FileMaker's time is now

For deploying user-facing databases for departments and workgroups, FileMaker Pro has always played second fiddle to Microsoft Access, despite Access’ seemingly inherent unfriendliness to developers and users. To date, FileMaker Pro’s limitations have made replacing Access with FileMaker a thorny decision. With the release of FileMaker Pro 7, however, the case for conversion is now indisputable — it’s time to deep-six Access.

What frees FileMaker from its past constraints are changes that support a more fully relational design for databases, increased scalability, and the kind of granular, role-based security that large organizations prefer — and that Access already provides. Version 7 bases access privileges on hierarchical groups in which users inherit permissions, making setup easier, more efficient, and more consistent with other applications. An administrator can control access to specific fields or individual records, as well as to views and scripts.

Version 7 supports data files as large as 8TB and an unlimited number of tables within a database (I didn’t test either assertion; my largest test database was 358MB with 12 tables); individual fields can contain as much as 2GB of text or 4GB of other media or file types. Version 7 database files support a traditional relational model using multiple tables you relate to one another in ways familiar to Access developers, although the work is a little cleaner and easy to do, thanks to a simple, click-and-drag tool.

Version 7 also maintains FileMaker’s traditional strengths. Most noteworthy are the usability of developed products, support for cross-platform deployment (Windows, Mac, and with an add-on, both Palm OS 5 and Windows Mobile 2003), development tools that allow nonprogrammers to produce useful front-end applications, and smooth handling of graphics, video, and other rich media files.

FileMaker Pro has always made it easy to create interfaces that are both clean and attractive. As always, Version 7 provides canned templates for basic applications — for example, asset management, issue tracking, time billing — that you can deploy as is, tweak, or use as development templates for databases that support parallel kinds of tasks. Given FileMaker’s natural deftness at handling graphics, it makes a wonderful tool for creating a CMS (content management system).

Worth noting for existing FileMaker owners, the scripting language is broader and more powerful and finally includes the ability to pass parameters and use local variables. Users can now have multiple views open into the same data. Also note that the new version runs about as quickly as FileMaker 6 and has not reverted to the slothlike execution of the earliest versions.

The edition of FileMaker Pro that’s right for you depends on your ambitions. The family includes FileMaker Pro 7, reviewed here; FileMaker Developer 7, a development environment; FileMaker Server 7, which supports hundreds of simultaneous users; FileMaker Server 7 Advanced, which is required for sharing data with other ODBC and JDBC applications; and FileMaker Mobile 7, which extends databases to Palm and Pocket PC handhelds.

FileMaker Pro 7 has the power to convince beleaguered IT shops that front-end database work can be both inexpensive and easy. Thanks to increased file- and field-size limits, new relational capabilities, a more flexible scripting language, and more granular security, FileMaker is now suitable for bigger, more complex jobs than ever before. Hasta la vista, Access.