Serious FileMaker developer , database and web admins , and managers who worry about tying different tidy sum of troupe datum together are going to be the with child beneficiaries of major improvement in the latest update to the FileMaker family of products . If you do n’t fall into that category — and a circle of FileMaker users do not — don’t finger disregard . There are a identification number of nice thing in FileMaker Pro 9 itself for solitary or small - workgroup substance abuser , too .
Here ’s an overview of the major features and enhancements introduced in the FileMaker 9 overhaul announced Tuesday .
Se habla SQL
The big news with this vent of the venerable database program is that FileMaker Pro now supports go two - way connections to SQL database . For twelvemonth , it has been possible to use FileMaker to query an SQL database and get a written matter of the resulting data set ( say , customers in a certain zip codification ) . But this old support for accession to SQL databases was hard to use , did n’t furnish hot access to data , and — as a hardheaded subject — just did n’t work very well , especially on a Mac . That ’s all interchange with FileMaker 9 .
There are many specific carrying out such as Oracle and MySQL , but generically speaking , SQL(pronounced ess - kew - ell or sequel , count on who you call for ) is a criterion for leaden - duty database used in big pot , universities , research , and on the Web — anywhere there is a lot of information to store and many multitude need to access it .
The medical records database in a infirmary is almost certainly power by SQL ; so are your company ’s human resource and payroll databases , the databases used by your bank building and credit calling card society , the stock list system used by the grocery store down the street , and your local library ’s holdings catalogue , just to tender a few exercise . Until now , your little FileMaker database was almost whole lock out of these data aggregation . To that end , using FileMaker was a minute like having cell earpiece service with a groovy company that made easy - to - use headphone and offered low prices , but would n’t let you have a conversation with anybody whose service was provided by a dissimilar caller .
Of naturally , you could have used SQL to work up your database in the first station . But gosh , who wants to do that ? arise SQL databases usually involves dealing with a lot of nasty technicality — or to put it simply , SQL is pretty geeky . That makes it almost the antithesis of FileMaker Pro , whose geekiness - to - power ratio is the broken in the database industry .
FileMaker 9 has n’t made SQL itself any less geeky ; it just makes it possible for FileMaker developer not to give a darn . you’re able to now add a major proportion to your FileMaker task by connecting to SQL databases that were developed and pose up by somebody else , so you do n’t call for to screw much about SQL at all .
The key to this john is the data point source reference . One of the revolutionary features that come out in FileMaker 7 was the power to create in one FileMaker database file a reference to another file , and then to use the referenced information as if it were in reality stored in the current Indian file . Every FileMaker result I ’ve built since FileMaker 7 appeared consists of two files : a datum Indian file that contains nothing but my client ’s data and a user - interface single file , which contains all of my layouts and book , the stuff that drug user actually see . The exploiter - interface file does n’t actually stash away any datum at all .
Well , with FileMaker 9 , you could now cite and use an SQL information source in the very same way that you might reference and use another FileMaker file . If you may see the SQL data source in the simple find information source dialogue , all you have to do is blue-ribbon it , authenticate , and you ’re in . After that , although the data is actually stored in the SQL database , you could interact with it in your FileMaker database — seeing live datum that updates mechanically , delete datum and having it written back to the SQL database so that other substance abuser accessing the same data with other interfaces will see the changes you ’ve made . If you have the correct entree privilege , you will even be able to produce or delete platter .
Until we get six to eight months of genuine - Earth experience with FileMaker 9 , it may not be potential to assess this new characteristic . A FileMaker developer friend of mine who ’s also go through with SQL told me that FileMaker 9 is n’t quite ready to deliver the carrying into action of a Porsche with the natural gas mileage of a Prius . But would n’t it be nice if it could ? One thing I ’m sure of : SQL - connectivity is going to sell a fortune of copies of FileMaker 9 to meshwork admins and managers who sometimes stayed away from FileMaker in the past because it could n’t let the cat out of the bag very well to the SQL database that was the heart of their caller ’s data management organisation . Now it can . In fact , FileMaker can now carry on a conversation with that database almost like a native speaker .
