Filemaker 7.0...MWSF raises some questions
Anybody have any info on the release date of Filemaker Pro 7.0?
It's supposed to be a huge upgrade, with the app just about re-written from scratch.
It goes without saying that it will go head to head with Access, but Apple's "take the battle to Microsoft" attitude at MWSF, (which nobody saw coming) has raised some interesting questions:
1. Will Filemaker Inc. be brought in-house? If Keynote, Safari, Mail and iCal are developed under the Apple umbrella, why leave Filemaker outside the tent?
2. Will the Windows version be discontinued? (I doubt it, but you never know with Jobs...)
3. Will this app get the 'Jobs and Avie' once over, or will they leave the FM guys to do their own thing? (I doubt Jobs uses Filemaker, and all the introductions seem to be stuff he has a personal interest in.)
4. Aside from making the product more robust in OS X, what else could make Filemaker a must-have app?
5. How could the program be integrated with the other AppleOffice apps?
6. When...
It's supposed to be a huge upgrade, with the app just about re-written from scratch.
It goes without saying that it will go head to head with Access, but Apple's "take the battle to Microsoft" attitude at MWSF, (which nobody saw coming) has raised some interesting questions:
1. Will Filemaker Inc. be brought in-house? If Keynote, Safari, Mail and iCal are developed under the Apple umbrella, why leave Filemaker outside the tent?
2. Will the Windows version be discontinued? (I doubt it, but you never know with Jobs...)
3. Will this app get the 'Jobs and Avie' once over, or will they leave the FM guys to do their own thing? (I doubt Jobs uses Filemaker, and all the introductions seem to be stuff he has a personal interest in.)
4. Aside from making the product more robust in OS X, what else could make Filemaker a must-have app?
5. How could the program be integrated with the other AppleOffice apps?
6. When...
Comments
<strong>Anybody have any info on the release date of Filemaker Pro 7.0?</strong><hr></blockquote>
?? When does FileMaker learn to number their apps properly?
FileMaker 6 should've been called 5.2.
Hopefully your right about a major upgrade, but I haven't a single word about version 7.
<a href="http://www.macintouch.com/filemaker6.html#jul22" target="_blank">From MacInTouch</a>
[quote] At last year's FileMaker Developer Conference (Orlando, FL - August 2001), the keynote speech by Chung Lee (Director of FM product development, I believe) outlined a 24-month time frame for some profound changes in FileMaker. I took extensive notes, and as this was an open session (not under NDA) I think you can share them with your readers. It may be of help to those who are complaining about the relatively small changes in FM 6. I think FM 7 is going to knock everyone's socks off.
FileMaker Pro Future Directions (presented by Chung Lee)
- 2003 (2-year) time frame
* Entirely New Database Engine
* No file number or guest limits in Server
* No file size limits
* Clients will be able to have multiple sessions simultaneously
* Designed for Network performance - possibly using bitmap communication
(like Terminal Server)
* Support for other clients directly to FileMaker Server - ODBC, JDBC,
XML, HTTP, IWP, CWP
* User accounts and LDAP support
* Unicode support - sharing across languages
* Component based architecture
New relational features
* Multiple Keys in Relationship dialog (replacing concatenated keys)
* Built-in Entity-Relationship Viewer in Relationships dialog
* New query processor (in FM Server) to divide labor between server and
host resulting in less network traffic.
* No more "pipelining" between tables
Ease of User
* E-R interface for relationships
* Multiple Windows (screens) open per file
* Multiple active databases
More Power
* New calculation engine (completely rebuilt)
* Richer data types - rich text, global calculations, time stamp (single
field for date/time)
Improved Productivity: Single File - Multiple tables
* Multiple Tables in a single file
* Easier documentation of files and relationships
* Define passwords, scripts, etc., once for set of tables
* Easier updating
Safer Design - Save/Revert on layouts
Developer Features - User defined functions
<hr></blockquote>
What I'm looking to Filemaker 7 for is to update my Contact Management.
Address Book's not flexible enough for me, but Daylite, the only CRM I can find for X, seems to have a gigantic learning curve.
I was hoping the next release of FMPro would allow me to create my own CRM.
that's what's needed:
FileMaker = pro
iAccess = consumer
For some of us that isn't an option. The ease of use of Filmaker combined with it's web publishing abilities makes it a great quick development environment. There are however some shortcomings, like being limited to only 50 active databases for web publishing. Will Filemaker 7 fix that? If so, when?
http://www.fmforums.com/threads/ubbthreads.php?Cat=
Folders for script management! Wouldn't it be sweet if you could specify a folder for all related script functions? Debugging would be so much nicer! Even better would be the ability to have subfolders!!!!
Another nice feature would be layouts that adjust to screen resolutions. It is a pain to develop multiple layouts due to this limitation.
Another nice tweak would be the a better backup routine capability. It would be awesome if one could script an export routine (with new file name) but allow the user to specify the final destination. Right now, its export to a specific location then either manually move the files or use Troi File Plugin to move the folder contents to a location on demand.
Wish FMP would go back to allowing the runtime to disable the splash screen on closing the runtime apps. Developer 4 had this feature but it was taken out in 5 and subsequent versions.......at least let us add our logo on the splash while keeping the fmp message at the bottom of the splash.
Finally, I wish FMP would solve the issue related to imported tab delimited text (on OS X) created on a remote machine. This is still an issue for one of my solutions. I have to use Troi File to add file attributes to allow the import to happen. Its a pain.
Rumor has it that version 7 will use yet another file format. That will be a pain for older solutions to have to be converted again. Otherwise, I love the program