Rave: Axure (Prototyping)
PictureForLife.net is close to completion. I'm really excited about this. It will be more than just a standard photography site. Thanks to my friends at Akcelerant, they turned me on to this prototyping software from Axure a couple months ago. It's a great piece of software for designing applications. I've never been a fan of wire framing because to be honest....I found it boring because they're basically just some pictures of what screens will look like. What sets Axure apart is the fact that you can put some code bits behind the wire frame. Thus, allowing one to be able to see interactions between components.
There are basically two approaches you can take. You can start designing screens and interactions (i.e. wire frame) or you can start with a flow model which utilizes a flow chart approach. I chose to go the wire frame route. Once you're done, you can have the system generate a specification document. That's the icing on the cake. I don't write specifications -- NEVER!. This system does it for you.
Going forward, I will use Axure. It's a wonderful tool in the toolbox.
You can check out the prototype for the website. I've developed this site using Flex and FileMaker. The next phase will include a FaceBook application to my site. I've been working with the FaceBook API for the past couple of weeks and it's powerful and very easy to code in. More on this later.
Rave: Ubunto
A colleague recently told me about a Linux flavor called Ubunto. It's a simplistic flavor of Linux. I've installed Linux before and I've always struggled with them. Then, trying to install instances of php, ruby, apache, and MySQL was painful. Installing Ubunto only took 10 minutes to install and get up and running. I installed this in my parallels system using a linux kernel 2.6. The download of Ubunto is an ISO file. Once you mount it on parallels - a working version comes up instantly. It's like doing a try before you buy approach. I played around with it and all I had to do is click on the "install" icon. I answered a few questions and then it was done.
Once Ubunto was installed, I installed PHP, Ruby on Rails, MySQL, and Apache2 via a couple of commands I was up and running. Literally took me 10 minutes to install these applications.
Ubunto comes with OpenOffice installed. It also comes with Gimp which is an underrated imaging application.
Showing posts with label FileMaker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FileMaker. Show all posts
Monday, August 20, 2007
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
FileMaker Conference Notes
The FileMaker conference is winding down. Tomorrow, I'm in an all day session focusing on creative design.
I have been to a lot of conferences in my lifetime. This was my first time at the FileMaker conference. Let's say I was at home. First, MAC users out numbered PC users 20:1. Second, almost everyone had an iPhone. Third, the people were just groovy man. Well, except for the guy that had gas -- that's a story for another day. Finally, these folks were absolute raving fans of FileMaker.
During the conference, I had to the opportunity to look at some of the applications that are being developed by the FileMaker community. Let me say, that some of these applications were just amazing. The majority of applications developed by the FileMaker community don't necessarily come from programmers and/or analysts. They are developed by people that use the software. You could tell just by how some of these applications flowed. I spoke to a doctor who designed his own patient record system. I Spoke to an accountant who designed his own accounting system. I spoke to an owner of a bowling alley who wrote is own point of sale system.
What impressed me the most -- was how folks from different backgrounds were able to collaborate with one another. Witnessing programmers sitting down with non-programmers to see how they were learning from each other was impressive. One actual conversation I was apart of was watching a programmer explain recursive functions to a doctor. The doctor was listening and learning. Then, I saw that same doctor show the programmer how he integrated document processing through PDF's using PHP's PDF library. BTW - I learned something from this doctor. He did some amazing stuff with PDF documents.
Over the years, I've taken abuse for being a FileMaker fan. I think their database is powerful and easy to use. I love the scripting features that would rival any established business rule engine. In fact, that's one of the reasons I used FileMaker in an application I've designed. I don't think Microsoft or Oracle are concerned or threatened by FileMaker. Why? FileMaker has carved off a niche for themselves that these two powerhouses don't want. FileMaker caters to the small to mid-size organization. In fact, Microsoft, Oracle, and MySQL have partnered with FileMaker in integrating their databases into FileMaker Server. What's great about this integration is that all the integration is done on the server. Clients don't need ODBC connections for it to work.
Finally, you could tell that FileMaker listens to their customers. They understand them and want to collaborate with them. Recently, they cut the price of their technet program to only $99.00 per year. This includes a developer version of FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Pro Advance Server. That's a bargain. I heard some grumblings from some folks stating that it was a mistake because it's only going to diminish the quality of the technet community. I say good for FileMaker. They want to hear from their customers and they're going to.
PS: Here are some notes I took from the conference:
I have been to a lot of conferences in my lifetime. This was my first time at the FileMaker conference. Let's say I was at home. First, MAC users out numbered PC users 20:1. Second, almost everyone had an iPhone. Third, the people were just groovy man. Well, except for the guy that had gas -- that's a story for another day. Finally, these folks were absolute raving fans of FileMaker.
During the conference, I had to the opportunity to look at some of the applications that are being developed by the FileMaker community. Let me say, that some of these applications were just amazing. The majority of applications developed by the FileMaker community don't necessarily come from programmers and/or analysts. They are developed by people that use the software. You could tell just by how some of these applications flowed. I spoke to a doctor who designed his own patient record system. I Spoke to an accountant who designed his own accounting system. I spoke to an owner of a bowling alley who wrote is own point of sale system.
What impressed me the most -- was how folks from different backgrounds were able to collaborate with one another. Witnessing programmers sitting down with non-programmers to see how they were learning from each other was impressive. One actual conversation I was apart of was watching a programmer explain recursive functions to a doctor. The doctor was listening and learning. Then, I saw that same doctor show the programmer how he integrated document processing through PDF's using PHP's PDF library. BTW - I learned something from this doctor. He did some amazing stuff with PDF documents.
Over the years, I've taken abuse for being a FileMaker fan. I think their database is powerful and easy to use. I love the scripting features that would rival any established business rule engine. In fact, that's one of the reasons I used FileMaker in an application I've designed. I don't think Microsoft or Oracle are concerned or threatened by FileMaker. Why? FileMaker has carved off a niche for themselves that these two powerhouses don't want. FileMaker caters to the small to mid-size organization. In fact, Microsoft, Oracle, and MySQL have partnered with FileMaker in integrating their databases into FileMaker Server. What's great about this integration is that all the integration is done on the server. Clients don't need ODBC connections for it to work.
Finally, you could tell that FileMaker listens to their customers. They understand them and want to collaborate with them. Recently, they cut the price of their technet program to only $99.00 per year. This includes a developer version of FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Pro Advance Server. That's a bargain. I heard some grumblings from some folks stating that it was a mistake because it's only going to diminish the quality of the technet community. I say good for FileMaker. They want to hear from their customers and they're going to.
PS: Here are some notes I took from the conference:
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