InspectorPro 8 for FileMaker: Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate

By Vincenzo Menanno
Apr 24, 2024

Beezwax's Vincenzo Menanno is presenting to audiences of FileMaker development colleagues, on the topic of 'InspectorPro 8 for FileMaker: Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate'. Vince shares the latest research, development best practices and product offerings to Claris / FileMaker conferences attendees as well as several developer meetups.

Presentations at Claris Conferences & FileMaker Meetups

Here's a schedule of events and dates -- and a Big Thanks to Meetup organizers for your help in hosting Vince's presentations.

2023

2024 

Vince has a number of surprises up his sleeves that he can’t wait to show. If you're a FileMaker Developer attending any of these events — virtually or in-person — we hope to see you there!

Presentation: InspectorPro for FileMaker - Investigate, Accelerate, Collaborate

InspectorPro's mission is to stand as the most comprehensive tool available for debugging and troubleshooting your FileMaker solutions.

Farewell DDR — hello Save a Copy as XML!

For years, developers have leaned on the Database Design Report (DDR) to collect, analyze, and report metadata from FileMaker solutions. InspectorPro has always been built using the latest version of FileMaker itself, and takes advantage of new features in our favorite custom app development platform.

InspectorPro 8 marks a significant shift as it now utilizes the Save a Copy as XML format for a multitude of compelling reasons:

A) We now have a new script step “Save a Copy as XML”, which means that we can automate the generation of the XML.
B) It is server-friendly, allowing automatic generation and using it in a script schedule.
C) The structure includes top-level catalog information.
D) It introduces new areas not present in the DDR.
E) This lays the foundation for future capabilities and innovations.

Investigate = Developer Insight

Why use a tool like InspectorPro for FileMaker development? To gain insight from answers to questions like:

  • How can I clean up an inherited FileMaker solution, or my older databases
  • What are best practices for inspecting references and dependencies?
  • How can I look for problems across...
  • ...scripts?
  • ...calcs?
  • …layouts?
  • …security?
  • …schema?
  • …and more!

Whether you have a solution you’ve been building for years, or are just getting started, there are plenty of important details that analyzing your FileMaker solution can provide insight into.

HOW much faster?!

Performance is a key highlight of InspectorPro 8. The initial analysis baseline is impressively 3x to 5x faster than InspectorPro 7. But where the new architecture truly excels is during incremental analysis, boasting speeds ranging from 10x to an astounding 100x faster.

Discover the seamless and automated ways to trigger the analysis process, whether scheduled or scripted, enabling you and your team to focus on development without missing a beat.

Collaboration, more and more...

Development projects involve more than just the solo 'citizen developer'. These days you may have multiple developers building different parts, modules or versions of a solution, and other stakeholders who want visibility into work being done.

How do you improve collaboration between more contributors whose hands are touching code, as well as those observing from not too far off? Let's look at InspectorPro as a solution running on FileMaker Server, and some ways to improve team collaboration.

Key Takeaways:

  • Stay in the development zone with minimal interruption.
  • Identify and locate problems quickly and easily.
  • Track changes, including when and by whom they were made.
  • Integrate InspectorPro into your files or solutions effortlessly.
  • Gain detailed version history with attribution for any item.
  • Keep your team informed through Slack integration on analysis runs.

Explore the history of InspectorPro and understand the groundbreaking foundation it sets. Delve into the engineering journey that led to this point and, more crucially, learn how this tool can elevate your day-to-day workflow as a FileMaker Developer.

I am thrilled to unveil the exciting features of this new product and demonstrate how it can empower you and your team to build exceptional solutions. Join me in exploring how InspectorPro can become an indispensable tool for your team's development workflow.

- Vince Menanno

About The Presenter: Vincenzo (Vince) Menanno

With 30 years of full-time experience as a master consultant, as well as a dedicated developer of FileMaker-related products, Vince Menanno has been a featured speaker at many industry events including Claris Engage, FileMaker DevCon, FM Conférence, CQDF, dotFMP, EngageU and dozens of FileMaker Developer meetups.

In addition to his work as Chief Innovation Officer at Beezwax, Vince is the author of InspectorPro, a leading FileMaker development tool that provides in-depth FileMaker solution analysis and advanced data visualizations.

As a community leader, Vince prioritizes innovation and knowledge-sharing through research, mentoring and presentations. He’s been honored with the Claris Excellence Award for Lifetime Achievement, received FileMaker’s Mad Dog Public Relations Award, and helped Beezwax earn a Claris Excellence Award for Advocacy.

Born to an Italian family and having grown up in Montreal, Vince now splits time between the Oakland hills and Florida shores, along with his wife, son and daughter. His ongoing passions include innovation, architecture, data visualization, sharp knives and vehicles in space.

InspectorPro 8
InspectorPro 9

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