Dan, Thanks for your comments! To be honest, I let FileMaker Pro gather dust on my shelf during the 4.0 - 6.0 years because that point you describe of "hitting the wall" came all too early. However, version 7.0 of FileMaker truly re-invigorated the product. And, version 8.5 (the current release) is simply amazing.
The current version of FileMaker is truly relational. It has a built-in, drag-and-drop interface for defining relationships between tables (which now can all reside in a single file). ScriptMaker has been beefed up considerably. The Instant Web Publishing scheme has been totally re-invented and now works almost exactly like a full FileMaker client would, with multiple layouts and greatly expanded scripting support. The "Advanced" (or developer) version now has a debugger and variable watcher, as well as powerful, recursive custom functions. Most all of the restrictions on field-sizes and file-sizes have been removed or increased to levels you won't encounter in the real world. One of my current FileMaker Pro projects uses IWP to service a nationally-recognized hospital with more than 8,000 staff. Any one of the staffers can log into the system using the password they already use to access other intranet resources at the hospital. It looks and feels just like any other web-based tool they might use, if not a little nicer. It is hosted externally on a secure server for a cost of $40/month. So, in this scenario there was no expensive up-front purchase of FileMaker Server Advanced (we're essentially "renting" it for less than $500/yr), and no "client" software to distribute and update. I didn't have to write a single line of HTML/XML/PHP/JavaScript code; it's all handled by FileMaker. The entire solution took less than 80 hours to build. Minor changes to the system -- such a adding a new field or a new report -- can be implemented by the client on their own. And other groups at the hospital can easily interface with the server for any custom work they need to do. Contrast this with a program I wrote in Rev to interact with G4tv's "SpockMarket" game. This program fetches stock values from an XML data source as quickly as once every second. It generates real-time graphs of stock values and lets people make trades manually or based on predetermined criteria. The whole thing has a futuristic look and feel with multiple windows, custom window shapes, sounds, and animation. (It's a game, after all!) Because I was only using a fraction of what a full database would do, I was able to get everything I needed coded in Rev itself. (For example, there is no need to print anything.) Nevertheless, I still had to "roll my own" table objects as well as build certain database-like sorting/selection routines. This was non-trivial work, and took a lot of debugging to get right. I hope this illustrates why you might select Rev in one situation and FileMaker in another. "Dan Shafer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Bill, > > As someone who has in fact used FileMaker to create a full-blown > application > (though not of the standalone variety) on several occasions, I can attest > to > at least much of what you say. My experience is all FMPro 5.5 and earlier, > so it is seriously outdated, but I always found FM to be really great up > to > a point and then really difficult or impossible to get beyond some wall or > another. Deployment was always an issue for me even though I did spend a > LOT > of time trying to understand and use the Web deployment approach. I ended > up > contracting with an outfit that hosted FM solutions on their servers and > that not only cost way more than I thought it should, it was complex as > all > get-out. > > It was nice to read a clearly knowledgeable update of the FM situation vis > a > vis building database apps in FM vs. Rev. I appreciate the time you took > to > create such a detailed and helpful response. > > Dan > _______________________________________________ > use-revolution mailing list > [email protected] > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your > subscription preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution > _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [email protected] Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
