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Special Edition Using FileMaker 8 Review by Lee Lukehart
Still a Relevant Technical Resource
Why would I review a technical book that has been in print for more than 3 years? Simply because I think its content is still relevant for present-day developers. Most of the knowledge conveyed in this book continues to describe current best practices. So I wanted to provide a refreshed context for comparing this book to the newer titles that have come out.
I should probably first tell you why I think I'm a credible opinion source. I've been developing on FileMaker for more than 20 years, and I've been certified on every release of the product since version 7. I became a FileMaker Authorized Trainer in 2004, and since then I've been authorized to teach every version of FileMaker's official training curriculum. As a disclaimer I should also share the fact that I was professionally associated with the book's authors for several years -- but as of this review date I have no formal connection and therefore no conflict of interest.
That makes it easy for me to disclose that I'm not blindly enamored of Special Edition: Using FileMaker 8 (hereafter "SEU FM8"). Make no mistake -- consider this book an advanced resource for experienced users. Its content is extensive in scope and depth, and will certainly overwhelm most beginners, and even a sizable percentage of those who consider themselves at least somewhat accomplished developers. My primary criticism of SEU FM8 can also be construed as a strength... and that is the instructional philosophy it adopts. Its format will isolate some readers, as it is not a step-by-step, tutorial type of resource. Hence it takes more effort and dedication to extract the gold nuggets than some of the recent, more approachable books. Examples of the latter are Ray Cologon's excellent contribution in the FileMaker Pro 10 Bible, and Geoff Coffey & Susan Prosser's FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual.
That said, with almost 90 pages of index I find SEU FM8 relatively easy to locate the information I want. There are not many "fluff" pages; the actual content is so dense that one tends to linger and re-read sections. The "Getting Started..." chapters are good de-rusting reads for folks with aging FileMaker experience, and help support the books arguable claim of "the only FileMaker book you need." (I admit I find that statement strongly off-putting as the concept is so absurd. But then again, that quip was from the publisher's marketing department -- not the book's authors.)
Some parts of the book should be on a must-read list. On this list I would place most of the Developer Techniques chapters, including Security, Debugging, Multiuser Deployment, and the handful of chapters on advanced techniques for interface, calculations, and scripting. Part II of the book opens with the all-important relational theory and using FileMaker's Relationship Graph -- the biggest paradigm shift introduced in FileMaker Pro 7. However there is no discussion of data normalization -- a major oversight, in my opinion. No, FileMaker doesn't impose strict normalization requirements, and yes, one can easily find web-based explanations of this database concept. But FileMaker developers generally do not come from the ranks of SQL programming and computer science. The concept should at least be framed, with explanations about the dangers of ignoring the first two normal forms.
I'm also quite disappointed in the anemic coverage of plug-ins... only 4 pages! I realize that subsequent versions of FileMaker obsolete the need for some plug-ins, but we do the developer community a disservice by not noting and describing specific options for extending FileMaker's capabilities. Plug-in functionalities like data encryption, synchronization, graphing, and file manipulation (just to name a few) greatly extend the powers of FileMaker. These tools are in every good developer's quiver, and their absence is conspicuous.
Overall, I find SEU FM8 to be extraordinarily strong in content, but I would like to see bulleted items at the end of each chapter, highlighting the essential knowledge that is buried in the text. There are many examples of best practices, that deserve to be called out. Marketing-wise, I would think that having a distilled essence of each chapter would bridge the gulf between in-depth tome and friendly, easily-accessible guidebook.
In summary I find SEU FM8 to be a terrific book, and still an essential read for those on the path to expertise. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the reference section of the prior book was pulled into a separate companion FileMaker(R) 9 Developer Reference: Functions, Scripts, Commands, and Grammars, with Extensive Custom Function Examples. I still keep both these books readily accessible on my bookshelf.