Today, Apple subsidiary FileMaker announced the release of the FileMaker 16 Platform, the latest version of its highly successful custom app platform.
The FileMaker Platform includes everything needed to create, share, and run custom apps for business teams. This simplifies and accelerates the design and delivery of custom apps for mobile, cloud and on-premises deployments.
The FileMaker 16 Platform packs powerful, sophisticated new features that help teams solve business problems quickly and easily.
Learn more about the FileMaker 16 Platform here.
Download a free trial here.
Updates include:
• Mobility: The addition of animations and transitions with scripts provide visual cues to help orient users as they navigate through their custom apps on the FileMaker Go app. Enhanced signature capture for the FileMaker Go app allows users to sign documents on iPad and iPhone just as they would on a paper form.
• Integration: Easily exchange data with other web services and applications using enhanced cURL options and predefined JSON functions in FileMaker Pro.
• Development: The new Layout Objects window provides a hierarchical list of all objects in a layout. This makes it easy to make changes to an object without having to ungroup the entire set of objects.
• Scalability: Custom apps accessed via FileMaker WebDirect now can be used by up to 500 users simultaneously, making it easier to share data with an entire team.
• Security: Simplified credential management with OAuth 2.0 using third-party authentication providers improves security and safety of custom apps. Existing Amazon, Google or Microsoft Azure account credentials now can be used to log into FileMaker-based custom apps.
“Today’s leaders empower their teams with the tools they need to quickly adapt as their needs change. The FileMaker 16 Platform builds on our track record of success, providing customers with the latest features, enabling them to create great apps that work across iPad, iPhone, Windows, Mac and the web,” Ann Monroe, vice president of worldwide marketing, FileMaker, Inc., said in a statement.
More info via FileMaker here.
Source: FileMaker, Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: There’s nothing like FileMaker for managing and seamlessly sharing information across iPad, iPhone, Windows, Mac, and the web.
We had been a FileMaker user since ver 2. Yes FileMaker is very powerful, but can also be a little cumbersome for lighter users. We recently started using http://www.airtable.com for our iPhones, iPads, MacOS app, and web.
in fact Apple should buy AirTable
That is the best commercial ever. I’m so buying this.
FileMaker is the ultimate business systems development tool for macOS and iOS.
I’m another long term FileMaker use, also going back to the days of Claris FileMaker pro V2. I wasn’t aware of AirTable and will take a more detailed look at it, but it doesn’t appear to offer the scripting features which is what makes FileMaker so invaluable to me.
Before FileMaker, I used to use HyperCard to create custom problem solvers and FileMaker turned out to be the best replacement for my purposes and has continued to work well for me.
My biggest gripe with FileMaker is that they have very poor upgrade arrangements. Previous users only qualify for upgrade pricing if their existing version is only a couple of iterations old. The improvements in recent versions of FileMaker haven’t really offered much that I need and to be honest, everything I want to do with databases, with the exception of having apps on my IOS devices, could mostly have been done with the features available by version 3. The reason why I have had to buy FileMaker several times over since then is almost entirely because older versions would no longer run on my newer Mac hardware.
If there was an alternative scriptable database with comparable features, I’d be very keen to try it as a substitute for FileMaker. Better still, a twenty-first century version of HyperCard would suit me perfectly.