Something to consider for those of you upgrading. -----Original Message----- From: Claris FileMaker Pro discussions [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Steven H. Blackwell Sent: Monday, May 14, 2001 1:02 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: FileMaker Pro® 5.5 Released: Many New Features Fellow FileMaker Pro Developers: Today’s release by FileMaker, Inc. of FileMaker Pro® 5.5 is another in the many steps the product has taken since late 1995 when FileMaker Pro 3 was released with relational capability, conditional scripting, and an improved calculation engine. FileMaker Pro 5.5 is the world’s first software both to run in native mode on Macintosh OS X and to receive logo certification for Windows 2000. FileMaker, Inc. also announced that, later this summer, they will release FileMaker Server 5.5 to run on Red Hat Linux, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4, Mac OS X as a Cocoa application, and Macintosh OS. FileMaker, Inc. has also announced that in the first half of 2002, it will release FileMaker Mobile for Pocket PC and, that in Japan, it will support the i-mode wireless Internet services standard of NTT DoCoMo by the end of 2001. FileMaker Pro 5.5 will support Citrix MetaFrame 1.8 for Windows 2000 servers and Windows 2000 Terminal Services. This most recent release is replete with new features. A number of these can have significant impact on the way we as developers design, maintain, and deploy our solutions. What are some of these features and how might they impact the way we work? Here are a few: o Record level access based on a Boolean calculation’s evaluation; o Saving of relative path only between FileMaker Pro files; o The ability to execute SQL statements on other databases through a script and to store those queries in a FileMaker Pro field; o Ability to extract the next serial value in a field’s auto-enter serial number function and then reset that to another value, all by script; o Enhanced graphic image format support via Quicktime, including support for Photoshop images; o Some new UI controls including the ability to turn off toolbars by script, the ability to change the cursor to a "Hand" when it passes over a button in both Browse and Find mode, and the ability to suppress built-in navigational controls in Instant Web Publishing and replace them with customized controls; o Ability to store PDF’s in container fields (Mac OS X only); o Several new security features including the ability for network administrators to remove the "New Databases" function and Windows 2000 domain authentication; and, o Several interesting new calculation and status functions including the "Get Field" function. What do these things actually do? Record Level Access In FileMaker Pro 5.5, developers will be able to specify for a given password that a user logged on with that specific password can access all records, or alternatively, that the user can access only those records meeting some specific criterion or criteria. Those criteria are examined by Boolean calculation, and if the results are false, the user can not access the specific record. The most obvious use would be restricting a user to seeing only those records he or she had created or only those records belonging to a particular department, e.g. Marketing or Sales. Less obvious but equally useful criteria might include viewing only those records created today or on some other day, with a dollar field greater than or less than some specific amount, or that are "open" or "closed" according some business rule. These Boolean calculations work for Browse, Edit, and Delete privileges. As an aside, what is interesting here is, that for the first time, a user can log onto a FileMaker Pro file and find that he or she does not have privileges even to browse any records, much less edit or delete them. Developers take note. Save Relative Path Only When FileMaker Pro is searching for information from another file, as in a relationship, in an external ScriptMaker step such as "Open" or "Close" or "Import" a file, in a value list defined to be one from another file, or something similar, it is prone to look in various places on a user’s drive or drives, on the Local Area Network, and in some cases on Wide Area Networks. This has created some difficulties, especially with identically named files. FileMaker Pro 5.5 begins to address this issue with a new default option called "Save Relative Path Only". When this option remains checked, it suppresses FileMaker Pro from looking outside the relative path where the files were originally created. Thus, if a set of solution files resides within a folder and that folder is moved to the server running FileMaker Server 5, the application will continue to look only within that same folder for the correct file. As a practical matter, and until we all become more familiar with this new behavior, it might be well to continue scrupulously to monitor networks for duplicate file names. Execute SQL statements via ScriptMaker step. Corporate data sources such as Oracle and SQL Server can be integrated into FileMaker Pro 5.5 workgroup solutions. FileMaker Pro 5.5 contains a new ScriptMaker step, "Execute SQL" that allows a SQL query to be hard coded into the script or to have the