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Since 1998 most of my database work has been SQL Server stored procedures and database administration for Globalstar USA and the PowerGroups web site. In that time I've learned a great deal about queries, joins, cursors, record-locking, transactions, DTS packages, etc. Prior to that I spent years working with Filemaker Pro. Like everything else, I learned to use Filemaker on the job, developing our in-house project management databases. Some years ago Woodland (now BizDat) decided to turn our production databases into a product that we could sell: BizDat Creative (promotional web site designed by Bob Ratta). That led to a whole new wave of development, and I did the vast majority of it: data modeling, interface design and layout (with direction from my employers), and scripting. Lots of scripting. Looking back on it, I wish I'd been able to move into SQL earlier, because recreating the same Filemaker Pro script in a dozen different database files is a real pain.
BizDat Creative brought us into contact with Dr. Paul Harari, a radiologist at the U.W. Hospitals. Dr. Harari was looking for someone to develop databases that would help him track the outcome of his patients' treatment so he could improve his treatment plans and compile reports on his results. We took on the job with an eye towards developing a general product that we could also sell to other doctors, and BizDat Doctor was born (web site designed, again, by Bob Ratta). In working on these two products I acquired a great deal of experience with Filemaker, and consider myself to be an expert user. I like the program, but as I worked with it I also became more and more aware of its limitations. The inability to separate business logic from the interface was especially galling, and I've been very happy to be moving into SQL development for the web. |
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