FileMaker’s core idea is to facilitate developers to create custom software solutions that are required by small and medium businesses. It provides an extensive array of ready-made templates. This reduces time to get started with the development and leaves more time to work on a more complex design and development. The enhanced features in FileMaker 15 will transform the business of building custom apps.

FileMaker Pro 15 is carrying forward the direction of the company to increase mobility with the help of some enhanced features. Some of these are:

• An additional security feature i.e. the Concealed Box will help users to be more careful with the content. The Concealed Edit Box feature does not reveal the content typed in the field to the onlookers as they just see some dots.
• Solutions which are frequently used can be added to the Quick Actions thus enabling a quicker way to access FileMaker solution.
• The Portal In-Line Progress Bar, one of FileMaker 15’s new performance-based features, brings with it the separation of a layout’s non-portal and portal rendering tasks. This means users are no longer forced to wait for cumbersome portals to load before being able to interact with a window’s content.
• FileMaker Pro 15 sends notifications for any kind of software updates. One can easily download and install the update within FileMaker Pro 15. This was not possible in the earlier version.
• A Lot of improvements have been made in the Script Workspace. Script Errors are highlighted in red colour. So one can rectify the scripts immediately. There is an Unlimited Undo option which will give the users more freedom in creating something new and unique.

New features introduced in FileMaker Go 15 will give rich user experience for iOS users. Some of them are as follows:

• Touch ID adds an extra layer of security to the existing features in your application. This will allow the users to login into the application using the fingerprint. For phones without the Touch ID sensors, there will be a device passcode.
• The FileMaker app can be integrated with iBeacons. FileMaker Go 15 can associate data like text, image, video etc.  to the specific locations where iBeacons are present.

Your custom app can be further extended/linked to web using FileMaker/PHP API thus providing more opportunities.

MetaSys has a dedicated team of FileMaker developers, with experience in FileMaker 15. In case you have any queries related to FileMaker or looking for a quick solution catering to your business feel free to contact us.

• FileMaker offers a Small Business Service Toolkit to its customers at no extra cost. As a part of the toolkit, FileMaker offers an eBook – “How to Transform Your Service Business”.It addresses the common business issues faced by small businesses and how to overcome them by building custom apps. It also has case studies covering real business issues faced by small companies and how they overcame their challenges
• FileMaker provides a Starter App along with the Toolkit. The app is compatible with FileMaker 15 platform. It has all the basic functionalities to help small businesses in addressing common business processes like resource scheduling, inventory management etc. The app is designed by a member of the FileMaker Business Alliance Platinum Partner. It is accompanied by a webinar which addresses issues faced by small businesses when it comes to inventory planning and management and invoice generation.
• An extended support in the form of ‘Idea to iPad’ Bundle is also available. Annual licenses of FileMaker Pro Advanced and FileMaker Server are offered as a bundle to create and deploy custom apps. It includes 10 hours of consultation with a Customer Success Manager and FileMaker Business Alliance professional developer. The personal one-on-one interaction helps the developer understand your business and advise a solution appropriate for your situation.

This customer centric approach has proved to help small businesses in digitizing their business using FileMaker. Furthermore, one can start with one module or one process and add modules to meet the growing needs of the business.  Businesses and employees quickly see concrete returns on their investment. The platform also allows you to tweak and fine tune your processes over time. Metasys Software has over 12 years of experience with a team of Certified FileMaker Developers and huge experience in client server as well as web application development using FileMaker PHP API. If you are looking for a quick solution or have queries related to FileMaker development feel free to contact us.

With Custom Web Publishing (CWP) FileMaker allows to build web applications using PHP as Front-End and FileMaker as Back-End. This is achieved using FMPHP API provided by FileMaker.

Almost every web application consists of forms that have a dropdown list/ selection list. For example:

In the case of Dynamic dropdown lists, data has to be fetched from backend FileMaker database every time the user accesses. If there are large number of records, then fetching them from the database and displaying on Web Page takes time to load and results in the slowness of the web page.

In order to avoid this and make the experience friendlier & faster for the user, following technique explains how it can be achieved in a simple way,

• Create a text file with all the required data separated by entering key in it.
  ex.
  Value1
  Value2
  Value3..

• This data will be the initial data containing in the FileMaker field on which you would like to base dropdown list.
• Place this file in the same location as your web page containing the dropdown list.
• Then in the PHP web page, using file read operations and while loop, fetch the data and display in the dropdown list.
• Create one more PHP web page, which will fire a query on FileMaker table/field to get dynamic data for the dropdown list and write to the text file described above.
• Admin person can call this web page via a web browser or web viewer of FileMaker whenever there is an update to the field data.
• This technique is more effective when the data in the required field is modified less frequently.