I moved the content of this blog to my company's web site, scotthowardconsulting.com. Please see the Resource page for this and more articles about developing software in FileMaker Pro for Mac, Windows, iPhone and iPad.
Scott
Friday, April 22, 2011
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Welcome!
This site is dedicated to helping new users of FileMaker Pro - or fairly new developers - get better grounded in the fundamentals. I credit my growth as a developer to the unselfish gift of time and advice given to me by top FileMaker developers througout the world. I hope this site is a small repayment of the debt I owe them.
I plan to post articles on the basics of database design and FileMaker Pro. There are many sites where one can go for help with all aspects of FileMaker Pro, but most seem to cater to intermediate or advanced users or developers. (I will provide links to many of these sites.) I have always enjoyed training new users and helping them get the most from FileMaker for their uses. This site is a natural outgrowth of that.
Please check back soon to see what's new!
Scott Howard
Owner, Developer
Scott Howard Consulting
designing software that fits
I plan to post articles on the basics of database design and FileMaker Pro. There are many sites where one can go for help with all aspects of FileMaker Pro, but most seem to cater to intermediate or advanced users or developers. (I will provide links to many of these sites.) I have always enjoyed training new users and helping them get the most from FileMaker for their uses. This site is a natural outgrowth of that.
Please check back soon to see what's new!
Scott Howard
Owner, Developer
Scott Howard Consulting
designing software that fits
Saturday, September 23, 2006
What is a database?
Let's just start at the very beginning: What is a database?
In essence, a database is a collection of information. You may be surprised to learn that a database doesn't have to be on a computer. It can be a cigar box full of business cards or an envelope full of coupons. But when your box starts filling up or your envelope bulges with coupons, it becomes difficult to find the right card or coupon. So you may one day organize your cards in a Rolodex
or your coupons in an expanding file pouch with letter tabs. Now your information is stored in a "database system".
"A database system is a set of procedures, devices, and rules for managing the information in a database." (from "Learning FileMaker Pro 8.5" by Jonathan Stars Wordware Publishing; Palno, TX) So, a Rolodex is a "database system" because it takes your cigar box full of business cards, puts them on the Rolodex spindle and organizes them alphabetically.
So let's say you spend a few hours one Saturday organizing your cards in your new Rolodex by last name. You proudly take your full spindle into the office. You enjoy looking up people's phone numbers so quickly. One day you remember a saleswoman named "Sandra" you promised to call, but you can't remember her last name. You think, "She worked for some office machine company, but I don't remember which." You could flip through your Rolodex and pull all the cards from office machine companies, or every card with a first name "Sandra". You can see that this is not very efficient.
Most of us think of computers when we hear the word "database" because they are excellent devices for storing, retrieving, finding and reporting on data. If you had your cards entered into a computer-based database system you could search for every person with the first name "Sandra". Chances are, in a second or two you would end up with fewer than a dozen names and one would probably stand out or jog your memory as the one you had promised to call. FileMaker Pro is one of many computer-based database products available for computers running Macintosh or Windows.
Next, we will look at the basic elements of a database, then we will focus on how these work in FileMaker Pro.
In essence, a database is a collection of information. You may be surprised to learn that a database doesn't have to be on a computer. It can be a cigar box full of business cards or an envelope full of coupons. But when your box starts filling up or your envelope bulges with coupons, it becomes difficult to find the right card or coupon. So you may one day organize your cards in a Rolodex
or your coupons in an expanding file pouch with letter tabs. Now your information is stored in a "database system"."A database system is a set of procedures, devices, and rules for managing the information in a database." (from "Learning FileMaker Pro 8.5" by Jonathan Stars
Wordware Publishing; Palno, TX) So, a Rolodex is a "database system" because it takes your cigar box full of business cards, puts them on the Rolodex spindle and organizes them alphabetically. So let's say you spend a few hours one Saturday organizing your cards in your new Rolodex by last name. You proudly take your full spindle into the office. You enjoy looking up people's phone numbers so quickly. One day you remember a saleswoman named "Sandra" you promised to call, but you can't remember her last name. You think, "She worked for some office machine company, but I don't remember which." You could flip through your Rolodex and pull all the cards from office machine companies, or every card with a first name "Sandra". You can see that this is not very efficient.
Most of us think of computers when we hear the word "database" because they are excellent devices for storing, retrieving, finding and reporting on data. If you had your cards entered into a computer-based database system you could search for every person with the first name "Sandra". Chances are, in a second or two you would end up with fewer than a dozen names and one would probably stand out or jog your memory as the one you had promised to call. FileMaker Pro is one of many computer-based database products available for computers running Macintosh or Windows.
