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Savvy FM Essentials

Official FileMaker Training Series (FTS) Curriculum

The solution to the "you don't know what you don't know" problem

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Course Length & Price

3 days (9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day); $495/day
Course materials included with course: a DVD of exercise files, solution files and supporting videos.
Note that enrollment is limited by class size, so register early to reserve your seat.

Schedule of Upcoming Classes

Classroom training is currently on hiatus. Please call us at 800.946.5433 about on-site custom training.

Classroom Locations

For location details, please view our directions page.

Course Description

This 3-day course helps you master the essential skills required for developing and deploying solutions in FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Server, FileMaker Go for iOS and WebDirect for web browsers. Highly interactive instruction and hands-on exercises focus on providing students with a solid foundation in using the FileMaker Pro family of technologies.

The Savvy FM Essentials course is presented over 3 days and is part of the FileMaker Training Series (FTS), FileMaker's official curriculum.

While a 3-day course can't cover the entire FTS body of knowledge, our classroom agenda is packed with crucial how-to knowledge and professional developer must-know techniques. Trainer Lee Lukehart has received instruction directly from FileMaker, Inc. on delivering the FTS, and has extensive knowledge of FileMaker best practices and know-how to accelerate learning and productivity.

Whether you're preparing for FileMaker Developer Certification or you just want a convenient and effective way to improve your FileMaker Pro skills, Savvy FM Essentials is an indispensable path to greater proficiency. The FileMaker Training Series (FTS) is designed to help you master the essentials of FileMaker solution development.

The official 800+ page manual covers:

  1. Using FileMaker - Approach FileMaker Pro from the perspective of users: learn techniques for working with FileMaker data, performing Quick Finds, saving Find requests, printing and exporting, setting up recurring imports, and accessing features for working with email, Adobe PDF and Microsoft Excel documents.
  2. Working with Fields - Learn practical skills required to define FileMaker Pro data tables and fields. This module explores data types and options for auto-entry, validation, and field storage. Discover how to manage images and other objects in container fields.
  3. Data Modeling - Learn how to construct different types of data relationships, ensure data integrity, and implement multiple-table solutions. This module also covers lessons in building layouts using related data fields and portals.
  4. Working with Layouts - Discover tools and techniques for creating layouts in FileMaker Pro, including Layout themes, object states, the Inspector tool palette, conditional formatting, auto-resize, Web Viewers, portals, and tab controls. Learn how to organize layouts into groups and how to set Script Trigger options. Understand how to create and use static, dynamic, and relational value lists.
  5. Calculation Functions - Learn how functions work in the calculation engine in FileMaker Pro and how to apply them in various contexts. Study how custom functions are built and how to use them in database solutions.
  6. Scripts - Explore the Script Trigger features of FileMaker Pro, as well as best practices for writing scripts. Learn how to build navigation and window controls, and study logical branching and looping routines.
  7. Reporting - Practice creating reports in FileMaker Pro using a variety of techniques. Explore sub-summary reports that group information by break fields. Work with the charting features of FileMaker Pro. Learn how to build a cross-tab report (with data-driven columns) and an HTML report that is displayed via the Web Viewer object.
  8. Security - Study the account-based security features of FileMaker Pro, and learn how to implement privilege sets, tie access to database solutions to external authentication servers, control both access and authoring rights to systems, and extend security controls with scripting.
  9. Intermediate & Advanced Techniques - Explore how to implement custom menu sets in FileMaker Pro. Learn advanced techniques with portals, including portal sorting and dynamically controlling the contents with a portal with a filter. Learn how to install plug-ins from container fields, and work with the Database Design Report in FileMaker Pro Advanced.
  10. FileMaker Server - Learn the best practices for setting up and maintaining FileMaker Server. Understand how and why to use server-side scripts. Review hardware and networking requirements, learn proper backup routines, and be trained in configuration processes.
  11. Connectivity - Learn how to integrate FileMaker Pro and Server with SQL systems, both through ODBC connections and with the External SQL Data Source capabilities. Review configuration processes and learn to use other data systems in tandem with your FileMaker Pro databases.
  12. Web Publishing - Understand the capabilities of both Instant Web Publishing (IWP) and Custom Web Publishing in FileMaker Pro and learn how to develop solutions to publish via the Web. Gain hands-on experience with IWP.
  13. FileMaker Go - Become familiar with the FileMaker Go application environment for iPhone and iPad. Examine the functionality offered to you through the menu commands, and learn the differences between FileMaker Go and FileMaker Pro. Understand tools and behaviors to start you on your way to building solid and stable mobile applications for the iPhone and iPad.
    Note: Emphasis on module content varies by class; please inquire in advance for the specific agenda.

Instructors

Our instructors are FileMaker Certified Developers and practicing consultants who bring valuable real-world experience and best practices to the classes they teach.

Both Lee Lukehart and Jim Medema have earned every FileMaker Developer Certification
and every FileMaker Authorized Trainer Certification that FileMaker Inc. has offered!
They are two of about 25 consultants in the world who have “earned them all.”

Lee Lukehart is a veteran FileMaker trainer and has earned every developer certification that FileMaker has offered (for versions 18/17/16/15/14/13/12/11/10/9/8/7). He authored the popular white paper on FileMaker Pro Charting and the TechNet webinar on advanced charting techniques.

An enthusiastic FileMaker advocate, Lee has presented sessions at Macworld Expo, Bootcamp for FileMaker, and the last four FileMaker Developer Conferences (DevCon). He has written articles for FileMaker Advisor, and served for a year as the "Advisor Answers" columnist in Advisor Basics for FileMaker magazine. Lee has been using FileMaker to solve client problems for more than two decades, and he began creating and providing FileMaker instruction formally in 2004. His students appreciate his attentive manner and patience in the classroom, and they say his responsive training style makes learning new skills fast and fun.

Jim Medema has trained more than 1000 students in the art and science of relational database development using FileMaker products and related supporting applications. Jim has earned every developer certification and authorized trainer certification that FileMaker has offered (for versions 18/17/16/15/14/13/12/11/10/9/8/7).

Originally trained to be an educator, Jim guides an ongoing conversation in every class about best practices - the tasks, techniques and habits that set apart the exceptional from the average. In the same way that knowing how to use a hammer and saw won’t make you a master carpenter, knowing what a FileMaker feature does won’t make you a star developer. Jim's goal is to guide you to knowledgeable and then on to exceptional! Course content can be intense, but we always laugh and eat well! Oh, and for what it’s worth, Jim’s B.A. was in English, so your chances of actually understanding the class without a geek translation device are extremely high!