InBizness Real Estate 2.0 Goes Live!

July 6, 2009; Seattle Washington - dwaynewright.com is excited to announce the immediate availability of InBizness Real Estate 2.0! This latest release of an open FileMaker framework solution has two new modules and a number of enhancements to the existing contact, property listing and activity modules.


ACTIVITY GROUP MODULE (NEW)
Added a new module called activity groups, this allows the user to create groups of activities and quickly add these activities to a property record. Navigation to this module can be accessed from under the navigation menu.

DRAG AND DROP CREATOR (NEW)
Currently compatible with Macintosh computers only and uses the Troi File plug-in, allows you to leverage drag and drop desktop features for adding files and photos to property files. Optionally, you can also store these files / photos on the remote hosting service JungleDisk.

OVERALL MODULE CHANGES
Added a pop down field to give quick navigation from one module to the next

ACTIVITY MODULE CHANGES
Added “Cancel” as a value list choice option for Activity status.

CONTACT MODULE CHANGES
Added logic and custom function to create batch correspondence from a found set of records using a template.
Added the ability to link files to contact records for the contact form screen.
Added the ability to print an envelope from the contacts module from under the contact menu.
Added the ability to print a set of Avery 5160 labels from the contacts module from under the contact menu.
Added the ability to export found set of records as an Excel file from the contacts module from under the contact menu.

CORRESPONDENCE MODULE CHANGES
Added logic to create a related activity (tied to the contact) when a correspondence record is printed.
Added the ability to print an envelope from the correspondence module from under the correspond menu.
Added the ability to print a set of Avery 5160 labels from the correspondence module from under the correspond menu.
Removed the “print found set button” users found them confusing. This option is still available under the Correspondence custom menu.
Added a delete button in the correspond template dialog box for deleting template letters

PROPERTY MODULE CHANGES
Combined the File and Photo tabs together to save space and to better unify their common purposes.
Added a tab to show only the activities in open status and another tab to show all the activities related to a property.
Added validation to the SIR# and MLS # to insure they can only contain unique values.
Added a custom menu option under property listings to cancel any open activities for a viewed property.
Added contract date to the listing info section
Moved the agent info data fields to under the Other Info tab, made room for contract date field in its place.
Added the subdivision field to the main listing info area

More information is available by visiting http://www.dwaynewright.com/inbiz/realestate/index.html

InBizness Real Estate Coming Soon

Occasionally, I get a client that is interested in my InBizness product but they don’t need an office database that is so large in scope. Just over a month ago, I had a real estate professional contact me about a FileMaker CRM need focused to his business needs. He liked the setup of InBizness but had no need for 60 % of the modules. Right out of the gate, he only needed the contacts, staff, events and correspondence modules. He also needed a new module to track property listings and have it linked operationally to the other modules.

Now it is possible to invest in a copy of InBizness and the remove the navigation to modules that you do not need. The code for those modules is still there, ready to be used if necessary but users are not distracted with buttons that take them to modules unneeded to accomplish defined company objectives.


Instead of selling this customer a copy InBizness 2.8, I offered them a quote of a new database designed from scratch but using selected parts of the latest unreleased version of InBizness. Yes, there is always an unreleased copy of InBizness and I have no idea when this latest version will come to market. Instead, you will probably see mini modules of the overall product released this year. InBizness Money was the first mini module that was pulled from the code of its larger InBizness brother and now InBizness Real Estate is the second smaller scope release.

ABOUT FILEMAKER 10
InBizness Real Estate will require each FileMaker user to use FileMaker 10, the latest release of the product by FileMaker Inc. At this time, we have not built in a web or mobile feature set for InBizness Real Estate but will embrace the opportunity to do so (if or when a client requests these features). For more information about FileMaker 10 and upgrade options to this cutting edge product release, please visit http://www.filemaker.com/ or contact us at info@dwaynewright.com.

Simply put, the recent addition of script triggers within FileMaker 10 has the potential to propel our products to heights that cannot be gained otherwise. Although there are other great features in FileMaker 10 as well, script triggers are too important of a feature to invest time and effort in designing backwards compatibility. For this reason, InBizness 2.8 and InBizness Money 1.2 will stay on the market for quite some time for FileMaker 9 users. All new product releases will require an investment in FileMaker 10.

MOVIE TIME
I’m a big fan of creating computer tutorial movies for presentation and for illumination. Here is a collection of the movies I produced to cover the initial release of this product.