The late version of FileMaker Pro allows layout designer to utilize conditional data formatting directly to a subject area physical object on a layout . Here ’s an important information remark field configured to be display with a yellowed background knowledge if it is leave empty . you may use this feature to play up negative number , deadline in the next week , or almost anything you may think of . And you do not have to make a special figuring discipline to do it .
And what if you could n’t worry less about SQL ? The do - it - yourself users and belittled workgroup users who are the majority of FileMaker ’s grocery , will be relieve to know that you still do not have to use SQL . If you turned to FileMaker in the first spot because it was n’t SQL , well , it still is n’t .
More (and better) connectivity
There are a couple other deep change in FileMaker 9 that will affect a lot of FileMaker ’s existing users . There is a unexampled adaptation ofFileMaker Server , the computer software that lets you portion out your FileMaker databases on a LAN or WAN . Particularly notable is the fact that the installation and stage set - up process has been redesigned completely . A process that used to make even experienced internet admins break out in an nervous sweat has been better so much that you’re able to middling reliably go for to get the job done in under 20 mo .
The internet - support provided by FileMaker Server now includes the power to generate an entire PHP - driven Web web site automatically from your FileMaker database . I have n’t tested this feature yet , but it looks very hopeful .
Finally , while FileMaker Server and Server Advanced have gotten much easier to establish and dispense , the price has not drop , so if you only need half a dozen users to link up to your database , you may be happy to get laid that the number of match - to - match connections permit by FileMaker Pro has risen from four to nine . FileMaker Server is the preferred manner to go even for two or three users , but equal - to - peer sharing works , and if you ’re on a very tight budget , it can be a life saver .
What else is new
last , let ’s look at the surface , the melioration that you may start using the minute you instal FileMaker Pro 9 . My pet enhancement is the new Append to PDF command , usable both in the File carte and as a script step . Save as PDF has been around since FileMaker 8 , but the fresh Append bid makes it possible to create a individual PDF that uses several unlike layout , or to append July resultant to a report that presently goes only through June . Not sexy , but very useful .
FileMaker 9 also offers a act of nice enhancements for layout designers . Conditional format can now be applied immediately to a playing field aim on a layout . So for case you’re able to easily foreground invalid entry or electronegative amount .
FileMaker 9 ’s Script Manager now let you group script inside folders . This will be a marvelous housework boon to developers who do a lot of scripting .
It ’s also potential now to configure layout object so that they resize mechanically on screen . Serious script author will be thankful that , in FileMaker 9 , it is finally potential to aggroup related scripts together inside organisational folders . There are many other pocket-size changes , including a new startup screen door , better on-line assistance while you work , last updating , and more .
Let ’s close with a routine of trivia : FileMaker 9 is the first odd - number expiration in the product ’s most 20 - twelvemonth history that does not introduce a new file anatomical structure . FileMaker ’s printing press material understandably do n’t put this fact right at the top of the features to get excited about in FileMaker 9 , but after the revolutionary upheaval that accompanied the release of FileMaker 7 a few class ago , it ’s reassuring to cognise that upgrading to FileMaker 9 is not get going to break anything . In my examination , all of my old FileMaker 7 , 8 and 8.5 database opened up and ran in FileMaker 9 without a single hitch . Most of the FileMaker 9 - specific features even bust evenhandedly gracefully when you open up a database that uses them in an older copy of FileMaker . For instance , layout objects limit to resize in 9 simply do n’t in FileMaker 8.5 , and script groups create in FileMaker 9 plainly show up as empty folders in the ScriptMaker in FileMaker 8.5 . But everything still works dead .
Final impressions
At this preliminary stage , FileMaker 9 looks like an impressive upgrade . The mathematical product is moving in the instruction that power users have been hoping for , and in the foresightful streak , this is go to do good everybody who use the app . I will have more item about the pros and a few notes about some small-scale con game in my forthcoming review of FileMaker 9 at Macworld.com
FileMaker Pro 9 retails for $ 299 ; upgrade , $ 179 . FileMaker Server 9 sells for $ 999 ; upgrades , $ 599 . For additional pricing and more data about the FileMaker 9 family of product , visitFileMaker ’s products pageon the Web .
[ William Porter is an independent database applications developer and author in Dallas . ]
This article was reposted at 3:20 p.m. PT on July 12 , 2007 , to name the correct translation of FileMaker that present the Save as PDF feature .
