ISO FileMaker Magazine

Companies release new versions of software all the time. One of the issues we may face as developers is that not everything is documented and the "marketing spin" might not provide all the technical details. In this video I showcase how I go about the process by performing and ad hoc discover of some of the new features in the Claris FileMaker 2024 release.

Claris International, Inc. released Claris FileMaker 2023 (version 20) of the FileMaker platform on Tue. April 25th 2023. This release, like all previous dot releases, saw just a few major features and some new branding via a new icon.

In my opinion, there are primarily three major features in FMP 20 and a VERY large number of both fixes and minor features. I'm calling this one the "move towards enterprise" release. It improves upon its level of support for robust technologies such as ARM support, furthered Linux support and integrates features which will help any organization with more easily tracking critical data.

I've created a somewhat lengthy video which provides insight to the major new 20 features and also recaps the other features which have been released over the previous 3 years.

Give yourself 30-60 minutes to catch up with what's been released in the FileMaker platform over the previous years up until today's release.

On Wednesday May 20th, 2020 Claris International Inc. released a new version of FileMaker Pro. Version 19 includes just a handful of changes, but they are far reaching and will extend FileMaker's usefulness in many ways.

Of the changes, the biggest is an extensible architecture which allow for portable components called Add-ons to be distributed. The same underlying technology, which uses XML, is also being used to provide support for updating a database file using a command line tool.

FileMaker 19 also marks the start of a more rapid release schedule for future releases of FileMaker Pro. This video includes a hit list of the top new features and I discuss the functionality they implement and how they could be used.

FileMaker 18 was released on Wed. May 22nd 2019. This video walks through all the new features implemented within the latest version of FileMaker Pro Advanced. Here's a short list of all the new features.

01) Security: Revised Manage Security Area
02) Security: Unsigned Plug-ins
03) Security: File References by Default
04) Data: New Import Dialog
05) Develop: Recursion & While
06) Develop: Script Error Logging
07) Develop: Insert From URL Protocols
08) Develop: FMP urls version specific
09) Design: Shift+Arrow 10x movement
10) Integrate: New Barcode Types
11) Develop: XML File Representations
12) Develop: File IO operations

It's that time of year again. The annual FileMaker Devcon approaches and FileMaker, Inc's commitment to more timely releases comes true yet again. This time around we have a number of new features. In this video I provide a quick hit list of all the major features you'll find within this latest release. Here's the list of new items covered.

00) Application Icon
01) Developer Tools
02) Redesigned Launch Center
03) New Hosts Dialog
04) Rearranged File Menu
05) Redesigned Layout Mode
06) Copy Paste Custom Menus
07) Info box in Manage Dialog
08) Layouts Subgroup Selections
09) Built-In Master Detail
10) Default Fields
11) Mini Apps
12) Multiple Email Attachments
13) Scripts - Perform Script by Name
14) Scripts - Show Dialog Input Variables
15) Scripts - Exports create folders
16) Go - iOS Local Notification
17) Go - GetSensor Function
18) Function Get ( UUIDNumber )
19) Function Get ( ActiveRecordNumber )
20) Data Migration Tool
21) Revised FileMaker Server
22) Updated FileMaker Data API

On May 9th 2017 FileMaker Inc. released FileMaker version 16. This version included a big number of major features designed to support FileMaker's ability to communicate with the rest of the Internet. As a globally connected software application, FileMaker has clearly stated that it's a highly viable platform for rapid application deployment.

FileMaker 15 was released on May 10th 2016 and includes a few key new technologies.

While much of the focus was on the mobile end of things, there are some speed improvements along with some convenience features which will make working in FileMaker 15 just a bit more enjoyable!

FileMaker Inc. released version 15 on May 10th. Did you miss the news? If so, then here’s a video which goes through the shortlist of new features.

One of the biggest changes was internal in terms of how FileMaker is saving cached data and layouts. FileMaker is now maintaining more resources after closing files so that opening a solution will seem MUCH faster. This is probably where a significant amount of development effort and dollars were spent.

You know, just laying in some ground work to make things perceptively faster for end users and developers. Now, if they will only give us developers control over local caching on a Layout-by-layout basis!

The number of new features, from a developer, perspective is pretty small. Unless you really need some of the new mobile related features, I’d say the biggest benefit to a FileMaker developer is the nicer colorful icons in Layout mode and the culmination of the various tweaks. Hopefully, the next annual release will contain a ton of wiz-bang features made just for developers. Regardless of meager feature additions, the developer perception when working on a remotely hosted database will be pretty significant!