The Main Menu
The New User Interface
The Contacts Module Explored
The Property Listing Module Explored
The Staff Module Explored
The Activities Module Explored
The Correspondence Module Explored

Adding A Deposit To A Finance Account

I just uploaded a new movie about adding a deposit to one of the finance accounts within InBizness. I also take a small detour in explaining what the Bank Deposit module does. This module is used to make creating bank deposit statements a little easier to handle but doesn’t link directly to the Finance module itself.

Here is the link ...
http://www.dwaynewright.com/inbiz/movies/04172009/CheckDeposit.mov

Two New How To Movies Uploaded

I just produced a couple new tutorial movies for the different ways to create new purchase order and vendor bill records. Here are the links ...

Create New Purchase Order
http://www.dwaynewright.com/inbiz/movies/04162009/NewPO.mov

Create New Vendor Bill
http://www.dwaynewright.com/inbiz/movies/04162009/NewVB.mov

FILEMAKER: FileMaker Blog Wrap Up For March 2009

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

Here is a quick listing of FileMaker related blog posts that I did for the month of March 2009.

BUSINESS
Sales Rep Twitters In A Web Viewer
Walled Garden Web Enabling For Clients View

FOUND SET
QUICK TIP: Year Searches
Saved And Recent Finds Explored
FileMaker 10 Saved Finds And Custom Menus
FileMaker 10 Saved Finds (Constrains And Extend Routines)
Follow Up - FileMaker 10 Saved Finds And Custom Menus
Table Creation On FileMaker Data Import Explored
Matching Record Imports Explored
LINK: Series Of Posts For FileMaker Google Like Searches

FUNCTIONS
The Calculation Literal Explored
EXAMPLE: Aggregate Across
LINK: Great Description Of Function Recursion In Action

LAYOUTS
Reorder FileMaker Layouts Explored

RANDOM THOUGHTS
2009 FileMaker Developers Conference Breakdown (intro)
DEVCON 2009: Friday Session 9:00 AM Breakdown
DEVCON 2009: Friday Session 10:30 AM Breakdown
DEVCON 2009: Friday Session 1:30 PM Breakdown
DEVCON 2009: Friday Session 3:15 PM Breakdown
Back Into The 360WORKS Email Saddle Again
Ode To The Define Menu
Some More FileMaker Tweets From The Twitterverse
Subset Of Data Ideas For Code Organization
A READER ASKS: FileMaker Based Real Estate Information
A READER ASKS: Add To In A Replace
Free VTC FileMaker 10 Training For 30 Days
FileMaker Pro 10 And The METROLOGIC MS9500 Bar Code Scanner
WHAT I’D LIKE TO SEE: Tooltip Button In Specify Button Dialog
WHAT I’D LIKE TO SEE: Easier Way To Comment Scripts
WHAT I’D LIKE TO SEE: Tabs With Layout Memories

RELATIONSHIPS
A READER ASKS: FileMaker Relationship Graph Documentation
EXAMPLE: Multiple Table Occurrences

REPORTS
WAREHOUSE TWEAK: Clients By Group ID (part 1)
WAREHOUSE TWEAK: Clients By Group ID (part 2)
Warehousing Data Lightly Explored

SCRIPTING
FileMaker Script Debugger Introduction
Debugger Pause On Error
EXAMPLE: FileMaker 10 Script Triggers And People Pickers
LINK: Faster, Maintainable FileMaker Scripts with Variables

SECURITY
Substantive Privileges Explored

TERMS
Constant Relationship
Extend Found Sets
Highlighting
Handle
Insert From Index
Implementation
Individual Stage Plan
Matching Record Imports
Menu Item
Modifier Key
Mathematical Operators
Operational Databases
Substantive Privileges
Subset Of Data
Script Debugger
Script Result
Table Creation On Import
Technical Reviews
Mailing Lists Explored
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More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

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FAQ: Role Based Value List Filtering

QUESTION: The Sales Rep ID in the sales order module needs to be changed to a pull down like the Staff ID field.

ANSWER: OK, this does work like that but it has a bit of a twist. It is a good twist, so let me run this by you. The pull down list for the Sales Rep ID is filtered to show only the staff members assigned to Sales. You haven’t assigned anyone to sales in the staff file yet, so the current state of this value list, for you, is empty. As soon as you assign a staff member to sales, it will then show up in the value list.

This list option is great unless you have staff members that wear multiple hats. The security within InBizness (as well as many of the value lists) are role based. So I can reassign the Sales Staff value list to be a general staff member list (not role specific).

If you have staff members that wear multiple hats, we might want to create a role for them specifically.

New “Under The Hood” Movie For InBizness Relationship Graph

There is a related movie on this topic! CLICK HERE!