Using FileMaker Pro Advanced to create Bandit, an application for bird banders Kevin Laurent USGS Pa

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Using FileMaker Pro Advanced to create
Bandit, an application for bird bandersKevin
LaurentUSGS Patuxent Wildlife Research
CenterLaurel, MarylandFileMaker Users and
Developers in Government and EducationFall
Meeting, October 3, 2007
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Overview

• Background
• Design Development
• Packaging Issues
• Real artists ship (Release Issues)
• Documentation Subsystem
• Summary Q/A

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Background

• Problems with Band Manager
• FoxPro on Win 95 and Mac OS 8
• Crashes and corruption on Win XP and Mac OS X
• Code base not under our control
• Interface cumbersomefeatures missing
• Early 2006, Project TIMBO begins

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Design Development

• Creating a new design
• Prototyping using FileMaker
• Adding business rules and edits via calculations
• The application-data separation model
• Cross-platform issues
• The Roundup issue tracking system

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Data Entry/Edit Screen from Band Manager
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Band Manager Screens
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A New Design

• Streamline interface
• Implement spreadsheet input/edit
• Use Email for uploading data
• Increase banding location accuracy

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Banding locations map
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Banding locations map (detail)
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Design Development

• Creating a new design
• Prototyping using FileMaker Pro Advanced
• Adding business rules and edits via calculations
• The application-data separation model
• Cross-platform issues
• The Roundup issue tracking system

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FileMaker Pro Advanced

• Relational Database
• Cross-platform support (PC/Mac)
• Easy GUI development environment
• Flexible import/export facility
• Unlimited distribution of runtime (FileMaker Pro
  Advanced)

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FileMaker Pro Layout Mode
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Design Development

• Creating a new design
• Prototyping using FileMaker
• Adding business rules and edits via calculations
• The application-data separation model
• Cross-platform issues
• The Roundup issue tracking system

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Error Text field calculation

• If ( not IsEmpty ( is_unique ) and not is_unique
  "Duplicated band number" "" )
• If ( Banding Date gt Get ( CurrentDate ) or
• Banding Date lt Date Received "Invalid Banding
  Date" "" )
• If ( IsEmpty ( Bird Status ) "Undefined Bird
  Status" "" )
• If ( not IsEmpty ( How Aged ) and ListIndex (
  ValueListItems ( "Bandit Data" "How Aged" )
  How Aged False ) 0 "Invalid How Aged
  Code" "" )
• If ( not IsEmpty ( How Sexed ) and ListIndex (
  ValueListItems ( "Bandit Data" "How Sexed" )
  How Sexed False ) 0 "Invalid How Sexed
  Code" "" )
• If (ListIndex ( AOU sizes Band Size False )0
  "Bad Size" "" )
• If ( Length ( AOU )lt4 "Invalid Species" ""
  )
• If ( IsEmpty ( Location ) or LocationIsLocationV
  alid "No" "Location used is not valid " ""
  )
• If ( IsEmpty ( Age Code ) "Invalid Age" "" )
  
• If ( IsEmpty ( Sex Code ) "Invalid Sex" "" )
  

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Design Development

• Creating a new design
• Prototyping using FileMaker
• Adding business rules and edits via calculations
• The application-data separation model
• Cross-platform issues
• The Roundup issue tracking system

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Application-Data Separation Model

• Idea Store application-specific stuff in one
  database and user-specific stuff in another
  database
• Changes to application schema, lookup tables,
  layouts, scripts can be done without having to do
  re-import
• Works, but schema is more complex

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Application-Data Separation Model
Application Database Lookup Tables Layouts Script
s
Data Database Data Tables
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Application-Data Separation Model

• Idea Store application-specific stuff in one
  database and user-specific stuff in another
  database
• Changes to application schema, lookup tables,
  layouts, scripts can be done without having to do
  re-import
• Works, but schema is more complex

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Bandit Application Relationships
Bandit App Relationships
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Bandit Data Relationships
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Design Development

• Creating a new design
• Prototyping using FileMaker
• Adding business rules and edits via calculations
• The application-data separation model
• Cross-platform issues
• The Roundup issue tracking system

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Cross-platform issues

• Not many
• External file support
• PDF generation
• PDFCreator (Windows)
• PDF support built into Mac OS X

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Cross-platform screen comparison
Windows XP
Mac OS X
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Cross-platform issues

• Not many
• External file support
• Scripting
• PDF generation
• PDF support built into Mac OS X
• PDFCreator (Windows)

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External Filenames
Set Variable FilePath Value Case( (Get
(SystemPlatform) -1) "filemac"
(Get(SystemPlatform) -2) "filewin"
"file" ) Get (DocumentsPath)
"Bandit_Bands_" prefix Right
("00000" suffix1 5 ) "_" prefix
Right ("00000" suffix2 5 )
"_" Year (Get ( CurrentDate) ) Lpad
(Month (Get ( CurrentDate)) 2 "0" ) Lpad
(Day (Get ( CurrentDate)) 2 "0" ) ".xls"
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Cross-platform issues

• Not many
• External file support
• Scripting
• PDF generation
• PDF support built into Mac OS X
• PDFCreator (Windows)

