FileMaker Plugin Developer: 24U Software
Number of Plugins: 11 FileMaker Plugins
Tomas Rycl is Chief Plugin Developer at 24U Software.
When did you first start using FileMaker?
Four years ago when I started with plugin development.
What made you start making FileMaker Plugins?
I programmed in C on university and my colleague Ondra Chaloupka contacted me with job proposal for 24U. I tried to write some simple plugins and it worked well.
Do you use any plugins created by other people? If so which ones?
I am not a typical FileMaker user. I have tried several other plugins from other people and companies to learn how to create better plugins. Usually I wanted to create something better or more simple.
Which of your own plugins do you feel is your best work?
I am proud of all my plugins
My best work? I have put my best to our new plugin which will be released this summer. To these days my best plugin is
SimpleFile.
Do you think making plugins cross-platform is important?
Yes, it is very important. But sometimes it is very hard too. For example
24U SimpleFile or 24U
SimpleDialog contains almost two separate products for each platform which must behave exactly the same way. From our support I know that ratio between Mac and Windows users of our plugins is near 1:1.
What do you think of FileMaker adding features that come from Plugins? Such as Printing to PDF and Script Triggering?
This make us to think about new features and possibilities. We must be faster and better than FileMaker. If FileMaker adds tooltip we create HTML tooltip, interactive tooltip or complete help system in our
SimpleHelp Plugin.
What do you think the next feature originally come from a plugin FileMaker will add will be?
I don’t know. This is very hard to predict for me because I don’t work with FileMaker in usual way.
Do you think Free plugins harm companies who sell plugins?
It makes us to be better. If we want to sell the plugin we must be better, we must provide better support and our plugins must provide better functionality.
What features would make the next version FileMaker perfect?
I would prefer better documented Plugin API and ability to define custom script steps from plugin. Copy and paste can work in more cases.
Any tips for people who want to make a FileMaker Plugin themselves?
Our FM Template simplifies plugin development a lot. It is used for developing all of our plugins. My second tip for developers is: create your own library of most used functions. Specially conversions from and to various FM API types are used very often in plugins.
