‘FileMaker Go for the iPhone’ – a First Look

Once you have purchased your iPhone and synced it with your iPhone or iTouch, you will see a nicely crafted icon reflecting the color scheme of the latest version of FileMaker Pro, FileMaker 11. Touch the icon to launch into FileMaker Go.

If you have already logged on to a database, FileMaker Go offers to refresh your connection. I am not sure how long this ability to refresh stays alive as it could present a bit of a security risk, as users have to intentionally log out. Lost or stolen phones might provide an easy login to corporate databases. Presumably one would have to actually shut down FileMaker Go, using the iPhone’s multi-tasking route to quit the app. Alternatively closing all open database windows would probably log you out. There is also a method of erasing ‘Recent Files’ in FileMaker Go.

Swiping your finger across the screen on a listed database brings up the Delete button. When you use this technique in the Recent Files area, you are only deleting the alias for that file, not the actual file. When you go back into the File Browser and look in Files on Device, you will still see the Sample Inventory file is still available.

The File Browser is the starting place for launching FileMaker Go files. There are four main areas to look for files. Regular FileMaker users will probably be familiar with these four areas.

• Files on Device – these are FileMaker files moved to your iPhone/iTouch through iTunes, email or a file sharing web service such as DropBox
• Recent Files – if you have already opened a file, have a look here, it could save you some time re-entering your login information.
• Local Network Hosts – shared FileMaker files on a wireless network will appear here.
• Favorite Hosts (Add Host) – Add a Host, allows you to enter a domain name or IP address to gain access to a FileMaker database stored on a remote server. I haven’t tested the 3G speeds, but using WIFI access, databases downtown seemed as fast as files hosted on my MacBook Pro in the next room.

Enter the IP address or domain name of a FileMaker Server. This is where you enter information on FileMaker databases hosted on a remote server.

Here we see a sample Local Host login. Tapping the available hosts will take you to the next screen where you can see any databases shared on this local host. The next two screens in this review will show you how to turn on File Sharing using FileMaker Pro on your local computer. It is also possible to access FileMaker files shared on FileMaker Server, but I will not go into configuring FM Server.

This database is hosted on my MacBook Pro. Under the File Menu, select Sharing and FileMaker Network…

Allow Access to All Users, or whatever specific set of users you want to limit this access to.

Click on the file name to begin accessing that file. If the file has security turned on, you will see a password prompt.

Notice in the top left hand corner, you will see a multi-page icon, similar to what you might see in Mobile Safari. This indicates either that you have two databases open, or two windows of the same file. In this case, I have set the file to open with two windows, a splash screen and the actual work window. I will change this later, using a very useful feature that FileMaker has added, which allows programmers to determine if a user has logged in on an iPhone.

Clicking the multi-window/multi-file icon takes you into a view of the windows that you can move between by using finger swipes. This is similar behavior to what you would see in the Mobile Safari web browser.

Use the small X to close a window or file.

You also have the option of bailing out and going back to the ‘Open File Browser’, ‘Close All’ or click ‘Done’ to go to this screen.

Most standard FileMaker navigation script steps seem to work and iPhone touches that you would expect to do certain things do them.

FileMaker Go’s Help pages explains the icons to do the standard navigation within FileMaker Go. Tap to add records, move between records, Find, Sort, change layouts, enter data etc. All the basic capabilities are there. If you have used FileMaker on the desktop, you know the basics of FileMaker Go.

Click in a field to enter or edit data. This feels somewhat like using Instant Web Publishing (IWP) to access FileMaker Pro from the web.

Since the Return key is in use for longer text field entries, FileMaker Go uses a down arrow to leave the field. This was a little confusing the first time. You can also click on another field to leave the field you are in, saving the changes. This is where it differs from IWP, in that there is no ‘submit’ button to save changes. Any time you make changes and leave a field, they are saved, so be careful.

It is possible to click on a list of records to select a particular record. Probably better is to use the left/right arrows to move through a series of records. This works in both Form and List views. Clicking the little circle in the middle of the navigation bar brings up another navigation tool

With your finger, you can tap along the slider to move through larger numbers of records in a quick movement. For example, clicking midway on the line would take you to roughly record number 1500. Use the small arrows to fine tune your record selection.

Quick Find is a nice feature introduced in FileMaker 11. In an effort to make FileMaker behave more like a standard Google Search, it is now possible to search through a whole raft of fields with one command. For instance typing ‘CA’ in the Quick Find would bring up people from California, as well as people with the first name ‘Calvin’ or the last name ‘Cadbury’ etc. It is a bit of a shotgun approach, but can be very useful when you are not sure which field to start looking in.

Most FileMaker users are familiar with Find Mode. You click the Find button and then click into the field you want to search on . In this case, I want to search for all the ‘Joe’s in the database. I enter ‘Joe’ and then click the ‘Go’ button.

FileMaker returns 9 records with the name ‘Joe’ in the First Name field. Click ‘OK’ to browse these records.

Note the small black line to the left of the record. This indicates the selected record.

If I click on the next record, it becomes the selected record. The selected record can become important if you are performing specific actions on a record, such as Delete record or running a script from the record.

The +/- icon in the lower left of the screen will bring up the options to:

Add New Record – adds a new blank record for you to fill in.
Duplicate Record – duplicates the current record, everything will be the same, except things like record id and creation time/date information.
Delete Record – deletes a single record
Delete Found Records – I would use this if I wanted to delete the 9 records I found above with the name ‘Joe’ in them. If for some reason I didn’t like guys named ‘Joe’ being in the database.

