The Support Group Blog

You will notice a significant improvement with FileMaker Go animations in FileMaker 16. If the idea was to make the transitions appear more like the ones we usually see within iOS apps then mission accomplished!

We are so excited that FileMaker Go has reached a major milestone — more than 3 million product downloads!  What a tremendous accomplishment and a true testament to its efficacy.

One of our customers recently needed a field to be both non-editable and scrollable in FileMaker Go.  Here’s his request:

Today I presented the webinar “Maximizing Mobility with FileMaker Go”, hosted by FileMaker, Inc.‘s Rick Colcock.  Thank you to all who attended; if you missed it or want to check it out again, you can download the video.

iPhones and iPads have changed the way people work with information. When developing solutions using FileMaker Go, you’ll want to design your workflows and user experience to fit the way people create and consume mobile data. This session will cover useful tips and techniques to optimize FileMaker for mobile use. We will explore FileMaker development with an eye to adapting workflow patterns and user interaction to the mobile paradigm, as well as the new opportunities mobile devices present, such as geolocation.

A reader asks:

When developing for FileMaker Go, is it possible to write a script that does one thing if the iPhone or iPad is held vertically and another if it’s held horizontally?  How it could be done?

“Yes we can!” (my son has been watching a lot of Bob the Builder). We need the Get ( WindowContentHeight ) and Get ( WindowContentWidth ) functions.

DevCon is over; summer vacations are finally wrapped up.

Back in July, I presented a preview webinar of one of my DevCon presentations: FileMaker and the Cloud: Integrating with Google Apps.  We are now making that webinar recording available, as well as making the sample file available for download.

UPDATE 4:

Geolocation is now natively supported in FileMaker Go 12 with the new mobile functions Location()and LocationValues().  Yay! For FileMaker Go 11, read on…

Elizabeth in San Francisco is one of many to ask this interesting FileMaker Go question:

My first reaction was “unfortunately, no.”  FileMaker Go can’t access the GPS features of the iPhone, and since we can’t use plug-ins with Go, there’s no opportunity to add that feature.  But never say never, right?

Today’s the lucky day for all of you that have been asking, “When is FileMaker going to make an iPhone app?” FileMaker Go is an amazing new iOS app that gives you access to your FileMaker solutions on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

We are incredibly excited about the possibilities now available for our customers—and for us personally, too!  FileMaker Go runs most .fp7 databases without modification.  Layouts are rendered almost identically as in FileMaker Pro; portals, tabs, and Quick Find work; technologies such as web viewers, script triggers, and External SQL Sources (think of the possibilities there) all transfer to your iDevice.  And you get the best of both worlds: you can connect remotely to an available FileMaker Server WiFi or 3G to access live shared systems, or you can copy a .fp7 file to your phone or iPad to carry your data with you.

Frank asks:

My guess?  Absolutely.  I mean, there has to be, right?  Mobile apps are all the rage, and I can’t imagine that FileMaker is not seriously investigating this market (they’ve already done a great job with their Bento app).  But there are existing solutions available today as well.