FileMaker 9 Details Emerge
ThinkSecret recently reported some nifty gossip on the pending release of FileMaker 9. The product is reportedly due to be released in the mid-late 2007. But more interestingly are the changes that are purported to be sneaking their way into our beloved product. Features such as “object scaling based on window size, scripting triggers when entering and leaving fields, and significant ODBC changes“.
There are alot of things to be said about these features. I’m not too familiar with FM’s SQL prowess or lack thereof, but this should be better for integrating the product with enterprise users that may need to consolidate data out of enterprise SQL-compliant silos. More interesting to me, is the ability to scale and lock objects to their layouts. Hopefully, this would come with more native controls, but at the very least it offers the ability of resizable layouts and controls that lock certain corners to be both more flexible and friendly. Play around with the demo version of REALbasic and you’ll get a better sense of exacty what scalable control objects means.
Interesting as well is the ability to trigger scripts upon entering or exiting a field. This seems long overdue. There is also speculation and rumor of a “thin-client”. This would be an unmodifiable version of the FM template that can be executed but not modifed, at least so I think 
It unfortunately doesn’t some of the more brilliant ideas culled up here. CSS editing of layouts is a phenomenal idea… But read more for yourself.
Or if you’re interested, go check out the article at ThinkSecret.
