Scriptology: Filemaker Pro Demystified

by Matthew Petrowsky

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0966087607
• ISBN13: 9780966087604
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: Iso Production Inc
• Length: 477 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.0" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Great For "Getting to the Next Level" With FileMaker Pro

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.

by far the best filemaker pro book out

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).

Brilliant both in Concept and Execution

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.

A strikingly good book - and genuinely useful.

This is a compilation of Filemaker techniques for the intermediate to advanced user. The layout of the book makes it easy to use. References to the illustrative material on the CDROM let you tinker with the examples immediately - without having to type it in. Good presentation technique makes it even more helpful. It's clear that a lot of attention was given to the structure of this book and its CDROM. For example, each chapter ends with an Overview, a Quiz (with answers), a list of "Highlights" and a section on "What you should have learned". Finally, there's a list of files on the CDROM that show the techniques discussed in that chapter. The authors should be congratulated on their committment to the reader-learner.

This is the book I wish I had written.

I've been training people on advanced FileMaker techniques for years, and my students are always asking me for recommendations of good books about FileMaker scripting and calculations. Since there was nothing out there to recommend, I figured I should write a book myself. As soon as I got my copy of the Scriptology Book and CD and saw what you had accomplished, I gave up. You beat me to it, guys. This is the book I wish I had written.