FileMaker Pro 9 Bible by Ray Cologon
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Book Reviews of FileMaker Pro 9 Bible
Book Review: Must-have FileMaker Pro 9 book
Summary: 5 Stars
Whether you are a beginner or a well-seasoned professional FMP developer, the FileMaker Pro 9 Bible is a must-read book. Dr. Cologon covers an immense range of important information, and he will stretch your mind to the full range of possibilities with FileMaker Pro, all the while holding your hand and breaking it down with a remarkably effective teaching approach.
Topics range from the general (how databases fit into real life and your business needs; comparisons with other database development tools; a broad discussion of integration with existing systems and software) through the building-blocks of FileMaker solutions, and on up to state-of-the-art advice on concepts of optimization, modularization, innovative and sophisticated user-interface design, dynamic elements, logic, cutting-edge calculations, publishing your database to the Web, FileMaker's brand-new ability to integrate tightly with SQL databases via "ESS". The book also includes the special developer tools available in FileMaker Pro Advanced, and covers topics too oft skipped over in other books on the market -- backup how-to's and strategies, must-read information about good database husbandry and file recovery, etc.
In spite of handling this vast sea of facts, particulars, instructions and guidance, there is nothing about this book that is intimidating even to folks facing database development for the very first time. Cologon -- whose crystal-clear and engaging writing style is well-known to those who have read various discussion lists and forums over the years -- has organized and presented the information in a brilliant fashion that makes this book work both as a good read and as a reference tome. Information is presented in a sort of iterative fashion, covering certain areas of development (for example, creating layouts or scripts) several times over throughout the book, on increasing levels of refinement and complexity. Therefore, whatever level of experience you have under your belt, it is easy to figure out "where to jump in" when you have a question in mind, simply by scanning the table of contents. The TOC is organized the way I wish _all_ such books were designed -- its chapters and sections correlate with the kinds of tasks you need to accomplish and the series of questions that arise in your mind organically as you gain experience, rather than the menu-by-menu approach taken by so many technical books.
A word about the book's personnel:
Ray Cologon, to anyone who has looked at his demos, attended one of his Developer Conference sessions, or read the volumes of help he has offered on forums over the years, is indisputably one of the world's topmost FileMaker wizards. Among the other credits, tech editors Corn Walker and Jason DeLooze stand out similarly as geniuses in their field who, like Cologon, have contributed their patient and top-quality assistance to the broad population of FileMaker users and developers, from newbies on discussion lists to FileMaker Inc. itself. Having been so connected to the community over the years, these developers understand intimately what folks need to know and how best to present that information, and working in concert they comprise a FileMaker instruction dream-team. (I am not familiar with the other book personnel.)
Whether you are looking for your first FileMaker Pro 9 book or already have a shelf-full, whatever level of expertise you may have, I strongly recommend you click the Add To Cart button.
-- Ilyse Kazar
Book Review: Excellent Resource
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been reading books about FileMaker Pro (FMP, FileMaker) for as long as I've been building databases--the first of which I built in 1992 with FMP 2--and I have to say that this is the most accessible book on the subject that I've read. The book works well on several levels: it's easy to find references to a specific subject and get answers to both general and relatively esoteric topics, there's a lot of insight into the increasingly powerful FileMaker Pro program, and it offers a great source of inspiration for those who skim the pages to see the world through the eyes of one of the FileMaker Pro community's great thinkers.
Newcomers to FMP will benefit greatly from the early chapters, which avoid the common sin of repeating what the program's manual says and instead focus on the potential to use the tools efficiently. Even better, the examples are optimized to take maximum advantage of FileMaker's calculation engine and the author provides clear explanations of what makes the example code optimal. Best of all, there are many examples that provide "best practice" solutions to problems that newer FileMaker users are unlikely to recognize in the early stages of development.
Longtime FMP developers know that many problems have more than one potential solution, and it often takes a wealth of experience working with deployed systems to identify the components that make one solution better than another in a particular situation. Too often, a calculation or scripted process works perfectly in preliminary testing and leads the inexperienced developer to conclude that further refinement is unnecessary (or impossible.) The author provides a wealth of information that will help beginning users anticipate and think about some fairly esoteric issues in the early stages of development and gives them tools that can significantly shorten their project's development cycle.
Experienced FMP developers will find interesting approaches to some common (and sometimes uncommon but very useful-when-solved) problems they may encounter when building complex systems. The format of the book provides useful encapsulations identified as Notes, Tips, and Cross-References. The Notes are worth browsing, especially for longtime FMP developers who may only now be migrating complex solutions to FMP 9. They provide contextual information and/or answer questions you've probably asked but may not have taken the time to test. (How does the Min function behave when applied to an array that contains a null value? How does authentication affect the Script Debugger and Data Viewer?)
I found the Cross-References especially useful in the early stages of reading this book because, as a seasoned FMP developer, I skimmed quite a bit to get a general sense of the author's approach to the organization, presentation, and depth of the material covered. Often finding a passage relevant to something I'd worked on or been thinking about recently, the Cross-References pointed me to sections that refined or provided broader context for the material at hand.
