Experience comes after trial and error
When creating your first FileMaker projects, you probably start with an empty file or one of the starter options available within FileMaker. You learn what works and realize what you need. Each new project benefits from that experience. Also, it will take quite some time to get through trials and errors.
Over time, you most likely realize that you start reusing concepts and start copying-and-pasting from earlier solutions into the latest project. Things that worked well will be recycled. A generic setup, which easily can be modified, is helpful. The most frequently reused parts are probably a navigation, a basic design, search functions, a user management solution and other basic functions.
Note that these basic options have likely nothing to do with the task your next project will have to perform. No application is created for a navigation only. Rather, the navigation is a tool within your application. These are just tools to support the creation of a great application. As “behind-the scenes” functions, clients will probably never talk about them, as they assume it will all work as silently expected. These functions have no “sex-appeal”, but are requirements nevertheless. Creating these basics is real work you have to count for in your development.
A starter file is something you create by and after experiences you made. The experience is important, as it weeds out what doesn’t work and improves on what works. Starter files are experiences in a nutshell.
Creating a starter file
After you gained some experience, you will see that you reuse certain parts of previous developments. To implement them into an already existing project frequently takes an exorbitant amount of time and effort. Why not putting that experience into a new file, you could use for new projects? Wouldn’t that be easier? Thus, the starter file is born, waiting for your next project to happen.
“No time, no need”
I spoke with quite a few developers who created their own starter files, yet others take a different stance and will not work with starter files. I typically met the following two reasons for that stance:
- No time
Many developers are too busy with current projects, that no time is left for the creation of a starter file. They might perceive the concept of starter files as helpful, yet do not come to create one themselves. Each new project therefore is started with a lot of copy-and-paste from other projects. That logically requires quite some time. - No need
Many developers will tell you from experience that “every project is different”. That is true, as each client is different, demands are different and as such, you cannot reuse one development for another. They come to the conclusion that there is “no need” for a starter file. Yet, the same developers most likely will reuse parts of earlier developments as it will shorten the way to a new project.
In both cases, the question could be: If you profit from your experience and older projects, could that be put into a starter file? Would that speed up your next project? And: If you do not have time to develop your own starter file, could you profit from a starter file from another developer? What would it take to make that attractive?
Leaping forward
Working with a starter file will help you skip months in development and probably years in experience. It will help you to jumpstart a project and solve basic requirements instantly. That does not limit you, but helps you to create a workable setup simply by opening a starter file and move from there.
Different starter files
There are different approaches to starter files. We speak about the differences in another post.
You choose a starter file according to your focus. I found it to be helpful to look at a project and differentiate between the basics and specifics. The basics can be covered by a starter file. The specifics are different per project. While some starter files present themselves with as many specifics as possible, the starter file I consider most helpful is covering the basics and setting me up for flexibility. Would you see that differently, and why?
Once you arrive at this stage, the questions become, what is most helpful and why?