The old fmcollective

Architects & Builders

Working at inRESONANCE taught me a number of things about software development that I hadn't learned as an independent developer. As an independent you are responsible for everything - business development, project specification, design, coding, testing, bug fixing, installation, support, billing, and everything else you never thought of. If you're not proficient at one or more of those things, say billing clients for work you've done, you're not going to last very long.

Technical Briefs and White Papers as Invaluable Developer Resources

In numerous venues over the past six weeks or so, a number of developers and other users of FileMaker Pro have raised a number of questions about the behavior of various members of the FileMaker Family of Products or about their proper deployment. These have ranged from conversion issues from older versions, to external authentication, to record level access privilege behaviors, to proper hardware requirements for FileMaker® Server 8 and FileMaker® Server 8 Advanced.

FileMaker, Inc. and a number of senior developers have over the past three years anticipated many of these questions and issues. As a result, on the corporate website are a number of Technical Briefs and White Papers that cover these matters in rather extensive detail.

For more information click here.

Steven H. Blackwell

Moving Soon!

Hold on to your hats folks. The Proof Group LLC ("Proof") will now be the major sponsor of The FileMaker Collective. We will be moving to our new home shortly minus the tired-old Google Ads.

Happy Belated New Year!

First a hearty Happy New Year to all our readers and subscribers.

I owe everyone an explanation for the radio silence from my corner in the last few months. My deepest apologies to friends and readers out there who have been pinging me without avail. I wasn't ignoring you. Well, yes, I was, in fact, ignoring you but in my itty-bitty defense, it was because I had agreed not to discuss the all-consuming negotiations of my separation from inRESONANCE that had been underway.

A couple of months after this blog was launched last year, I started the process of leaving inRESONANCE, the FileMaker-heavy company that I co-founded and the home to some of the most impressive thinkers and doers I have had the privilege to work with.

To say the least, leaving iR was a profoundly difficult decision, though, for me, it was a necessary one. I was partly influenced by some big changes happening in my personal life in the same year--I was engaged, getting married in November and had moved to Florida in anticipation of that. I know, who would have thought, right? Trust me, I have never been happier, and I am learning to coexist with Florida. In short, it was time to take a hard look at what I wanted to do. For me, the grand calculus around the question of work had become reduced to two simple questions, what kind of life I wanted to have and what would I have more fun doing?

I had not anticipated this separation to be as arduous a journey as it was. Two months became four, four dragged out to six. Finally, on Dec 28, 2006, it was all over, and I officially stopped checking my iR email. The worst part of the entire affair was the self-imposed isolation in the interest of respecting the sensitivity of the matter and honoring the confidentiality of the negotiations.

Today is a new day. I feel good and excited for the next chapter in life. Steve Ritchie (former CFO and partner at iR) and I have launched new a outfit called The Proof Group LLC ("Proof"). There is not much up on the website right now but that's because we'll be paying attention to paying gigs first. We are also hiring or otherwise looking to establish professional connections as Proof. Check us out and drop us a line.

To my clients and former colleagues and the many professionals who have made the last seven years at iR such a blast, I thank you all for the tremendous privilege and pleasure of your company. I hope you'll forgive my reticence around the separation and I look forward to our re-acquaintance.

FileMaker Pro Version ???

December 26th 2006

It is now eleven years now—almost exactly to the day—since the venerable Claris introduced FileMaker Pro 3.0v1, and the products and the company entered the first phase of the Modern Era of desktop databases. The product and the company have both evolved markedly since then. Indeed the introduction by FileMaker, Inc, of FileMaker Pro 7 in March of 2004 was revolutionary rather than evolutionary. That introduction ushered in the second phase of the Modern Era of desktop databases.

Surprisingly and disappointingly to me, any number of organizations and individuals still linger in the first phase and have never made the transition to the more powerful, more useful, and yes, more complex second phase versions. While I sincerely wish these folks well, both time and tide (so to speak) have passed. Unless they do move to the second phase of the Modern Era, they won't be part of FileMaker’s future. And sadly, neither will FileMaker be part of theirs, if they have one.

All of which raises the interesting question of what that FileMaker future may be. What will the products be like and how will they function? What features and capabilities will they have? How will developers learn to use them successfully and correctly? Despite bemoaning wails on many FileMaker oriented sites and lists to the contrary, the company pays very close attention to feature requests. It both solicits them and receives others unsolicited as well. An entire team of high level and very professional people spends a huge amount of time and effort trying to determine the best mix of features for the products. Their work is for the most part unsung and unheralded; indeed most on the outside have no idea of their existence or of their Herculean efforts.

All this focus on future versions raises of course the question of what features not now part of the product would developers like to see introduced? As noted, FileMaker, Inc. collects this information in a variety of ways. But now, those clever folks at the FMPUG have gone a step further. They have introduced a new FileMaker Feature Requests site where developers can request new features, explain why they want them, and explain what they will do. More interestingly, developers can also vote on feature requests offered by their colleagues.

So…go on over to the FMPUG site and enter your feature request and vote on other developers' requests.

FMPUG.com

Steven H. Blackwell

Simplicity and Software Architecture

I'm always a bit behind the times so it was only recently that I found out that DevCon would be returning to the JW Marriott Grande Lakes in Orlando. I actually miss the Arizona setting. Sure, it's hot in AZ but it's a dry heat. Orlando is just as hot with the humidity but it does have better food going for it. While both cities suffer from a severe case of sprawl, there is something about the Sonoran desert that is seductive to me. Walking through the desert brush makes me more aware of life and the scale of it. It's my personal Total Perspective Vortex.

Encryption = Less Secure?

Recently in a post to the FMPexperts list a question was asked about securing a database away from the system administrators. The current FMP security model doesn't provide a method for the database owner to secure the system against the database administrator. Someone with physical access to the file has the ability to attack that file at their leisure. While opening an FMP file with a text editor will reveal little, the savvy hacker will soon discover and bypass the encoding scheme used. The less savvy hacker will fork over $45 to provide them with access to the file.

Post-Design Caucus Meditations

Albert and the gang at SmallCo host the FM Design Caucus on the first Thursday of the month where a group of developers get together to look at design issues using FMP. Luckily when it was my turn in November they went easy on me.

Where are the bloggers?

I haven't been posting much, giving the renovation of my house as much of my spare time as my body and family will allow. When I do have a spare moment, for some reason playing with the kids always wins out over posting to the blog. Go figure.

Known Vulnerabilities of Ersatz and Artificial Security Systems

For the past six months or so, the FileMaker community has again been deluged with numerous examples of ersatz and artificial security systems that purport to manage Accounts, set privileges, control access, and perform other functions found with the province of the built-in FileMaker Pro security system.

In my judgment and from my experience, such ersatz systems are fraught with vulnerabilities.  They give the appearance of security, but they in fact introduce a realm of vulnerabilities into a given FileMaker Pro solution.

Generally speaking, security systems are designed to protect the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA) of data and business process in a file as well to protect developer intellectual property.  Items that impinge on CIA or that introduce methods to compromise CIA are–by their definition–security vulnerabilities.  Developers and Administrators must assess on a case by case basis the likely risk level attached to a specific threat and the likely impact of any breach on the data, operations, corporate reputation, or people in an organization.

Generally speaking, these ersatz systems work to undermine and to defeat security. 

Read more, including specific descriptions of vulnerabilities at http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/180727/ or http://tinyurl.com/rbo5c.