value taken from a field in the database. This can then be used, for example, to update ODBC data sources without the user having to write SQL queries. Users are thereby shielded from the complexities of the SQL statement. Extract and Set Next Serial Numbers Automatically by Script. Developers often need to be able to reset serial sequences into fields that use the auto-enter Serial Value option. Currently there are two ways to do this: a complex workaround and the DialogMagic plug-in from New Millennium Communications, a FSA Partner Member. That plug-in of course does much more than just auto-enter the serial values; it allows developers to control unscriptable FileMaker Pro dialogs. It changes all passwords in a set of files at once, sets preferences in the EditýPreferencesýApplication menu, and sets other dialogs as well. In FileMaker Pro 5.5 using the new Design Function with the name and syntax "GetNextSerialValue (dbname, fieldname)" enables developers to extract what the next serial number to be auto-entered would be. Then, using the new ScriptMaker step "Set Next Serial Value []", developers can change that next auto entered value to whatever value they choose. This works on fields both in the local file and in related files as well. New UI Controls A new feature in FileMaker Pro 5 was the introduction of toolbars similar to the Microsoft Office Suite ones. Many developers needed the capability to turn those toolbars off automatically. A new ScriptMaker step called "Allow ToolBars [On/Off]" addresses this issue. Any button defined on a layout, whether graphic or text, can in FileMaker Pro 5.5 be configured to change the mouse cursor to a "hand" when the mouse passes over it. This will aid in identifying text objects defined as buttons. Instant Web Publishing also has some enhancements in FileMaker Pro 5.5, including the ability to turn off the default interface and replace it with buttons that trigger certain types of scripts. These include basic navigational items such as "Next and Prior" records, toggling between Form and List or Table view, and opening URL’s. New Security Features IT Administrators frequently do not want users on their networks to make new FileMaker Pro databases, retain them on their desktops, and then keep important corporate information in them. It has been possible to inhibit this practice by use of a plug-in, but FileMaker Pro 5.5 now contains the capability for network administrators to disable the "New Database" menu item when FileMaker Pro is installed. As part of its Windows 2000 certification, FileMaker Pro for Windows will conform to requirements for domain authentication for users. This basically means that persons not registered in the current domain can not connect to the files. New Calculation Functions There are several new calculation functions, the most interesting of which is the new Logical Function called "GetField". Taking the form GetField(fieldname), this function can return several different types of information. If the fieldname parameter is a text constant enclosed in quotation marks, it will return the literal value of whatever is in the referenced field. On the other hand, if the parameter is not enclosed in quotes and if the parameter refers to a field in which is stored the name of yet a third field, then GetField will return the value of that third field. This function can be used to replace complex Case functions to extract values from fields dynamically. FSA partner Member Danny Mack of New Millennium Communications, Inc. has made some demo files illustrating some of these points. They can be found at his website http://www.newmillennium.com under the "Small Tools" link. There are also several new Status Functions, including: oStatus(CurrentFilePath) oStatus(CurrentODBCError) oStatus(CurrentRecordAccess) oStatus(CurrentLayoutAccess) oStatus(CurrentFieldContents) These return the information appropriate to their names, with Status(CurrentRecordAccess) representing the read/ write access privileges assigned to a particular record from the password dialog box and Status(CurrentLayoutAccess) representing information about privileges assigned through the Access Overview window. The function Status(CurrentFieldContents) provides a way to move data without using the clipboard but allows the field to be selected dynamically by wherever the user has placed the cursor. LDAP Support If your FileMaker Server is registered on an LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) server, you will be able to access it with FileMaker Pro 5.5 via LDAP. LDAP services permit IT administrators to list the host location and other pertinent information about the FileMaker Server CPU in a readily accessible form. Final implementation will await the arrival of FileMaker Server 5.5 in the summer. In the coming days we will all be discovering new ways to use FileMaker Pro 5.5 and new ways to take advantage of these new features to build and to deploy even more robust and powerful solutions. I hope these comments prove useful to you in beginning that exciting process. Steven -- Steven H. Blackwell Partner Member, FileMaker Solutions Alliance _________________________________________ FileMaker Pro 5.5 is Here! 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