Entered CNET Catalog: 07/01/2006
SKU: CNETFILEMAKER85
Manufacturer: FileMaker Inc.
CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 07/10/2006
Filemaker 8.5 is a user-friendly database application that will display and play anything your Web browser can: HTML, PDF pages, QuickTime videos, Java applets, and Flash animations, as well as SVG and PHP content. Therefore, you can view Google Maps, FedEx packages, Wikipedia entries, and more without leaving Filemaker to open a browser window. We haven't seen anything like this in competing software, such as Microsoft Access.
The browser capacity within Filemaker 8.5 opens the door to all sorts of creative uses. For instance, it lets you feed any data that gets updated frequently on a Web site, such as stock prices, directly into your database, live, without having to manually retype it. You could also drop an online map within a Filemaker layout to show the location within a contact's address field. Other Web data tie-ins could include currency exchange rates, contact details from a company's "about us" Web page, or whatever you dream up. If your database tracks, say, contacts in the news media, you could connect a particular reporter's latest stories with his or her listing in the database.
The browser content appears seamlessly within a Filemaker window, so on the surface, you can't tell where the database ends and the online content begins. While the embedded browser doesn't include an address bar or Back and Forward buttons, you can add those and other abilities with the Web Viewer script step. You'll need reliable Internet access, of course. Filemaker 8.5 uses the default browser for your operating system. The database can also display mobile Web pages to keep the browser views small and simple.
It's painless to embed Web sites into your database designs: just enter Layout Mode, choose Web Viewer from the Insert menu, draw a box where the Web content will appear, and type a URL. We dropped an eBay auction page into a Filemaker 8.5 template within about a minute. However, we anticipate that quirks may crop up over time--for example, if data fields from the Web change stop matching those linked within your database.
Additionally, Filemaker is introducing new Object functions and script steps. Version 8.5 now allows developers to name Objects, thereby reducing the use of hidden fields. A revamped Learning Center includes video tutorials and other online help to step you through the functions. And Filemaker 8.5 operates on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs, which purportedly runs twice as fast as version 8 does on a PowerPC. Once we spend a bit more time with Filemaker 8.5, we'll post a rated review.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3
User Rating: 
3/10
After all the hype - i was pretty let down by 8.5
Pros: I have used it in the past and was expecting good things.
Cons: Slow. Cannot build a full web application :(
I work for a Fortune 500 company and convinced my boss that we would not have to wait around for IT to build our dept. Web apps with Filemaker 8.5.
Sadly the product was slow and was missing key features that rendered it of limited value. I guess i that still leaves me looking for alternatives to .Net and PHP. My last hope is hire a professional developer or check out some alternatives to Filemaker for builing web apps (i need desktop apps built too).
User Rating: 
6/10
Can FM work online?
Pros: I'd like to know
Cons: I'd like to know
User Rating: 
9/10
Great New Features... Opens a lot of potential
Pros: Database Viewer
Cons: It looks that it is based on IE which is scarry considering how INSECURE IT IS
On the other hand. I care A LOT about SECURITY in the type of work I do. I believe that (At least in Windows XP) FM uses the IE already installed on your PC as an Embeded browser, although I could be wrong onthis. But when I opened a webpage that had a Pop up; interestingly it poped up a page in Internet Explorer. If this is the case that it is a bit concerning to me since we all know how Insecure is IE.
On the other hand it seems that there is NO RIGHT CLICK FUNCTION in the embeded web browser which is a minus..
OVerall I am pleased I have to say.