Next, we will look at the basic elements of a database, then we will focus on how these work in FileMaker Pro.
Elements of a database
Over the years in my consulting business, perhaps the most common way I find individuals handling information for their jobs is in Excel spreadsheets. Almost every one in every position needs to keep some type of information that is specific to their job. And Excel is a great place to do it. It is fairly easy to use, you can sort by columns and you can even share the information with Word to create form letters and address labels. But sooner or later most of us get to the place where we need a better way to use and manage our data, especially if we want to use our data in many different places or summarize and report on it.
In a later article, we will explore some of the ways FileMaker Pro and Excel can work together. Here I bring it up because if you are familiar with storing data in Excel, you will understand some of the basic elements on a database.
The Table
Data is stored in tables. An Excel worksheet is a table. A table is a collection of data about a specific thing, such as people or companies or products. My wife has a spreadsheet on which she checks off what groceries she needs this week. This is a table about groceries, not people invited to my daughter's birthday party next month. This is important to understand: a table should only contain information about a specific thing, subject, or entity. Here is a table of people:
Rows and Columns
A table is made up of rows and columns. Each row represents one person in our sample table. Steve Linder is the Support Representative for Carp Corp. Ideally, no other row should contain Steve Linder's name or information. On my wife's grocery list each line contains one grocery item.
So, a row represents one specific, unique person in our table above. Each column represents an attribute of that person. Steve Linder's position is "Support Representative". His company is "Carp Corp." Attributes may be the same for different people. Betty Brown also works for Carp Corp. Even someone's first and last names are attributes of that unique person, even though many people may have the same name. (This presents a problem when storing data about people, but we will talk about how to solve it later.)
In FileMaker Pro, a row is called a "record". Each person in our database will have his or her own record. The attributes describing that person are "fields". If our table were in FileMaker Pro, the columns are fields and the column headers at the top of our table are the field names. Here is what our table may look like in FileMaker Pro 8.5:
Files
In FileMaker Pro, a file can contain many tables. Prior to FileMaker Pro 7, each file could contain only one table. Because of this, it was common for FileMaker developers to use "file" and "table" interchangeably. This has changed since FileMaker Pro 7 but you still may run across this in articles about FileMaker database design.
What's next?
In our next post, we will introduce FileMaker Pro 10, tour its layout, how to get around in it, and discuss some of the tools you can use to manage your information more effectively. Throughout these articles, we will use the table above with a little more data and soon we will walk through building a simple contact management database system.
In a later article, we will explore some of the ways FileMaker Pro and Excel can work together. Here I bring it up because if you are familiar with storing data in Excel, you will understand some of the basic elements on a database.
The Table
Data is stored in tables. An Excel worksheet is a table. A table is a collection of data about a specific thing, such as people or companies or products. My wife has a spreadsheet on which she checks off what groceries she needs this week. This is a table about groceries, not people invited to my daughter's birthday party next month. This is important to understand: a table should only contain information about a specific thing, subject, or entity. Here is a table of people:
Rows and Columns
A table is made up of rows and columns. Each row represents one person in our sample table. Steve Linder is the Support Representative for Carp Corp. Ideally, no other row should contain Steve Linder's name or information. On my wife's grocery list each line contains one grocery item.
So, a row represents one specific, unique person in our table above. Each column represents an attribute of that person. Steve Linder's position is "Support Representative". His company is "Carp Corp." Attributes may be the same for different people. Betty Brown also works for Carp Corp. Even someone's first and last names are attributes of that unique person, even though many people may have the same name. (This presents a problem when storing data about people, but we will talk about how to solve it later.)
In FileMaker Pro, a row is called a "record". Each person in our database will have his or her own record. The attributes describing that person are "fields". If our table were in FileMaker Pro, the columns are fields and the column headers at the top of our table are the field names. Here is what our table may look like in FileMaker Pro 8.5:
Files
In FileMaker Pro, a file can contain many tables. Prior to FileMaker Pro 7, each file could contain only one table. Because of this, it was common for FileMaker developers to use "file" and "table" interchangeably. This has changed since FileMaker Pro 7 but you still may run across this in articles about FileMaker database design.
What's next?
In our next post, we will introduce FileMaker Pro 10, tour its layout, how to get around in it, and discuss some of the tools you can use to manage your information more effectively. Throughout these articles, we will use the table above with a little more data and soon we will walk through building a simple contact management database system.
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