Click the little gear icon to bring up the Menu of options

This Menu has lots of useful things in it, so it is a good one to remember where it is.

• Layouts – move between available layouts
• View As – Form/List or Table views of your data
• Show Toolbar – hides the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen
• Refresh Window – sometimes your data will lag what is on the server, so refreshing the window can be useful, although I did not find a use for this in my experiments.
• Perform Script – takes you to the available scripts for your database. You may not see anything in the scripts menu.

Although this database has plenty of scripts, they are hidden from view. I have kept my scripts primarily accessible from buttons on the main interface screen, so you see nothing here. Other database may have lots of scripts that you can run from here.

Any layouts listed in your menu will appear here. It is possible to hide layouts from view in FileMaker Pro, so you will only see what the developer wants you to see here. FileMaker Go respects all the security settings of FileMaker Pro.

Pinching with two fingers zooms out and placing your fingers together and then moving them outward will zoom in. If you have played with the touch interface and looked at photos on an iPhone you will be familiar with this technique.

One of the options off the Menu page is ‘Settings’. This screen allows you to turn on and off the status bar, auto correction and gives you the version number of FileMaker Go.

The Open URL script step works nicely from FileMaker Go. Here is a sample link from my database that opens a Web Viewer, not quite in Safari, but fine for moving around on a single web site.

You can surf the web from within FileMaker Go. Notice the ‘Open in Safari’ button at the bottom of the screen, which will take you into Safari for a more comprehensive browser experience. Still within FileMaker Go, you can do most things you would in Safari, no bookmarks or history though. Clicking Done takes you back to the previous FileMaker Go screen.

The Help files or FileMaker Go are stored online, presumably allowing for dynamic updating by FileMaker Inc., as they add features. If you want to preview the Help Files for FileMaker Go before you dive in and make the purchase, they are here: Help Files

The help files are a good starting place to get familiar with the iPhone version of FileMaker Pro.

In iTunes, when you plugin your iPhone, in the Apps tab, you will see, if you scroll down below the App organizer area, a place for File Sharing. This is where apps that support iPhone sharing can send files back and forth. You can drag and drop files into this area.

According to FileMaker Go’s documentation, FileMaker Go does not support the following FileMaker Pro features:

• creating databases on the device
• modifying database schema such as tables, fields, relationships, data sources, and privileges
• modifying database structure such as layouts, scripts, value lists, and custom menus
• importing or exporting
• printing
• charting
• spell checking
• saving a copy
• saving and sending records as Excel, PDF, Snapshot Link
• external functions
• plug-ins
• hosting files
• Instant Web Publishing

It also supports only a limited font set and type styles, those native to the iPhone world.

There is a long list of missing features, but there is still plenty that you can do with FileMaker Go. If the iPad was launched with the idea of consuming media, then FileMaker Go is a consumer of databases. Anyone wanting to create or edit the structure of a FileMaker database on an iPad will have to wait a while, or try a VNC client to access a copy of FileMaker Pro Advanced running on their main computer for now.

FileMaker has awarded FileMaker Go its own designation, so you could write a script that trapped for Get(SystemPlatform) = 3 when performed on the mobile device. If you detected this platform in your login script, you could direct the mobile user to a specific layout optimized for the small screen.

If the Platform detected is 3, then users can then be directed to a screen optimized for a small computer screen.

Bento is a fairly new database application created by FileMaker Inc., to fill the low end of the database market. Many users view it as the missing database component for the iWork suite. FileMaker Pro is much more powerful than Bento and it is priced accordingly. If you already have a FileMaker database running with mission critical data, FileMaker Go is a great way to quickly get into your data from a mobile platform. If you just want to track recipes or a home inventory, Bento is worth considering. Bento lacks many of the higher end features, like scripting and truly relational data.

There are plenty of features missing in FileMaker Go, but it is a good start.  It would have been nice to see some innovations that take specific advantage of the iPhone’s features—one comment I saw in another article on FileMaker Go suggested the ability to import photos into container fields directly from the iPhone’s camera. I just tried to copy and paste from the Camera Roll into a container field and this works fine, it is just quite a few steps to do it. Open the Camera Roll, copy a photo, switch to FIleMaker Go, reconnect to your local database, click into the container field and paste. I could imagine how much simpler this might be if double clicking into a container field brought up a media browser from which one could select a photo in the Camera Roll.

Another commenter noted that although there are a variety of ways to get a database onto the iPhone, (email, iTunes, DropBox etc.) there is only one way back, via iTunes. I haven’t confirmed this yet, but on first glance, this appears to be true. It would be useful to have more options for two-way traffic. True data syncing would be lovely, but syncing is hard, so I get why they didn’t attempt this on the first go round.

FileMaker Go is not bullet proof yet, I managed to crash the app, by leaving a database open, wandering off to another app, then returning and clicking the Yes when asked if I wanted to resume my connection. Still, FileMaker Inc., has created a worthwhile product in FileMaker Go. I can imagine many users jumping to get access to their remote corporate databases via their iPhones/iPads. At $20 for the iPhone version, it is almost a no-brainer to buy this right out of the gate. FileMaker Go will no doubt mature over the coming months and years into a more robust offering.

P.S. Some important caveats to review before deploying your FileMaker Go database in a production environment. Shout out to Stephen Blackwell for pointing them out.

• Differences between FileMaker Go and FileMaker Pro
• Calculation and scripting behavioral differences in FileMaker Go
• Behavioral differences of FileMaker features when accessed by FileMaker Go
• What should I consider before opening up my databases with FileMaker Go?
• Transferring Files with FileMaker Go

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