Customizing SeedCode

Do it yourself

Most of our customers integrate and customize SeedCode on their own: they integrate DayBack Calendar into their files, skin it to look like their layouts, and create new fields and layouts in the SeedCode Complete starter solution. Sometimes folks will ask if this is really hard, or if a “beginner” can get it done without help.

That depends on the individual, but I tell folks that we have excellent documentation with step-by-step instructions for things like linking the calendar to your file. In the course of following those instructions, “beginner” developers may visit some parts of FileMaker they haven’t used before, but if they’re good at following instructions, they’ll get it working.

And of course they can always send us the files if they get stuck: we can often get folks unstuck quickly and at no charge.

Hiring us: implementation packages

But sometimes a customer won’t have the time to do things themselves, or they’re tackling something that’s a little further outside their comfort zone. For these customers, we offer implementation packages so folks can have us code something a little more technical (or coach them through something technical) before they get their files back and continue work on their own.

Here’s a sampling of the kinds of things we’ve recently helped folks build with these implementation packages:

• Expanding on the filters in DayBack calendar to add a more visual listing of resources
• Adding a new module to SeedCode Complete so it can track shared ownership of racehorses
• Letting users draw circles in ProMaps to build found sets of locations
• Integrating DayBack calendar into a law practice for scheduling court dates and mediation
• Creating “cluster maps” so managers can scout potential new hotel locations
• Creating a role-based login system for SeedCode Complete
• Re-tooling the invoices module in SeedCode Complete so it tracks shipments instead
• Adding document approval and version control to SeedCode Complete

Sometimes we’ll add one little feature for a customer. Other times we’ll build a whole suite of enhancements. On a more significant project, we’ll often pitch in on a couple of things in the first year, doing a few 3 to 10 hour engagements so that customers can get up and running more quickly than if they did everything themselves.

What it’s like working with us

We always try to break our custom work into small feature blocks; things we can code and deliver quickly. This helps ensure that we don’t outrun our understanding of the customers’ requirements and gets usable software into the customers’ hands more quickly so that they can validate our work as it’s being done.

Each time we deliver one of these small features, we’ll send over a short video explaining the work we’ve done, so it’s easy for our customers to see if we’ve understood their request correctly.

Pricing

Implementation packages start at blocks of five hours (our rate for these is $220/hr) and are paid for in advance. You can purchase these online just like you purchase SeedCode templates. Here’s a link:

[ba-button link=”http://sites.fastspring.com/seedcode/product/implementationpackages” color=”Yellow” target=”blank”]  Pricing: Implementation Packages  [/ba-button]

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If you’d like to chat with someone about a package or get some feedback on plans for your own mods, please don’t hesitate to get in touch: we’d love to see what you’re building.