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Cross-Platform Scripting
If Get ( SystemPlatform ) -1 // Mac Set
Variable theMacPath ValueLet (
thePath Middle (Get ( FilePath ) 6
999) // Strip off file len Length
(thePath) thePathAsValues Substitute
(thePath "/" "") nValues ValueCount
(thePathAsValues) // Count levels
Substitute (LeftValues (thePathAsValues
nValues - 1) "" "") ) Perform
AppleScript Calculated AppleScript "tell
application \"Finder\" delete folder \""
theMacPath "Backup\" end tell" Else //
Win Send Event open document/application
File Name filecleanup.bat Bring
application to foreground End If
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Cross-platform issues

• Not many
• External file support
• Scripting
• PDF generation
• PDF support built into Mac OS X
• PDFCreator (Windows)

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Design Development

• Creating a new design
• Prototyping using FileMaker
• Adding business rules and edits via calculations
• The application-data separation model
• Cross-platform issues
• The Roundup issue tracking system

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Roundup Issue Tracking System
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Packaging Issues

• Creating Installer for Windows (Inno Setup)
• Apple PackageMaker
• Licensing Issues
• Preparing for future releases
• Versioning
• Data schema changes
• Application changes

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Inno Setup
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Inno SetupScripting
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Bandit Windows Install
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FileMaker Runtime Files
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FileMaker Runtime Files
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Packaging Issues

• Inno Setup
• Apple Package Maker Disk Utility
• Licensing Issues
• Preparing for future releases
• Versioning
• Data schema changes
• Application changes

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Packaging for Mac OS X

• Apple Package Maker
• GUI-driven interface
• Hooks at each stage (preflight, preinstall/
  preupgrade, postinstall/postupgrade, postflight)
• Uses shell scripting

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Mac OS X Preinstall Bash Script
!/bin/bash preinstall and preupgrade script to
save data files in Backup directory Note If 2
were not enclosed in quotes in the next
statement, the script would get an error
if the volume name included a space. if cd "2
then if -f "Bandit App.BND" then if !
-d Backup then echo SCRIPT_NAME
Creating Backup directory in 2 mkdir
Backup chmod 666 Backup fi echo
SCRIPT_NAME Copying data files to Backup
directory... echo SCRIPT_NAME 2/Bandit
App.BND -gt 2/Backup/Bandit App.BND cp
"Bandit App.BND" Backup/ echo SCRIPT_NAME
2/Bandit Data.BND -gt 2/Backup/Bandit Data.BND
cp "Bandit Data.BND" Backup/ echo
SCRIPT_NAME Storing date-time stamp in
2/lastbackup.txt echo date YmdHMS
gtlastbackup.txt else echo SCRIPT_NAME No
Bandit datafiles found in 2 fi else echo
Unable to change to the installation directory.
(It may not exist yet.) fi exit 0
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Bandit Macintosh Installer
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Packaging Issues

• Inno Setup
• Apple PackageMaker
• Licensing Issues
• Preparing for future releases
• Versioning
• Data schema changes
• Application changes

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About Bandit Screen
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Bandit Splash Screen
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Packaging Issues

• Inno Setup
• Apple PackageMaker
• Licensing Issues
• Preparing for future releases
• Versioning
• Data schema changes
• Application changes

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Real artists ship (Release issues)

• Alpha, Beta, and version 1.0
• Keep good release notes
• Beta testers are busy too
• Need beta testers for every platform, language
• Staged releases to different communities
• Waterfowl banders have different needs
• Internal release and training the help desk
• Coordinating training

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Documentation Subsystem

• DocBook SGML, really
• Outputs to XML-FO, HTML, and Helpbook
• Relax NG vs DTD
• Apache Formatting Objects Processor (FOP)

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DocBook Processing
Single-PageHTML
High- Quality PDF
DocBook Source (SGML)
Windows HelpBook
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Bandit Documentation Editing
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Bandit Documentation SGML
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PDF Output
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HTML Output
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Windows Helpbook Output
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FileMaker Mobile

• Supports PalmOS and PocketPC
• Links to Bandit on the Desktop or Laptop
• Dropdown fields and calendar widget

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Bandit Conceptual Overview
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Summary Insight

• Releasing a custom-built software product to
  public users is challenging
• Process changes Little things can mean a lot
• Band Manager used Banding Schedule
• Bandit replaced Schedule with Submit and allowed
  banders to submit data whenever

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Links

• Jrsoftware.orgJordan Russells Software, creator
  of Inno Setup, the windows installer packager,
  http//www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php
• FileMakerCreator of FileMaker Pro Advanced 9,
  http//www.filemaker.com
• Apple Developer ConnectionPackageMaker is part
  of the Xcode Development Tools package,
  http//developer.apple.com/
• DocBookUsed in the creation of the
  documentation, http//www.docbook.org/ and
  http//docbook.sourceforge.net/

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Links (continued)

• Apache Formatting Objects ProcessorUsed in the
  creation of the documentation, http//xmlgraphics.
  apache.org/fop/
• RoundupThe server for tracking bugs, issues, and
  feature requests, http//roundup.sourceforge.net/
• PDFCreatorInstalls a printer driver which
  creates PDFs like Adobe Acrobat,
  http//sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

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Using FileMaker Pro Advanced to create
Bandit, an application for bird bandersKevin
LaurentUSGS Patuxent Wildlife Research
CenterLaurel, MarylandFileMaker Users and
Developers in Government and EducationFall
Meeting, October 3, 2007