FileMaker 7 is dead. Long live FileMaker 8 !!
I’m feeling waves of ease as I no longer have to bite my lip on FileMaker 8 because of a big NDA agreement. To my delight and surprise, I was able to preview FileMaker latest incarnation at the NY FileMaker Group meeting two months ago. Software companies always deliver the sales pitch that “Now is really the time to upgrade from your version, which is 2 versions old” e.g. PhotoShop 7 (which I still use) is beginning to pale relative to CS2, or more relevant was the proposal by FileMaker that all the holdouts from version 4, 5, and 5.5 should REALLY upgrade to 7 as it was more than a single generational hop.
Finally, I believe that nearly every user of FileMaker (other than those content with running systems on OS 9/Win2000/Win98/Win95 systems) has a compelling reason to make the move to version 8. If the developer chooses to really leverage the power enabled in version 8, a solution has the possibility of becoming significantly better. FileMaker Inc has mentioned most of the features on their website, but I find the lack of detail downright infuriating.
I’ll throw you a bone
A LOT of users and developers consistently lambaste FileMaker for not having one feature or another. I know because I was one of them. 4D always comes into the picture, and more recently REALbasic has entered the ballgame. Rightfully so, in my humble opinion. FileMaker needed a good kick in the pants in the version 5+ migration. The FileMaker newsgroup is rife with complaints on the point and purpose of 5.5 and the seemingly minute update of 6.0. I agree. It was at that point, that I took a good hard look at 4D and for the most part, I liked what I saw.
Why then, are we discussing this point in time in a different light? In the end, I just couldn’t sink my teeth into 4D. I already new and understood tables, true relational database theory, etc. But 4D seemed to be extraordinarily unelegant at removing the developer from the link between application and data. This is first and foremost, FileMaker’s strongest selling point: you can create some fields and use the same layout or view for browsing, searching, displaying search results, and best of all flexible printing. 4D has many of these features and more including custom menu bars, a compiled and bundle runtime engine useful for distributing databases, a global library used to store and access everything from graphics to methods of one sort or another. But it’s damn hard to get into. There is no real starting point. The help section hardly provides the in depth kind of help a la the REALbasic built-in help which has thousands of genuinely useful and well-documented code snippets. This is of course, included with the Language Reference, as it should be. FileMaker shares this design attribute and thus explains why so many developers are able to really get into the program. FileMaker is also tremendously forgiving with regards to developer mistakes. It can be easily changed or configured on the fly. If the same really holds true for 4D, then I don’t know about it. I suppose 4D is much like dropping a jet engine, fuselage, cockpit with all the whizbang computers in front of someone and saying “Put this together and you’ll be flying at Mach 5″ but forgetting to really give you an instruction manual. (Also, 4D’s tab control still manages to infuriate me. )
Alas, I’m not about to get into a 4D-bashing mode. 4D also has several extremely enticing features like the graphics library, fully separated data from application logic (useful for easy updates – FM still hasn’t mastered this), a powerful programming language, built-in graphing and word-processing, and more. See for yourself if need be.
I mention all of this because I just received FileMaker 8 Advanced in the mail and I’m happy with what I finally see. It could always be more (YES, WE WANT SCRIPTABLE PRINTER CHANGES !!!!!) but some of the new feature set is quite compelling, most especially the tab control which operates in layout mode much like the tab control operates in any normal development environment such as Xcode or REALbasic. The tooltips are useful and finally here as are custom menus which DON’T require using any kind of a plugin. The PDF creation tools and batch email tools are also significantly improved and bely most of the new and improved features that they enable. I don’t go easy on FileMaker. I’ve been annoyed and burned by several things about their development of their product, but at the same time, there is no tool set that can match it for ease of use masking some decent data-hauling prowess. And for that reason, you find me writing this blog. It’s both fun, intriguing, and enlightening to push FileMaker in new ways. I look forward to continuing to do just that with their new product, version 8.
For further reading:
The MacWorld review
12 Responses to “FileMaker 7 is dead. Long live FileMaker 8 !!”
Leave a Reply
I have a complaint, and maybe I am just too stupid development wise with Filemaker 8 for now…but… I too saw the new tab control and thought YES!!! FINALLY!!! then…I tried to use it. I put the tab control in, nothing complicated, just two tabs. Spent about an hour setting up my interface to look very professional on my current db project. Now! ( i say to myself as I sit back ready to explore the wonder) I switch to browse mode to test my brave, new, and brilliant creation using the ever advanced tabs and…WHAT!?? what’s this??!!! BOth tab layers of fields and objects show up, in both tabs laying all over eachother all ugly and unusable. Ok, back to layout mode…What the heck?!! It works just fine here… THIS is my problem…am I missing something obvious? ANy suggestions or help in this direction is greatly appreciated…
RJ,
This sounds EXACTLY like the case of viewing a Tab control in FM 7. Unfortunately, they are only specific to version 8
Let me know if that helps.
Emile,
Not sure how that helps, maybe I misunderstand your reply. First of all, Filemaker 8 creates files as *.fm7 and thats it…far as I see. Which I always wondered, backwards compatibility I understand, but it IS Filemaker 8…so why not make files as *.fm8? So do you know how I can fix my viewing problem? I have downloaded sample tab control templates from others and they work fine, yet I try them myself and same problem. I end up with a bunch of fields and objects all piled on top of one another and renders the tab control useless.
I was simply questioning whether or not you were viewing the file in FM7 or FM8 as tab controls can only be created AND viewed in v8. Having said that, if you are still having problems looking at the file in v8, send it to me via email at emile [at] secretweaponlabs [dot] com and I’ll take a look at it!
I have also encountered the exact same problem – thought it might be to do with transparent fill but that does not fix it – any clues
Are you definitely in FM v8?
I have since discovered the root of my problem and perhaps it will fix yours too deb. You need to be certain that any and all objects placed on the tab control are contained within the tab control. Anything overlaps or falls out of its area and it will not function properly. Try this by double checking all your objects as I stated and let us know if that worked for you.
RJ, Thanks for the update.
thanks for the speedy responses – I find the answer in the filemaker knowledge base – the tab control was sitting within the header section by one pixel – enough to stop it displaying correctly.
I have not used filemaker for over 10 years so I am on a big learning curve with all the new features etc
Deb,
Thanks for following up and letting us know what was causing your display issues.
Don’t worry about your FileMaker learning curve, as much as it has changed it has stayed very much the same (both a positive and a negative)! Having said that, feel free to drop question in the FileMaker newsgroup or on one of the comments here and hopefully someone will be able to answer your question(s)!!!
Happy FileMaking!
Hi all,
I had the same issue and found that the tab header was sitting on the layout header section giving me the same problems… just sloppy of me I guess. Until I saw this thread I had no idea what I was doing wrong!
Cheers, Horst
This had me stumped too. I was getting particularly frustrated.
This was bloody useful!