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carlocas · Aug 27, 2003, 05:40 AM

Why isn't there any information on the upcoming version of FileMaker Pro (7) ?
The FileMaker developers conference has started a few days ago and they probably talked about it.

Anybody has some insider/leaked information ?

Filemaker Pro 6 is in a serious need for an upgrade....

skyman · Aug 27, 2003, 07:04 PM

Originally posted by carlocas:
Why isn't there any information on the upcoming version of FileMaker Pro (7) ?
The FileMaker developers conference has started a few days ago and they probably talked about it.

Anybody has some insider/leaked information ?

Filemaker Pro 6 is in a serious need for an upgrade....

FileMaker was a great piece of software until MySQL and OS X came along.

The folks at FileMaker are not very good at helping long time customers like myself.

I can remember the days when FileMaker was only $299 (unlimited). Now, version 6.0 unlimited is $999.

Go with MySQL and PHP. They are both FREE and MySQL smokes FileMaker with its performance.

Plus...there is TONS of FREE support for MySQL and PHP on the net. Try looking for help for FileMaker on the net..haha.

Angus_D · Aug 28, 2003, 06:49 PM

http://www.thinksecret.com/news/filemaker7.html

Jonesy · Sep 1, 2003, 02:52 AM

It is strange that no public announcement has been made on Filemaker 7. We know that it is coming soon as there is a book being release by the end of the month (see http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=2191853).

Do you think the release could be delayed for a bigger audience for some reason? Maybe it will be announced at the Paris Expo along with the rest of the line-up needed to replace AppleWorks.

If this is true God only knows how they managed to keep it quiet at the Filemaker developer conference.

kennedy · Sep 1, 2003, 10:51 AM

Originally posted by skyman:
Try looking for help for FileMaker on the net..haha.

www.fmforums.com

A great forum... if you need help, you'll get it there. Not from FileMaker... but from a lot of true FileMaker experts.

As for the other comments about FileMaker... there's a lot of bad stuff in FMP... I sure hope they deliver with FMv7... version 6 was worthless upgrade with a huge pricetag.

hayesk · Sep 1, 2003, 11:44 AM

Originally posted by kennedy:
version 6 was worthless upgrade with a huge pricetag.

I agree. 6 was all about XML - to be used for integrating FileMaker with other products. In my opinion, FM's biggest advantage is the total package, i.e. do the layouts, scripts, solutions, etc. completely within FileMaker.

If you are using FileMaker as a back end and developing your solutions with other tools, aren't you more apt, to swap out FM for mySQL, PostGres, or another DB engine.

FMI should be concentrating on developing their own interface, engine, development, etc. to make developing *completely* within FM a better experience first.

I have a few FM projects sitting on the shelf waiting for a new version. I hope they give us some real info soon.

kennedy · Sep 1, 2003, 11:57 AM

Originally posted by hayesk:
FMI should be concentrating on developing their own interface, engine, development, etc. to make developing *completely* within FM a better experience first.

Totally agree with your whole post. They seem to had forgotten what people use FMP for. And there is soooo much real clunky stuff that desperately needed fixing. Especially to support real development. I am building a couple substantial solutions in FMP for internal use... they would be great external products as well, but I'd never dream of releasing them the way FMP is right now... proper support would be a nightmare. If they would fix a few things, that would change completely. To succeed, they need to make development of end user apps on it a luxury, not a chore.

I have high hopes for FM7 based on the speculation... but fairly low expectations based on FM6. Here's to the speculations being accurate...

Love Calm Quiet · Nov 2, 2003, 06:22 PM

:bump:
I could live for WEEKS on a good rumor!

The link above by jonsey is for a SAMS FMPro book due out in November that says NOTHING about "7". Nor does its meagre listing at Amazon.

Amazon DOES list a book mysteriously called, "How to Do Everything with Filemaker X." (Mc-Graw-Hill Osborne Media; ISBN = 0072231416). Well, what the heck is Filemaker X?

Is a FMP 7 coming out... to be called FM X ?

I've got database work seriously cramped my FMP 6's limitations & really need to find out what sort of improvements might be in the works so I can decide whether to give up completely on FMPro & move to another development environment.

The ThinkSecret article linked above gave some hope of major work - but leaves lots of questions unanswered.

Please Santa!... for Christmas? Please?

Mr. Blur · Nov 2, 2003, 06:52 PM

i don't know if this means anything or not, but i use FM 5.5 and a couple weeks ago i got an email with a "special offer" of a $50us rebate on an upgrade to v6 - thats off the upgrade price. this offer is valid until dec 31, 2003.

Oneota · Nov 2, 2003, 07:26 PM

Originally posted by Love Calm Quiet:

The link above by jonsey is for a SAMS FMPro book due out in November that says NOTHING about "7". Nor does its meagre listing at Amazon.

Check out the browser window title on that Walmart page - it says FileMaker 7 there, but not in the book's title listing. Interesting, neh?

Love Calm Quiet · Nov 2, 2003, 07:42 PM

Thanks, Oneota - I didn't notice that. If Walmart projection dates are as (un)reliable as Amazon (or whatever fantasist at publisher gives them) it tells about zero regarding when the book will actually manifest.

But Mr. Blur... here's what I would LIKE to think about the $50 rebate - that they're trying to get rid to the v.6 inventory because v.7 is coming out shortly after Jan 1.

Still not being a Santa Claus, though.

macsfromnowon · Nov 3, 2003, 07:12 AM

I'm new to Macs and was looking at a friend's FileMaker Pro - and what holds me back is that lack of a convenient text formatting toolbar. He said that version 5.5 used to have one, but that for some reason 6.0 doesn't - or at least his option in the VIEW menu for toolbars is greyed out. Does anyone know if that's really missing from 6.0 - if so I'm just going to have to wait for 7.0 to see if they have it.

(I really use database for a lot of text data that has to be frequently restyled, and going way down in font list or in color submenu is a BEEG slow-down .)

selowitch · Dec 30, 2003, 02:22 PM

My biggest beef with FMP is that it has no support for rich text or Unicode, or even text with mixed attributes (italics, roman, and/or bold).

That makes it very clunky for the content-management tasks that I need to do, namely informing a print catalog and a website simultaneously.

Perhaps we'll hear something at Macworld SF in the first week of January 2004.

Love Calm Quiet · Dec 30, 2003, 03:13 PM

Selowich:
I'm not sure what you mean by "no support" for rich text. I copy/paste into & out of FMP 6 all the time -- with TextEdit or Safari, etc. Registers the bold, italics, etc. just fine.

As mascfromnowon says, the editing of RTF, however is ghastly slow (no copy-format command like TextEdit has, for example); no search according to format type, etc. However, you certainly CAN *bold* or *italicize any text (not in a numberic field except uniformly throughout it) from the FORMAT menu.

selowitch · Dec 30, 2003, 03:34 PM

Originally posted by Love Calm Quiet:
Selowich:
I'm not sure what you mean by "no support" for rich text. I copy/paste into & out of FMP 6 all the time -- with TextEdit or Safari, etc. Registers the bold, italics, etc. just fine.

Well, can you retrieve bold, italics, etc. from an FMP database deployed on the web, e.g., via Lasso/LDML?

I can't paste italic/bold text into InDesign at all....

I know I can style the text inside a field, but it seems as the though the italics and bold are lost when you cut and paste to another app.