Micah Woods Founder and President Scodigo , Inc.

This week's interview is with Micah Woods, the Founder and President of Kalamazoo, Michigan-based Scodigo. Scodigo is a professional software development firm that focuses on the development of client-server applications using FileMaker and web applications using PHP and MySQL. But Scodigo is perhaps best known as the developer of SmartPill PHP Edition™, a FileMaker plug-in that gives developers access to PHP functions from within their FileMaker-based applications. (See our June blog post for more on SmartPill.) Read on to learn more about Micah, Scodigo, and more!


How did you get started in IT?
When I was in college, I ran a small printing company and needed an invoicing solution, which is how I got started with programming. I also setup one of the first online services in the area that allowed clients to send printing jobs directly to our laser printer (this was back in the days of the Mac SE/30 and 9600 baud modem!).


How long have you been using FileMaker Pro, and how did you get started with it?
I got started with FileMaker 2.1 when I was running a laser cutting business. I was doing estimates manually, which was a very time consuming task so I built an estimating system. I eventually added a job management system as well and we ran most of the business on FileMaker. I later took a position as an in-house FileMaker developer.


Tell us about your company, Scodigo.
Scodigo started as Woods/IT, which was founded in Nov. 2000. The name change was made at the beginning of 2006 as we planned to enter the products business. The name comes from the "S" in Source plus "codigo" which is Spanish for code. Our daughter "Izzy" was born in Guatemala so that's where the Spanish comes from.

Although we may be best known for our SmartPill plug-in, our primary business is FileMaker development. We've been working on a very large project for over 6 years and we're currently in the process of doing a complete re-write. SmartPill was actually developed to meet the needs of this project but we realized it would be useful to the developer community, so we launched it as our first commercial product.

At DevCon, we received the 2007 FileMaker Excellence Award for New Solution of the Year for SmartPill. This was a real surprise and a great honor.


Besides using FileMaker to develop solutions for your clients, what role does FileMaker play in the operations of your own business?
We use FileMaker internally for estimating, time tracking, project management and invoicing. As a small business, we've really benefited from the automation that FileMaker enables.


Tell us about your flagship product, the FileMaker plugin called "SmartPill PHP Edition™." Where did you come up with the idea for the plug-in? How are you using it for your own solutions? And what can we expect to see from it in the future?
A couple of years ago we developed an LDAP plug-in for one of our clients. It worked great and I started thinking about other plug-ins that we could develop. As I was thinking about all the various things that I'd like to be able to do, I realized that if I just had PHP inside of FileMaker, I could do just about anything. Being able to execute PHP opens the door to over 3,000 functions and an amazing wealth of open source code.

We use SmartPill for a wide variety of functions including sending email, reading and writing to the file system, encryption, URL requests, web service interaction, shell commands, Active Directory integration, XML and XSLT functions.

In regards to the future, we're just about ready to release the beta for our 1.5 version, the function list for our 2.0 version is just about complete and we're also working on a "Code Exchange" area for our site that will allow people to share their SmartPill code. We get a lot of requests for example code so we hope to use this as a way to share the many examples that we have and also allow others to contribute.


What do you like best about your job?
I love a challenge. The system we're currently working on is installed on 30+ servers around the world and is used by over 3,000 people. It's a great challenge and very rewarding. We developed an architecture named "SOFA" (service oriented FileMaker architecture) for this project, which is one of my other favorite things (besides SmartPill).


What do you like least about your job?
Because we're a small business, I get to wear many hats. Admin tasks like invoicing and paying taxes aren't my favorites but I have to say that QuickBooks is a big help.


In talking with other FileMaker developers, and reading what many have had to say online, it seems that reactions to the latest version of FileMaker (version 9) are mixed. Some (including myself) think that it is one of the most exciting releases in years. Others are disappointed. What's your take on FileMaker 9?
I'm very happy with FileMaker 9, although we're taking a cautious approach and have not yet started using it for development. The ESS functionality seems like it's off to a very good start and we look forward to using it. I agree that there are some rough edges but it's a great release and shows that FileMaker is working hard to keep up with the fast pace of technology while still delivering a product that's easy to use. I do think it raises the bar for FileMaker developers but that's good for business!


What are your favorite new features of FileMaker 9?
For us, developer features, especially those that help with multi-developer projects are big. Conditional formatting is also a great way to further separate data from presentation. I realize that many people may have no need for ESS, but for those of us that do, it makes life so much easier and will allow FileMaker to make further inroads with enterprise solutions.


If you could add some features to FileMaker, what would they be?
We've used the Troi dialog plug-in for years and it's great but I'd like to see FileMaker take this on and do it right. Custom dialogs are very limited.

