The new release of FileMaker Pro - version 2025 - is out, and it’s a doozy. Every year, around this time of year, Claris releases a new version of its flagship product, FileMaker. In past years, each release has had a handful of new features, as one would expect - iterating on the product, adding in new functions and capabilities designed to make the product better, more secure, more performative. But in our long history of involvement with Claris (40 years!!) this is easily one of the biggest releases of new features. So, take a breath and get comfortable, this is going to take a while!
Overview
The new release can be broken down into three categories:
There are many powerful new features in each of these areas - too many to list in just one blog post. We will be posting a deep dive on each of these areas, but thought it would be useful to provide an overview and some highlights from each area.
AI Integration
This is the big headline for this release. Of course, generative AI has taken the tech industry by storm, to the point where it feels a bit overwhelming - and perhaps unnecessary. Do we really need AI in our refrigerators? Still, having seen the demos at Claris Engage, my inner cynic about this kind of technology was decisively won over by what you could do. Being able to ask a question about your data - in normal English - and have the AI tools not only find what you asked for but also generate first a report and then a chart based on that data on the fly? It was impressive. Claris has gone all in on AI integration, with new abilities that go from performing a find by natural language to integrating open source models directly in FileMaker Server. There’s a lot here, and as usual, I can’t wait to see what the community does with the new tools.
FileMaker Platform Enhancements
Claris has made many enhancements up and down the FileMaker platform - Pro, Server, WebDirect. Let’s break out some of the highlights for each.
FileMaker Pro
GetTextFromPDF Calculation Function
This does just what it says it does - you point it at a container field, and it will return the text of the PDF. This was possible with plugins before, but having it natively within the product will make it easier for developers.
GetRecordIDsFromFoundSet and Go to List of Records Script Step
These two function well as a pair, and are some of the most intriguing new features for me. Often, we find ourselves building relationships that are basically stored queries, so that we have the ability to go to related records based on a found set. This will allow us to get away from doing that, and thus simplify our relationship graph. Using the first function - GetRecordIDsFromFoundSet - you can get a set of record IDs. Then using the second function - Go to List of Records Script Step - you can navigate to a layout and display just those records. This is just the most basic use of these, and I foresee the community coming up with many creative ways to employ these new tools.
Custom Functions Folders
Currently, in the “Manage Custom Functions” dialog, you simply have a long list of functions. We now have the ability to store those in folders. In our experience, we rarely have an application with so many custom functions that it requires folders, but anything that provides more organization and more clarity will always make a solution better.
Collapse Script Parts
Now this has the potential to be much more useful. Basically, the idea is that you’ll be able to collapse and expand entire sections of your scripts. This can make debugging much more efficient; it’s easier to see where an if or loop starts and stops by collapsing it, meaning it’s easier to focus on exactly what you’re working on.
These are just a few highlights - there are many more - including some tasty looking JSON functions and JSON parsing enhancements - that we will review in a later, more detailed blog post.
FileMaker Server
Again, a boatload of new features here. Many technical behind the scenes improvements - optimizing script execution threads, improving parallel task handling, boosting scalability. They’ve made some improvements to the upgrade tool that I’m curious about - to my knowledge, very few people actually use the upgrade tool, as it has some limitations, but perhaps it will gain more acceptance with these upgrades. But the star of the show here is Let’s Encrypt integration.
Let’s Encrypt Integration
One of the more tedious and often complicated parts of managing FileMaker server over the years has been keeping up with the SSL certificate. Because it’s outside of the FileMaker admin console universe, it often involves several different steps to install. Particularly in the case where FileMaker developers are tasked with administering a server that is owned by the client and their IT department, installing the SSL certificate and keeping up with regular updates was often problematic.
Not anymore! Let's Encrypt is a free, automated, and open Certificate Authority. It provides free TLS/SSL certificates. FileMaker Server now has an out of the box set of tools that will automate the installation and renewal of SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt. It is literally as simple as clicking a button. This is huge for a number of reasons. One of the barriers to security is often complexity - if it’s hard to do, people won’t do it, no matter how much more secure they will be. This new feature takes that burden away, making it simple - and free - to install and renew an SSL certificate.
FileMaker WebDirect
Not to leave out WebDirect, Claris made some great new improvements for WebDirect. Again, on the back end, they’ve made performance improvements, making WebDirect faster and more stable. But on the front-end, they’ve made some small but key changes. One, in particular, our clients have been requesting for years.
Browser Back Button Warning
One issue that has haunted WebDirect since its release has been: if users hit the back button, instead of going to the last screen WITHIN WebDirect, it will log them out of WebDirect entirely. Users HATE this. Trust me on this. Now, Claris has finally found a solution. When users click on either the back or forward button, a warning will be displayed - letting them know that it will log them out of that session.
Claris Studio
Claris has been working on Claris Studio for a while, but it has yet to really hit its stride. I feel this is about to change. The whole point of Claris Studio is to allow you to connect external users - people outside of your internal FileMaker eco-system, folks without the FileMaker client - to access your data. A customer web portal is the most commonly discussed use case, allowing a customer to login and see just their data, and perhaps update it. Say, for example, an HVAC company that wants to allow customers to leave reviews or schedule maintenance.
At Engage, we saw a live demo of someone creating a Claris Studio web page from scratch in less than an hour. During the demo, they connected Studio to a large FileMaker database quickly and easily. Designing the web page was a snap - literally - and even creating charts on the fly was pretty simple. But the big difference is in the performance. They changed the way that it connects to FileMaker. Claris Studio creates its own set of tables on the back end that are built for how web sites like to handle big data. It then syncs that data with your FileMaker app in real time. What’s new: you can set up your data connection to your FileMaker app directly in Claris Studio. No fussing around with adding table occurrences in FileMaker or manually managing the sync process between the two. You can always do those things if you want - but out of the box, they’ve made it much simpler for you to have Studio interact with FileMaker. As always, the devil is in the details, and we’ll have to see how this performs with some of our customers in a real development environment - but at this moment, I’m optimistic about how this might be used.
Summary
This isn’t just another incremental update — FileMaker 2025 brings serious improvements to the Claris ecosystem. We have AI integrations that are brand new and exciting. We have a whole host of new features across the FileMaker platform, from Pro to Server to WebDirect. And Claris Studio seems to finally be coming into its own as a tool.
We’ll be diving deeper into each area in future posts, but for now: if you’re a FileMaker developer, this version will give you a ton of new tools to work with. If you're in need of help upgrading to this new version of FileMaker, contact us!