FileMaker Developer 5

Richard Price
11 July 2000

FileMaker Developer 5 is a comprehensive package that allows you to customize FileMaker Pro databases, or create stand-alone applications.

The package includes a full version of FileMaker Pro 5, plus a number of design tools for creating professional solutions for work-groups, the Internet or royalty-free runtime applications.

In spite of FileMaker's ease of use, database design is not for the faint hearted. The hands-on tutorial in the Getting Started Guide will be helpful to new users. The tutorial lessons demonstrate common database tasks including finding records, generating reports and defining relationships.

Provided you are not a complete computer novice once you have finished the tutorials you should have a better understanding of FileMaker.

I am no database guru. I have built a few simple databases in Microsoft Access. I felt quite comfortable with the new FileMaker Pro 5 interface. This now follows the Microsoft Office standard and helps make database design a lot less intimidating then it used to be.

FileMaker Pro integrates with Microsoft Office allowing data to be more easily shared. FileMaker Pro can turn your Excel spreadsheets into a database by interpreting column names and assigning appropriate data types based on the information in the column.

The two manuals, one for FileMaker Pro, the other for FileMaker Developer 5, are straightforward and easy to read.

Longtime users may find some of their favourite key commands have changed though. The FileMaker Pro Instant Web Publishing feature includes web styles that determine the appearance of the database in the browser.

Most of this is done through cascading style sheets, so it is important that the browser used supports cascading style sheets.

FileMaker Developer 5 can be used in a number of ways. You could create stand-alone runtime database solutions that do not require the FileMaker application, or create a database that displays in "Kiosk mode". This is a special interface that uses the whole screen to display the database.There are no menu commands or window controls.

FileMaker also supports open standards making it possible, for instance, to access FileMaker databases from machines that are not running FileMaker. FileMaker Developer makes it possible to publish FileMaker Pro files on the Internet or an Intranet using web-ready technology such as XML, ODBC and CDML. CDML is a proprietary markup language that allows HTML pages to interact with a FileMaker Pro database.

FileMaker's JDBC driver can be used with any Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool making it is possible to visually create Java applications to interact with a FileMaker database. C or C++ programmers will be able to extend the FileMaker Pro feature set by creating external plug-ins.

FileMaker Developer 5 also includes a trial version of FileMaker Server for Windows NT and Mac OS. FileMaker Server 5 allows you to serve up to 125 hosted files on Windows and Mac OS machines.

Both FileMaker Pro 5 and Developer 5 are also available for the Mac OS so it is possible to develop cross-platform solutions.

To speed up the design of a user interface, FileMaker also comes with a range of buttons, interface elements and examples that can be adapted.

Unlike most software developed these days, you don't need a state-of-the-art machine to run FileMaker Developer 5 either. A 486/33 with 16 MB of RAM and a CD-ROM drive will do the job.

Price AU$870, upgrade AU$720
www.filemaker.com

By Richard Price, Editor, EnergyME.com

For information on getting a product reviewed email richard@energyme.com