The Support Group Blog

The Science Behind Quality: A FileMaker Pro Customer Success Story

Scientific Specialties

Scientific Specialties (SSI) manufactures plastic consumables for scientific research. But more than that, they adhere to a very high standard of product quality and excellence. They control the manufacturing process and environment in which their products are developed and strictly enforce ISO and Cleanroom classification requirements. Learn how FileMaker Pro helps their operators efficiently manage quality assurance tasks.

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Seeing the Forest through the Trees with FileMaker Pro

A FileMaker Pro customer success story: the Nebraska Forest Service.

The Nebraska Forest Service uses FileMaker Pro to reduce operational redundancies and centralize data in order to protect natural forest resources and educate the community.

The Nebraska Forest Service’s overall mission is to enrich the lives of Nebraska’s citizens by protecting, restoring and utilizing Nebraska’s tree and forest resources. They provide resources and training for volunteer fire departments across the state, host workshops for the public about tree care and invasive pest management and they offer grants to communities, schools and other organizations that help manage and protect the trees and forests of Nebraska.

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FileMaker Security Best Practices

Security is a very sensitive topic these days. Data breaches, privacy violations, malicious attacks, etc. seem to dominate national and international news stories. As we become more connected, our data becomes more attractive and consequently more vulnerable to hackers. So, we need to take proper precautions to mitigate those threats.

Company databases are particularly susceptible to threats because data is the new oil. We rely on data to make important business decisions that ultimately impact revenue and overall business success. Therefore, we must take the time and effort to establish appropriate safeguards for our data resources. 

DATA PRIVACY STANDARDS & REGULATION

In light of the fallout from Facebook's privacy breach and the impending General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), data privacy warrants particular attention. Since extra data about people can be a liability when it comes to security, it's best to be conservative and only collect the data you need. Secure the data in your custom app according to industry standards and within your contact's expectations. For example, if you're in the healthcare field and you collect medical information from patients, you may want to audit your system’s architecture for HIPAA compliance. And you should always consider HIPPA before adding new data points to the database. If your data is accessible to third parties, you have to let your contacts know and confirm their consent before sharing their information. Whether you're engaging with folks in the US or the EU, be aware of the specific laws that protect different users/contacts and be sure you can adequately respond to questions about your data privacy procedures.

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Five Tips for Building a Successful Custom Web Application

Custom web applications make your business accessible and portable, any where and on any device. So you can be just as productive at a client meeting or getting coffee as you are at your desk. When you find yourself in a need of a custom web application, here are a few things to consider for building a custom web application.

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How to Create a Progress Bar in FileMaker Pro

We rely on indicators to let us know that a process is running. We can hear our engines running or see the timer ticking down on the microwave – all positive indications that something is working. Have you ever been on hold with no hold music or regular automated updates? It can be frustrating because you don't know if you're still in the queue or wasting your time. So it's good, virtually expected, to include a progress bar or an alert within a process in order to maintain engagement.

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FileMaker Go Animations in FileMaker 16

You will notice a significant improvement with FileMaker Go animations in FileMaker 16. If the idea was to make the transitions appear more like the ones we usually see within iOS apps then mission accomplished!

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5 Ways FileMaker Go Creates Better Ways to Work

We are so excited that FileMaker Go has reached a major milestone — more than 3 million product downloads!  What a tremendous accomplishment and a true testament to its efficacy.

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DevCon 2017 Bytes: FileMaker Server

Every year FileMaker developers converge on a specified city to learn how to make the most of the FileMaker Pro product. And although the format of the FileMaker Developer Conference doesn't change too much year after year in terms of training, presentations, breakout sessions, etc., the content does change because of the various new features available with the latest software release. And FileMaker 16 does have a lot of new features to boast about, including its impact on FileMaker Server. I attended a session that focused on some of the under-the-hood components of FileMaker Server.

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DevCon 2017 Bytes: FileMaker Integration

I attended JSON and API sessions during the FileMaker Developer conference and they blew my mind! The two technologies actually go hand and hand; one is built on the other so it was a very informative and comprehensive day for me. FileMaker integration features are my favorite benefits of the platform because they allow us to connect and exchange data with other data sources, thereby expanding the capabilities of our applications. I was able to witness some amazing FileMaker integrations between these two sessions.

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2017 FileMaker DevCon Scholarship

We at The Support Group want to encourage women to join the FileMaker community and the technology industry in general. It's not hard to see how disproportionate the number of male FileMaker developers vs. female FileMaker developers is at the annual FileMaker Developer Conference. So this year we decided to donate one of our conference tickets to an aspiring female FileMaker leader who would otherwise not be able to attend the 2017 FileMaker DevCon event.

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