13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kubica becomes the Tech writer to watch!, July 27, 2003
This review is from: The Book of FileMaker 6: Your One-Stop Guide to FileMaker Pro, Pro Unlimited, Developer, Server, and Mobile (Paperback)
This is definitely one of the best-organized and best-written computer books that I have encountered in the last 22 years of reading technical books and manuals.
Kubica has written a book that is approachable for any novice to FileMaker and databases in general. The real genius is that he does so without making the more advanced user bored and irritated. Even in the early chapters I learned a trick or two.
The best way to learn is through examples. You'd think that technical writers would get that through their head after all of these years. I don't need syntax. I can get syntax from the manuals that come with the program. What I need is someone to show me how to accomplish more advanced and polished functions. Kubica has learned the lesson of providing examples. They are abundant, but don't usually take up unnecessary space in the pages of the book. They are referred to in the book at appropriate junctures and the accompanying CD/Rom has them all.
I have only one complaint: (1) the publisher screwed around with the book (even canceling it once!) for so long that this book is making a far too-long delayed appearance. I don't know how radical a change we are in for when FileMaker 7 makes its appearance this fall. I do hope that Kubica's guide to that version will arrive much faster.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Treasure Trove of FileMaker Insights and Best Practices, November 25, 2003
This review is from: The Book of FileMaker 6: Your One-Stop Guide to FileMaker Pro, Pro Unlimited, Developer, Server, and Mobile (Paperback)
Get this book in your FileMaker library. What a fantastic treasure trove of FileMaker knowledge resides in 'The Book of FileMaker 6'! Plenty of examples, a CD included and the only book to cover the gamut of the FileMaker product line. Chris has taken on a monumental task and done a very credible job. Not only is there information on each of the products: FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Unlimited, FileMaker Developer, but this is the only book to also cover FileMaker Server and FileMaker Mobile as well. Chris doesn't stop there. This is an all you can eat buffet of main dishes and morsels to satisfy every FileMaker appetite. You'll be definitely coming back for seconds.
Chris' material shows a sensitivity to the novice as well as moving the experienced user through a more and more sophisticated understanding of the power of FileMaker Pro's many features and functions. What stood out for me was that he also showed a sensitivity to the processes of needs analysis, software requirements, documentation and project management. While the 'The Book of FileMaker 6' is thick and these topics were not developed completely, he nevertheless covers their importance and the available software tools that can help create truly professional FileMaker solutions. Later on, I suggest that a full review of this section alone is worth merit since it introduces the topic so well. Kudos to him for doing that.
Chris starts the book at Day One, opening FileMaker Pro. He then takes us through a whirlwind tour of the product, its basic functions and features. In case you need to refer to a hard copy version of the FileMaker on-line help, Chris has included virtually all of it in printed form with matching screen shots. Insert a few post-it notes and you start to have a well-referenced tome for all of your development staff. I have looked hard for a product to complement the training that we provide to our clients and require our developers to take. Chris Kubica's Book of FileMaker Pro 6 is it.
While Chris' book has a lot of breadth, I was delighted to find it also has significant depth. His review of relationships and portals for example, not only provides a good solid insight into how relationships work and how portals are used, he also peels off another layer of the onion, revealing more sophisticated uses of both. His example (files are included on the CD) of how to add quantities in a portal without using the keyboard are inspired and the hidden portal trick is lucidly explained. Both techniques are valuable to any developer . His chapter on security and the availability of his 'Darn Good Security' model (again on the CD and downloadable from his site) can become a login technique for any system that has sensitive information.
The author took the time to collaborate with a lot of other developers to bring all the pieces together. As such, the material presented is cogently covered by experts in that particular area. The reader is the beneficiary of the real world wisdom gained by those who have traveled down the road perhaps further than most. The chapters on AppleScript and ActiveX, again surprised me with the depth of their coverage at introducing a novice or even intermediate FileMaker user to technologies which extend FileMaker Pro's functionality.
Chris took the time to thoughtfully explain some of the naming conventions and best practices that he's adopted to make his solutions easy to work with, easy to maintain and easier to bring other developers on board to provide support. This is a favourite topic of mine and what I liked about Chris' approach was his perpsective that FileMaker at any time can be called upon to work with other environments, such as the Web, ODBC - JDBC, XML and of course with plug-ins. His naming conventions conform to this perspective and therefore make his applications more amenable to use with these environments with little or no change.
Of course, when discussing scripts, it is an excellent time to introduce the reader to FileMaker Developer, a powerful development tool which allows the user to 'step through' scripts step-by-step by using the Script Debugger. Chris covers this off beautifully. And FileMaker Inc. feels so strongly about the benefit of this tool in improving developer performance that they now include it in the membership fee to the FileMaker Solutions Alliance. If you are serious about developing FileMaker solutions, you need to use FileMaker Developer. On top of that, Chris notes the several tools that have been developed to analyze your solutions and particularly the scripts you've created. The first is the Database Design Report built into FileMaker Developer and then some third party products that round out any developers toolkit including The Analyzer from Waves in Motion, MetaDataMagic from New Millenium Communications, Brushfire from Chaparral Software and Autoscript.fm Pro.
The entire section on Designing, Estimating, Developing and Managing FileMaker Projects would act as a great study book for individuals who want to upgrade their skills and broaden their capabilities as an all round FileMaker developer.
Conclusion
I really want to revisit the many topics after I've had more time to play with the example files, looked up the resources, and read some of the reference material. FileMaker Server, FileMaker Mobile, ODBC and SQL, Web publishing and then the plethora of solutions that Chris refers to (some of which I'm actively pursuing for a solution I'm working on right now!) are all reasons why this book deserves not only to be purchased and read, but to have a more complete reference site that allows you to access more and more of the material he recommends.
About the Reviewer
James Hea is the President of DataWorksPro Inc, the founder of the FileMaker User and Developer Group of Eastern Ontario (FUDGEO), an authorized trainer for CoreSolutions, a software developer, consultant and project manager. For more reviews on FileMaker publications, visit www.filemakerreview.com
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just What I Needed!, April 8, 2004
This review is from: The Book of FileMaker 6: Your One-Stop Guide to FileMaker Pro, Pro Unlimited, Developer, Server, and Mobile (Paperback)
I had used Filemaker briefly and superficially several years ago to do a relatively simple favor for a friend. However, now ... I belong to a theater group and we needed a database to use in doing our ticketing process. So I volunteered! Silly me! At any rate, I upgraded my copy of Filemaker and set to work learning its intricacies as quickly as possible, not realizing yet how complicated the product as I envisioned it would be. Since the documentation supplied with Filemaker is kind of sparse, I bought a book, several in fact, including Chris' book, specifically. I wanted something that would teach me to use the product at a level beyond a simple discussion of the tools, and I found it in this book! Chris's book is readable and full of useful examples. I read it, turning down corners and marking passages like a fiend, until it looked pretty ratty. But I learned! Chris covers not only the basics of how to use the tools, but also the planning, the"philosophy" if you will - the way to think about and organize a project, the things to consider in actually implementing it. Before I retired, I spent 30 years doing programming and I understand the way to do a software project, and this book seemed very familiar in its approach. There are lots of other books on Filemaker, but this one seems to me to be one of the best in the way it covers all facets of doing a Filemaker project. One thing in particular that I found very helpful is the size of the index! It sounds silly, but having a thoroughly detailed index is very helpful in a book running nearly 800 pages, especially when you want to review some minor topic whose location you can't quite recall. All in all, I have used this book more than any other in doing my theater project (which is now almost finished) and I'm very glad I spent the money on it.
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