of the FileMaker Pro Bible, wholly devoted to FileMaker 9. It's 768 pages and covers a lot of ground, assuming no prior knowledge (in the earlier chapters), then building up to deal with a lot of advanced and developer-oriented material in the later sections.

FWIW, the book is now in stock at Amazon, and you can find the details at the following link:

[big]

FileMaker Pro 9 Bible[/big]

The book has twenty chapters, and is divided into five parts:

- The Fundamentals

- Introduction to Database Design

- Beyond The Basics

- Integrity and Security

- Raising The Bar

I've spent a lot of time trying to pack as much useful content as possible into the available space. I won't pretend that it hasn't been quite a challenge, but I hope if you decide to check it out, you'll decide it was worth the effort!

[CobaltSky]

Okay, just following up to say that I got hold of a pdf copy of the Table of Contents of the book today from the publishers.

It's fairly detailed (runs to 25 pages) so it gives a reasonable indication of the range and depth of topics covered - much more so, at any rate, than the list of section names I included above.

So, for anyone here who's curious about what the book does and doesn't include, here's a link to download the pdf:

FileMaker Pro 9 Bible - Table of Contents (pdf)

:smile2:

[CobaltSky]

To mark the release of the FileMaker Pro 9 Bible, NightWing Enterprises has made available a free demo of the standard version of our uID system for FileMaker Pro. The technique is as described in the FileMaker Pro 9 Bible (ref: Chapter 15 - Maintaining Referental Integrity).

The uID system allows you to efficiently create unique key values for records in your databases, safe in the knowledge that duplicate values will not be created, even if records are generated simultaneously in multiple stand-alone copies of your database. The resulting record sets can be subsequently merged without fear of key conflicts.

The uID system comprises a set of four custom functions. The first custom function generates the uID values, which contain the NIC address, the recordID (up to a billion records) and the current timestamp. For compactness, these values are concatenated and encapsulated in a base36-encoded format (an alphanumeric string represented as four sets of five characters).

The remaining three functions are provided for diagnostic purposes and allow you to extract the embedded values (NIC address, recordID and timestamp respectively) from a given uID.

This new unlocked demo makes it possible for you to use the supplied custom functions in your own solutions. Additional information and links for the free download may be found via the demos page on our web site at:

http://www.nightwing.com.au/FileMaker/demos.html

[color:white].

[bcooney]

Ray, I've worked with B.Dunning's Easy Encrypt to generate license codes, and incorporate the NIC address. One of the issues that I've encountered is that on a laptop with a wifi card, there are more than one NIC address. Also, a Mac running Parallels changes its NIC address.

Have you encountered these gotchas and do you offer suggestions on how to handle them?

[CobaltSky]

Have you encountered these gotchas and do you offer suggestions on how to handle them?

Hi Barbara,

Yes, I've encountered those - and an additional gotcha is that it is possible to open a FileMaker database on a machine with no network card installed - in which case Get(SystemNICAddress) returns null.

The uID system shown in the demo survives all these issues. If there are multiple NIC addresses, only the first is used. If there is no NIC, a random end-of-range substitute value is generated on-the-fly and used instead.

Where the quirks you mention arise, the NIC's secondary (diagnostic) role is, of course, reduced - but its value as a formative component of the uID is not impacted. The role of NICs in this uID system parallels their use in the widely accepted UUID format.

[bcooney]

Didn't think that you'd miss the NIC gotchas, Ray. Thank you for offering uID system.

[CobaltSky]

Hi Folks,

Those of you who already have a copy of the FileMaker Pro 9 Bible, will probably have noticed a description of a technique for passing more than one parameter to your scripts (Ch13, pp470-472).

Putting that together with Custom Functions and Recursion (discussed (Ch18, pp627-635), it becomes possible to set your solution up to automatically transfer multiple parameter values (as name/value pair strings) into your scripts. Very useful.

I've recently released a demo of an extended technique for passing multiple parameters to scripts, that automatically converts them to local variables using a Custom Function that's called once on the first line of the script. So easy you barely have to think about it.

The demo is available (it's a free download) via a link at NightWing Enterprises Demos.

There's a detailed description and examples etc on the download page.

The demo file is unlocked, but please note that the technique is advanced - and also, you'll need a copy of FileMaker Pro Advanced if you want to access the Custom Functions, or copy them over to your own files. :wink2:

[grubber]

Thanks Ray. Very creative & incredibly useful functions. I'm sold! Your book is winging it's way to me as I write.

Ray (or other clever folk). How can I create the uID without spaces? I've had a look the function but I can't work out where the spaces are being applied.

Thanks

Olly

[CobaltSky]

Ray (or other clever folk). How can I create the uID without spaces? I've had a look the function but I can't work out where the spaces are being applied.

Hi Olly,

To get the function to generate a uID with no spaces in it, you'd need to remove the following portion of the code:

Left(" "; Mod($xgn36P; 5) = 0) & 

...from the definition of the variable named $xgn36T (well down towards the end of the function definition).

Meanwhile, I hope you'll enjoy the book when it arrives! :

[grubber]

Left(" "; Mod($xgn36P; 5) = 0) & 

Wow that was fast. I did try a botch job - removing the space but not the entire line. make sense now. Many thanks.

Olly

[CobaltSky]

Okay, in case you're curious, there are a total of six demos planned to follow the release of the book. The fourth has just gone "live" and you will find details at:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/196663/

For those who'll be at the Developer Conference next week, I will be previewing the fifth demo at my session on Wednesday morning (and making it available to attendees). It will be posted to the NightWing site later in the month.

The sixth demo has already been previewed in beta by colleagues at FMDiSC, and will be available for download some time in August.

[grubber]

Hi Ray

Not sure if you monitoring this post any more but am curious if there are any gotcha's when using your uID technique and leaving "Do not replace existing value for any field (if any)" checkbox - unchecked?

I can't see anything obvious in some tests but then again lots of obvious things aren't always obvious to me.

Reason being in solutions where I don't lock everything down (especially early iterations) if a user right clicks and duplicates a record then the UID is duplicated in the new record if the above box is checked (but not if unchecked)

Thanks in advance

Olly

ps. Great book by the way.