We had to tackle localization for our big re-write project and we were able to localize everything except tab control labels. It'd be great to be able to calculate the labels, and not just for localization but for other places where the label needs to be dynamic. While I'm wishing, I'd like to be able to calculate their visibility as well. We sometimes have to create duplicate layouts just because certain people aren't allowed to see certain tabs.

I'd love to see a super high performance thin client with a server based licensing model.


What's your favorite tool, plugin, or technique for developing FileMaker databases?
I really enjoy SmartPill and I especially like working on new ways that it can be applied. I'm also very happy with the "SOFA" architecture we developed. I hope to do a white paper on it someday or perhaps a DevCon session. In a nutshell, we use the concepts of SOA (service oriented architecture) in FileMaker. Scripts are treated like "services" that take a request and return a response. When we work on a new script, we start by developing request and response schemas. The request defines the parameters expected by the script and the response defines what will be returned.


How has being a FileMaker 8 certified developer helped you, your career, and your business?
I think certification was important for FileMaker as a step toward making it a more mainstream technology. As an employer, certification provides a benchmark for hiring and as a business, certification provides us with a way to distinguish our company. Personally, I was impressed with the difficulty of the test and think it's a decent measure.


Scodigo is a member of the FileMaker Business Alliance. What benefits are you seeing from being a member?
We receive many of our new leads from our FBA listing. We also benefit from the various communications we receive including advanced release notices and we have a good relationship with our local FMI salesperson for help with client relations. I also enjoy being part of the FileMaker community.


What advice would you give to someone that is just starting to do FileMaker development?
It depends on where they want to go with FileMaker. For the more casual developer, I highly recommend a training course. I took a course from Rich Columbre at The Support Group when I was first getting started and it was very helpful. For the more serious developer, I also recommend training, but in addition, I think it's helpful to learn a programming language. The biggest advancement in my programming skill came when I learned PHP; it gave me a whole new perspective that you don't get from FileMaker alone.


What significant changes have you seen take place in the FileMaker world over the years?
I think FileMaker continues to succeed at making the complex as simple as possible but the bar for FileMaker developers is rising. As FileMaker continues to tap into technologies like ESS and PHP, I think the bar will continue to rise. I guess the most significant change I've seen is FileMaker's reach into other technologies and the skills required to really make these technologies work. It will be very interesting to see how FileMaker balances power and simplicity in future versions.


What did you think of DevCon 2007?
I always pick up some good new techniques at DevCon and it's great to see everyone. Dawn (Heady, Scodigo's VP of FileMaker Development) had a chance to speak and her session and workshop were well received. I also really liked Jason Mundok's session on Agile development. (Editor's Note: For information on FMAgile, the Agile project management methodology for FileMaker development projects that Micah mentioned, see http://www.fmagile.com/. And look for an interview with Jason in the weeks ahead!)


What technology has most changed your life?
Being able to work remotely. It's a blessing and I suppose a bit of a curse but it's really great to be able to work effectively with people around the world and provide support wherever it's needed.


What are your favorite things to do that don't involve work?
We have two children, ages 4 and 8 and I enjoy spending time with them. I used to do a lot of canoeing and camping and my son and I have just gotten into this recently. I also like to cycle (just before my son was born, I rode Lands End to John O'Groats which is from the bottom of England to the top of Scotland). For relaxation, I like buying TV shows on iTunes although I've found it can be a bit addicting when you have access to a whole season, just sitting there on your hard drive waiting to be watched!


What inspires you?
I continue to be amazed by Apple. I'm a long time Mac fan but I still find myself excited to see what's next. OSX is such a joy and the hardware is a work of art.

I'm also inspired by other developers. It's great to see what others are doing with FileMaker, PHP and other technologies. When trying to solve a problem, I will often try to find similar examples to see how others have approached the issue or look to other programming languages for solutions that can be applied to FileMaker (this is how I came up with the idea for "SOFA").


What's next for you and/or your business?
The beta for our next version of SmartPill will be released shortly which will be followed by the 1.5 release (a free upgrade). This version has some really great new features including the ability to execute SQL, write directly to container fields, store global variables and create user-defined errors. It's also a single ".fmx" file for Windows, so it can be used with FileMaker's auto-update function and installation is now just like any other plug-in.

We've also started working on SmartPill 2.0. I can't get into details, but I think one of the new functions will be reasonably "mind blowing".

Thanks Micah!


To learn more about Micah and Scodigo, please visit Scodigo's Web site, located at
http://www.scodigo.com/. To learn more about SmartPill, visit: http://www.scodigo.com/products/smartpill-php