Fireside FileMaker

Understanding the Development Process

What are all the steps in the development process?  What are the things you must pay the most attention to?  How do you make sure that the project doesn't go off the rails because you forgot something important?  How do you manage expectations, both yours and the client?  In this podcast, we discuss every aspect of the development process from that very first all important meeting (phone or otherwise) with the new client, all the way to deployment and beyond.  We offer different strategies and ideas that you can easily implement to make sure that every project you do has the best chance of success, leaving nothing to chance.

How to become a professional FileMaker developer

Are you a budding developer who wants to start his own FileMaker business? In this podcast, we talk about what you need to know to become a professional developer as well as how to drum up business by mastering the key skills needed to promote yourself and your services. Technical know-how and business acumen are the key to opening and maintaining a successful FileMaker development firm of one or more people.

About Us

We talk about our background and experience inside the world of FileMaker which we've spent a combined total of 6 decades working in, including how we got started and what we've been doing since then. We think it’s important for you to know that we are both experts in the field of FileMaker and there is nothing that we like more than talking about it and sharing our knowledge.

“Michael and I have created FileMaker example files, written blogs, recorded videos, presented in public and even published books but we have never had the opportunity to record informal chats about FileMaker, much like you would with a FileMaker colleague. We are excited that this medium will allow us to explore FileMaker in a way we’ve never done before”, says John Mark Osborne.

FileMaker & Excel

Too often, people abuse the capabilities of a spreadsheet when they should be using a database, like FileMaker. We’re hoping that our discussion will help clients and developers alike choose the right tool for the right job. In this podcast, we’ll cover subjects like multi-user sharing of information, security, limitations and much more. If you’ve ever wondered when to use a spreadsheet and when to use a database, this talk will answer your questions and help you to make the best decision.

The Data Separation Model

In this episode, we talk about the data separation model, a semi-popular technique, used by a number of developers, where the interface is in a separate file from the data, allowing the interface file to be replaced at any time without having to import data into a new version. To say that neither of us are fans of the model would be an understatement, but we discuss what it is, why people use it, our thoughts on it and generally give it a fair shake. We also discuss the new data migration tool which automates the import of data from an old version to a new and how this has changed one of the key reasons for using the data separation model. At the end of it, you'll come to your own conclusions but we hope you'll find the subject matter interesting and the content thought-provoking.

Native FileMaker Functionality

In this episode, we discuss FileMaker native technologies; what they are, when they should (or should not) be used and lots of other things that we believe you'll find interesting. Like everything else, there's a time and a place for external technologies but too often, these technologies are embraced by those who haven't taken the time to explore what can be done using traditional FileMaker methodologies. We are both FileMaker purists, with a couple lifetimes of experience developing FileMaker solutions, who believe in doing things the FileMaker way first, (often faster, simpler and always easier for somebody else to come in and debug or make changes), and only use other techniques/languages when it makes absolute sense.