Scriptology: Filemaker Pro Demystified (Paperback)

by Matthew Petrowsky (Author), John M. Osborne (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The most comprehensive FileMaker Pro book ever written. Scriptology is a combination book and CD ROM covering FileMaker Pro 3.0 and 4.0 including scripting, calculations, relationships and interface design. Both products stand alone but together they create the most complete FileMaker training product. The CD ROM contains over 200 technique files that demonstrate with a FileMaker file how to implement techniques the experts use. There are also 12 reference files with information like cross-platform considerations, a graphics library, undocumented keyboard commands, FileMaker error codes, calculation functions and much more. The best thing about Scriptology is that it does not reiterate what the FileMaker manual covers. Rather, it is designed to take you to the next level of FileMaking without alienating the novice.

Product Details

• Paperback: 477 pages
• Publisher: Iso Production Inc (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966087607
• ISBN-13: 978-0966087604
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #619,618 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant both in Concept and Execution, June 6, 1999

By A Customer

I wasn't sure anyone could write a book worth nearly 90 smackers. Well, these two have done it. They've broken ranks with the Usual Computer-Book fodder: you'll find no Manual rehashing. When they DO cover familiar topics, they do so using fresh examples with imaginative twists. Instead of trying to be all things to all people they focus on Scripting, Functions, Relationships and how to integrate these parts into good Database Design. Intelligently, they give a careful nod to Database documentation (how many hours have YOU spent trying to retrace unwieldy DBs?) The accompanying CD - which is brilliantly integrated with the book - providies additional rich, searchable, documentation. Definitely the best use I've seen of the Book-CD formula. Most importantly, I think I've learnt more in a few weeks with this book than in 4-plus years of working with Filemaker.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars by far the best filemaker pro book out, October 29, 2000

By	N. Dimaio - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After using a customized filemaker pro solution for two years at work, which the company had outgrown, I decided to start from scratch and create my own. I have purchased several filemaker books over the past few months and this is the only one which supplemented the filemaker pro manual. It says it covers Filemaker Pro 3.0 and 4.0 but everything applies to Filemaker Pro 5.0 also.

Absolutely every technique I was trying to do was described in detail here. This book explains some of the workaround techniques that are not instantly built in to Filemaker but are possible with a little work. The supplemental CD has each technique as a seperate database file making it easy to analyze and adapt to your own database.

Filemaker Pro is much easier to use than Access and superior when creating both an interface and printed reports, especially graphic intensive reports such as catalogs.

Read the Filemaker Pro manual, then buy this book. The high price of the book is completely covered in the fact that it is so comprehensive and covers advanced techniques in such easy to understand language.

I got a lot of ideas for my own databases from reading this book and was highly impressed by such detailed content.

If you are deciding between Visual Quickstart's Filemaker Pro (it only covers what is covered in the Filemaker manual), Filemaker Pro Bible (hardly comprehensive enough to be called a bible), Automating Filemaker Pro (more theory and description than how to automate it), and Scriptology, ONLY buy Scriptology. It will save you a lot of time and money (unless you are stupid like me and buy all the other books first).

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great For "Getting to the Next Level" With FileMaker Pro, December 6, 2000

By A Customer

When I first started doing database development back in 1995, I searched long and hard for a good book that'd teach me all about many of the "hard to get your head around" features of FileMaker Pro such as advanced scripting, understanding calculation formulas, dealing with related data and portals, and how to build killer user interfaces. At the time, there were no good books (to my knowledge). Later, after I'd finished my first subcontracting gig as a FileMaker developer and started my own company, I stumbled across Scriptology. I don't even remember where I found it (it was some unlikely place like a mall bookstore or something.)

I have to say that the book helped a great deal in my efforts to become a professional Filemaker developer, an advanced scripter, and a careful database planner/architect. I had already learned many of the techniques illuminated in the book by the by...from colleagues or by surfing the Web, but never before had all the greatest tips and techniques been collected in one place. Enter Scriptology.

One point, though. While I'm sure John and Matt are putting together a new edition as we speak, the book is dated in some respects (it doesn't cover FileMaker 5's new features). It also doesn't cover some very advanced FileMaker topics such as ODBC connectivity, Web development, or the use of plugins. For these reasons, the book seems pricy, but it'll still add a great deal to any developer's FileMaker database-building arsenal.