FileMaker Pro Family Grows With Latest Release

With the latest release, FileMaker becomes a product family including the updated database itself, a FileMaker developer 7 edition, two new server editions and a mobile edition, the company said.

The newly shipping FileMaker Pro 7 database sports flexible "container fields" that can now handle nearly any kind of file.

Power users will be able to put "multiple bits of information that would be dispersed across files into one file--customer records, inventory, shipment and returns [are] now all linked and manageable," said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president of marketing and services at the Santa Clara, Calif., company.

"You can create a workbook for the solution, set security across it and back it up all together. Then to create links--there's a graphical relationship interface, so you can take a file or a table, click on it and drag and drop to link it to another," he said.

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Longtime FileMaker consultant Rich Coulombre, president of The Support Group, Natick, Mass., is a big fan. "In prior releases, FileMaker's container held pictures, sounds and movies. Now it now can hold any binary object, Excel, Word, PDFs, and there are fields for names and descriptions so the result can be searchable," he noted.

In addition, solution providers can now roll up all relevant information to a project and send off one FileMaker file to the customer, he said.

The developer edition adds integrated tools and utilities including a script debugger and improved Database Design Report. Both the end-user and developer editions are available now.

On the server side, FileMaker Server 7, which supports Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 server, has been re-architected to be able to host millions of data tables and make better use of high-performance disk storage systems and multiprocessing servers, the company said. Linux support will be added later.

The advanced server version, to replace FileMaker Pro 6 Unlimited, bolsters Web publishing options and supports up to 250 FileMaker Pro connections and 100 concurrent Web connections on a single box, the company said.

FileMaker Mobile 7 is for developers wanting to extend applications to Palm OS or Pocket PC handheld devices. All three of these options are slated to ship this summer.

Roy Gordon, president of Practical Solutions For Educators, Marysville, Ohio, said the updated FileMaker Server makes it much easier to publish data to the Web, which was a bit difficult in the past. Sites created in this way are accessible to up to 100 concurrent users, the company said.

The updated server, due this summer, will support enhanced encrypted data transfers and compression.

Said Rosenberg: "The instant Web publishing is not new, but it's more powerful. When you build a database, people outside your workgroup don't necessarily have FileMaker but want to share or see information. If you built Web access using traditional tools, PHP or Python, it's hard work. With FileMaker you push a button and build an automatic database-driven Web site," he said.

FileMaker seems to have won the battle for end-user databases, a field that a decade ago was full of competitors including Borland's Paradox and dBase, Lotus Approach to Microsoft Access. Many of those products, while still in existence, have not been updated or stressed by their developers, or now target more technical users.

Suggested list price for FileMaker Pro 7 is $299 or $149 for an upgrade. The product runs on Windows and Macintosh OSes. To boost sales, the company is also offering customers with versions going back to 1992, or version 2.1, to get the upgrade price. That promotion will last until the middle of September.

FileMaker Developer 7 is also available now at $499 or $399 after a $100 upgrade rebate. FileMaker Server 7, priced at $999 or for $499 as an upgrade. Server 7 Advanced is $2,499 or $1,499 for upgraders. Finally, FileMaker Mobile 7 is $69 or $35 for upgraders and is due this summer.