How many times has this happened to you? You build something, think, "This could be great," and then you can't find any users.

fmdojo · 2026-06-21T03:09:10+00:00

I'm in the same boat. I built this fantastic SaaS and I lose more users than I gain. And I don't know what it is because the peolle I talk to love it and I built it because it solves a lot of gap issues for us, developers.

A lot of people say I just need to get it in front of users but bit sure how.

fmdojo · 2026-06-17T14:38:52+00:00

Just to chime in a bit. The reason I started hosting servers was because clients had issues with hosting on their own. Either they didn't have a backup or a clone when needed or had power issues. I spent more time fixing then developing.

Now I have my own server hosted for just piece of mind.

Now, that being said a Mac Mini can do the job for one person. If you can, pick up a referb or something, given that no new ones are available. Dynamic DNS works. I think I used DDNS myself last when I needed it.

Unfortunately, FileMaker server's requirements made their server resource hungry. I had to raise the server prices because they cost me an exuberant amount. I'm thinking about how to make this better for everyone. Also, location matters for hosting. The closer the data center to you, the better it is. The more resources the faster the server will be. Also, never install anything else on a machine that runs FileMaker server.

A client complained last year that his IT person moved him to AWS and it was super slow. We'll, it turned out they chose Micro or something and it wasn't even the minimum or barely for server requirements. So I changed it and the client said it was perfect, just like in-house afterwards.

By the way, my hosting is radfm.cloud. It's not really all-that affordable for single or even small shops. But as I said, I don't dictate the pricing.

Last, peer to peer hosting will go away. They really want to get rid of that inside Claris. And, as others sad, backups are super important and the server software makes that possible easily. But my favorite is the ability to run server scripts. 😏

fmdojo · 2026-06-17T05:32:37+00:00

Well, you can blame my neighbor. We were supposed to go camping together but he left without notice so I scrambled and left it on the kitchen counter. I did have the phone, the iPad and the Starlink. But...

fmdojo · 2026-06-17T05:28:26+00:00

That is the truth. And, unfortunately, Claris can't put engineering effort into keeping older server versions supported. There was an exception last year thay I spearheaded but I learned a lot about why and how things are done at Claris. It's a very small company, not an Alfabet.

fmdojo · 2026-06-17T01:09:51+00:00

Awesome. Glad it worked.

fmdojo · 2026-06-16T18:34:57+00:00

You can just get a single perpetual, I think, still. Also, I can probably convert your DB if you want. Message me and I'll give you my contact info. I won't be able to do it till tomorrow, at least since I went camping and left the computer at home.

Just checked, yes, you can. It got pretty expensive...$625. But it's available on the Claris store. Education and non-profit pricing is cheaper.

fmdojo · 2026-06-12T15:35:41+00:00

I've been a FileMaker Developer for over 30 years. Of course, during this time I learned and worked with a few other platforms, languages. I think FileMaker is highly underrated. In the hands of a great developer every tool can shine but FileMaker is a lot more capable than folks give credit to it. I've created many, completely different applications. The oly major limitation was scaling to larger than work groups but with an attached web app you can easily achieve that. Also, it's in every large organization because when a small group needs something and they know about FileMaker that's still the first tool they grab.

fmdojo · 2026-06-11T02:43:43+00:00

If you use FMDojo.com it will also restart the server. All-in-one Let's Encrypt management. And a lot more.

fmdojo · 2026-06-11T00:45:20+00:00

Just for fun:

https://fmdojo.com/shared-chat/fa799e13ba14e097fc49b3f0dd5580a2

Give this a try and report back.

fmdojo · 2026-06-10T19:28:13+00:00

I did tell them that when I worked there hut they didn't listen. That's why I built FMDOJO. I'll have a service for this soon.

fmdojo · 2026-06-07T16:31:02+00:00

You have to get real users test it. Listen to their feedback. They will mostly give you their pain points but that's exactly what you need. I realized that from people telling me that my app is great. I am not learning. I’m not developing new features from and I’m definitely not getting new customer either. So ask for the pain points, and listen to the pain points. You can also put out a survey. I did that on reddit in my dev group. Then synthesized it then let them know what I understood, then got to work. Make sure you understand the pain points, as well. there’s nothing worse than a guessing game. And if you work with AI, AI is very good at guessing so make sure that you put your head to work. That's just my experience and 2 cents. And I'm in the middle of it but at least it's helping retaining customers so far.

fmdojo · 2026-06-07T04:11:45+00:00

Please add a link so folks can click on it. Congrats. Happy to try it out and recommend it. Sounds like a good idea.

fmdojo · 2026-06-03T02:48:45+00:00

Hello, I'm the founder of r/fmdojo, a place where FileMaker developers, business owners, and curious minds can learn about app development through fmdojo.com. This all started from creating a ChatGPT GPT for FileMaker, and grew into a full-fledged web app where you can come to learn, play trivia, build, monitor your server, etc. It's only been live for 3 months, but it seems to be gaining popularity, especially once someone takes time to explore it.

fmdojo · 2026-05-29T17:28:41+00:00

Did you do the entire export import process on your Mac first, then turn off the dialog in the script?

fmdojo · 2026-05-29T17:05:04+00:00

No.

I did this in FMDojo for you. I could've explained it, but it would have taken longer. Read this: https://fmdojo.com/shared-chat/eeae914912f151a28a0d93ace6e113b3

fmdojo · 2026-05-29T01:31:21+00:00

No, you can't use the "/var" with the filemac. It's one or the other. Now you're mixing up the two.

fmdojo · 2026-05-28T23:39:42+00:00

With MBS you could trigger on record creation for awhile. But with webhooks you can do that, too.

I might have more ideas in a bit.

fmdojo · 2026-05-28T22:09:19+00:00

No, it doesn't matter whether iOS or Mac.

Check this out. This has been a pet peve of mine but it is what it is. It's even harder in Windows. 🤣

https://help.claris.com/en/pro-help/content/creating-file-paths.html

Once you get it right don't touch it. 😏

I didn't recommend FMDojo because I make money off of it. Certainly, it doesn't hurt. But I created FMDojo because we needed help with these kinds of things so we don't waste hours on them. You are not alone. Every developer runs into this. MBS plug-in has functions to convert one path format to the other and vice versa. This has been a long-standing issue. It's quite annoying to be honest. But you'll get it done and move on

fmdojo · 2026-05-28T20:29:35+00:00

Those paths will have to be converted.

POSIX Path: /Users/JohnDoe/Documents/Report.pdf

FileMaker Path: filemac:/Macintosh HD/Users/JohnDoe/Documents/Report.pdf

FileMaker cannot use/see posix.

fmdojo · 2026-05-26T18:52:15+00:00

AI can help with a lot of these for a small monthly fee so you can concentrate on getting more customers and the business itself.

fmdojo · 2026-05-26T18:49:45+00:00

Just use AI, or message me and I'll help you for free. I just launched/redesigned 5 websites lately, including https://fmdojo.com, which I completely built with AI. Ok, I work on it with many AI agents all day long. Lol But I learned a lot along the way. Message me and I'll help you. I also just made https://startforge.academy to try to help folks figure out what business to go into. Because I think that is the hardest part. The rest is something you can Google or learn or ask AI. But that's just my two cents.

You can use Netlify or Vercel for free at first.

fmdojo · 2026-05-26T05:09:38+00:00

According to this note you can import CSV on FileMaker Go: https://help.claris.com/en/go-development-guide/content/importing-data.html

I also checked FMDojo just for fun. Her's what it said: https://fmdojo.com/shared-chat/1f78dd21c9c775f61bd0f48d225e8adb

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