For anyone who spends time working "under the hood" on FileMaker databases, this book is well worth the time spent reading, thinking about, and understanding the points it contains. At the end of the day, I highly recommend this book and am hopeful that Ray Cologon will author future versions of it.
Book Review: Absolutely Indispensable!
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow. What an extraordinary improvement this book is over the previous FileMaker Bibles! I decided to give the FileMaker Pro 9 Bible a try (even though I've been unimpressed with previous titles in the series) because there is a new author and the jacket says this edition is completely rewritten. I have not been disappointed!
After six years using FileMaker to run my business, I would have to say this is the best FileMaker book I have ever seen - no contest. Probably the best technical book I've seen, in fact. This book has opened my eyes to new possibilities and I now realise I was nowhere near using FileMaker to its full potential. Already the book has changed the way I work with FileMaker and even the way I think about creating and using databases. Almost everything about the way FileMaker works is so much clearer after reading the descriptions in this book, that I'm only sorry it was not available sooner. I am already referring back to the book constantly and I am sure I will continue to do so.
I have found that every chapter in the FileMaker Pro 9 Bible is packed with interesting, relevant and useful details. I don't think there is a single page that doesn't contain a fresh perspective, essential information or a technique I was previously unaware of. The book brings together a very practical and hands-on approach with a level of expertise and theoretical understanding that makes the descriptions and techniques very clear. Everything is explained in a straightforward and no-fuss way, with none of the usual padding and fluff that seems to take up space in many technical books, and this approach makes the book a sheer pleasure to read.
One of the things that impressed me the most is that this book does not repeat what's in the manual or the online help. Instead, it starts from the broadest overview and goes on to set out what you need to know, including many things that are not even mentioned in the user guide, nor in any of the various other FileMaker books I've read. The book is chock-full of essential details and explains a lot of things that were still not clear to me after years working with FileMaker.
For me, probably the most useful section of all was the chapter on Data Modeling in FileMaker, which has been a complete eye opener. The chapters on writing efficient code and calculations have also been a revelation. However the whole book has been immensely helpful. I did not realise how much I had to learn.
I wish there had been a book like this one available six years ago when I first began using FileMaker. If you have started using FileMaker recently, you will get a lot more out of it once you have read the FileMaker Pro 9 Bible. This book is a truly excellent resource!
Book Review: A must-have book on FileMaker
Summary: 5 Stars
There are three things I look for in a good book on FileMaker: (1) Does it help the beginner to bridge the gap between finishing the User Manual and that moment when they put the manual down, consider their real life database problem, and realize they still have no clue how to use what they just read and get started actually building a database. (2) Does it make it easy for the intermediate developer to find what they need for a specific challenge, and does it provide both specific guidance *and* context for understanding what you're being told. (3) Can the advanced developer pick it up, skim, and easily find more and better ways for what they've already been doing, and some great ideas for features they haven't taken the time to work out themselves. Dr. Cologon has done all three with this book, and `bible' seems particularly apt for a book you can read sequentially to get smart, dip into for immediate hand-holding, and look to for inspiration.
I especially like the insertion of Tips, Cautions, Cross-Refs and Notes as sidebars throughout the text. Dr. Cologon's mega-hours spent directly supporting developers in the various forums have paid off for us yet again: he's `been there'; he knows and shares all the typical gotchas, occasional ambiguous dialogs, possible pitfalls. He's been watching us for years, and it shows. The Tips/Cautions/Notes, and especially the Cross-Refs, are also ways to bring topics full-circle, which is not easy in a manual format - how you construct a layout (chapter 6) may impact how you write a script (chapter 13) that interacts with that layout, and Dr. Cologon will notify you as needed.
Most valuable is the wisdom, judgment and long experience shared throughout the book. This isn't just a thorough contextual explanation of FileMaker features and capabilities; it contains a lot of horse-sense advice on building databases that are well-structured, stable, scalable, secure, and intuitive to use. Bravo. This is a must-have book for anyone who uses FileMaker.
Book Review: Seriously impressed
Summary: 5 Stars
I've previously looked at most the of "bible" style books for FileMaker and found them OK or underwhelming. This one is very different.
Ray knows his stuff very, very well and his advice is well regarded in various fora. When I received the book, I was concerned that it would only be useful to experienced FileMaker users. However, what I found was that the first two Parts of the book (up to page 260) do a great job of what most how-to style books do in a concise and practical way without needless padding. I really hate the way lots of other books stretch out their content just to bulk up. This book is bulky, but it's all good content. New users will love it.
Then Parts 3, 4 and 5 build on the foundations taking new and intermediate users into areas they probably have never considered with lots of stuff they can use immediately. Ray seemingly covers everything most users will experience with FileMaker. I think advanced users will get much out of this too. I've been using FileMaker since 1987 (professionally since 1991) and I'm finding lots of little gems in the book. The examples are actually useful and I confess to including some of the techniques in my work. On two occasions recently, I resorted to this book to find the words to explain some abstract concepts.
FileMaker is often considered "quirky", meaning it has particular ways of achieving things. I like the way Ray addresses these concepts, comparing and contrasting the way things are in other environments, then looking at the design decisions of FileMaker to achieve the same.
I think anyone using FileMaker should seriously consider buying this book. Congratulations Ray - well done.