Review: FileMaker Pro 7
- Article 4 of 53
- iCreate, June 2004
Version seven should have been the best FileMaker ever. Instead, its powerful new features are lost among various annoyances.
Upgrading to version seven of FileMaker Pro should have been a no-brainer. The latest release of FileMaker’s flagship product has a host of new features that gives it the power of an enterprise-class database; in combination with the ability to create great-looking front-ends to actually get at that data, FileMaker Pro 7 should have been a wonder to behold.
Unfortunately, it has cock-up written all over it.
In the world of databases, FileMaker has had several unique selling points that has endeared it to anyone who’s needed more power than AppleWorks but hasn’t wanted or been able to afford the vast capabilities of an Oracle system, say. Firstly, it was very easy to use: just about anyone could create a database with FileMaker Pro with only minimal playing around to get the hang of it. Secondly, while few high-end systems have a user-friendly way of getting at their data – relying on programmers to write applications that can interrogate them – FileMaker Pro has had almost DTP-quality tools that can create attractive layouts for displaying, searching and summarising data. Thirdly, automating it has been relatively simple thanks to a point-and-click approach to development called scripting. And lastly, it has been a reliable cross-platform database, running equally well on Macs and Windows and doubling as a web server for those without a copy or who are using a different system and need to enter or extract data.
FileMaker Pro 7 does away with at least some of these selling points. In another classic example of Apple (FileMaker is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple) taking away features in a new release, FileMaker Pro 7 no longer supports OS 9, and more importantly, no longer includes the custom web-serving component (only the basic Instant Web Publishing feature): for that, an extra purchase of the forthcoming £1,940 FileMaker Server 7 Advanced is necessary.
The once-powerful layout tools remain more or less the same, but use a new cross-platform display system that still has more than a few kinks that need to be worked out, including font clashes on layouts that worked fine in earlier versions, and distortion of placed graphics: a patch is forthcoming, apparently.
The ease-of-use has all but disappeared as the horrific trend towards consolidating various separate functions (which is also afflicting developers such as Quark) has taken root at FileMaker. Once-simple menu options are now incomprehensible and a single, vaguely named item, “Define Database”, contains just about every useful development feature in the system. Anyone looking to get the hang of FileMaker is well advised to ignore the electronic tutorials and wade through the rich wealth of paper manuals provided with the product instead, since it’s really the only way to learn now.
If you can overlook these quite substantial failings, those powerful new FileMaker Pro 7 features promised on the box – multiple tables in a single file; multiple windows for a single file; a proper relational model that doesn’t require scores of workarounds to get useful relationships running; a decent security model; and a container field that can import and export any object, including files – are very welcome. The “multiple tables in a single file” feature would have been even more useful for existing FileMaker Pro users if FileMaker had made it possible to import existing single-table files into one multiple-table file. However, there’s no such option available and FileMaker’s advice is to stick with individual files or recreate everything from scratch in a new file. Thanks FileMaker.
If you’re new to databases and need something more powerful than an Excel spreadsheet, then FileMaker Pro 7 is a very powerful and capable tool – albeit with a steeper learning curve than previous versions. If you’re a FileMaker user already, being an early adopter of version 7 is not a good idea, unless you’re planning on starting everything from scratch, aren’t worried about having to redesign some of your layouts or you have projects that will be impossible without the new features; otherwise, wait until FileMaker smoothes the bugs out and comes up with a decent migration tool – it’s just not worth the upgrade trauma at the moment.