Product Review of FMPerception
FileMaker Database analysis has been around since the days when FileMaker made its meta data available through its Database Design Report - or DDR for short.
The report, for as long as I can recall, has been available in the human readable HTML format and also in the machine language format of XML.
Various developers have always made use of this verbose collection of tidbits about a database, but none have made it as fast as FMPerception. This newly released database analysis tool is the fastest information tool possible for answering questions about FileMaker Pro systems.
If you have any type of question about what’s used where and how within your database, then the fastest answers will come from FMPerception. Its especially helpful when working on a larger system or working within a team and you want to track what others have done to the solution.
This video provides a walkthrough of how to use FMPerception and how you can integrate it into your everyday development workflow.
Comments
What is the difference between.....
Inspector Pro from Beewax and this FMPerception. Which would you buy. They are priced the same. Expensive; I am not saying not worth it, just expensive. https://beezwax.net/products/inspector-pro/
Two different approaches to analysis.
I've used both Inspector Pro and FMPerception (as well as BaseElements).
Inspector Pro has a very refined interface and some really nice visual tools, such as the script connections visual diagram.
The biggest difference between the two is the speed in which you can get at an answer. If you need an answer quick ,then FMPerception is going to be the better bet.
If you need to really dig into a solution(s) which you didn't personally create in order to explore how it was created, then Inspector Pro has features which may have better benefit.
It also depends on how long you've been working with FileMaker. If you're just trying to figure things out then Inspector Pro might have the edge due to it's interface, but when you look at FMPerception, it's hard to not understand the super simple interface.
Inspector Pro has a lot to offer, but on a day-to-day basis, I just can't get over how fast FMPerception is in terms of giving you answers to questions you may have about a FileMaker database. It has certainly become my personal go-to analysis tool.
And yes, you are right, they are not cheap. You really need to be able to justify their prices. If you're only ever working on your own database, which you are quite familiar with, then just using the HTML output of the DDR is perfectly fine. I've done that for years and just used the built-in search feature within browsers.
The one killer feature that FMPerception has is the ability to quickly query anything based on a simple text string. It's fast and easy and you don't have to wait for hours to import the XML DDR.
-- Matt Petrowsky - ISO FileMaker Magazine Editor