FileMaker Developer 7

by Filemaker Inc.

Product Features

• Streamline database development and maintenance
• Deploy customized kiosk and runtime applications
• Debug scripts with systematic tests and troubleshoot scripts
• Re-use calculation logic across tables, only change in 1 place
• Develop and troubleshoot solutions more effectively

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0001LUI1E
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 9, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,981 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #29 in Software > Programming > Database > Filemaker

Product Description

FileMaker 7.0 Developer makes database development more streamlined. The development, maintenance and troubleshooting solutions here lets you develop & deploy truly custom solutions!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Development Tool, April 9, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: FileMaker Developer 7 (CD-ROM)

Now that you've read the previous 0 star rating, (tab buttons - give me a break), realize that FileMaker 7 is a great database development platform.

Just a few of the upgrade's improvements:

No File Size Limit (that's a heck of a lot of recipies Bob). The days of needing to migrate when a file hits the 2 Gig file size wall are OVER. Your database can grow to fill the largest hard drive a computer can support.

Multiple data tables per file.

Improved browser support of buttons and scripts through instant web publishing feature.

Improved security.

And if one is really worried about lining up their "tab buttons" on layouts, FileMaker offers a free 30 day evaluation for download from their website.

In fact, the only negative comment I can make is that the Server version won't be available until this summer.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dual Platform, April 15, 2004

By 

Fausto (Lisboa Portugal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: FileMaker Developer 7 (CD-ROM)

Previous produt from Filemaker (version 6Dev) is overall satisfactory.
Even if the way of building tabs might take some work, other improvements do largely compensate for this weakness. To avoid the "flicker" one has just to be precise to the pixel in the placement of the layout elements. And FM does offer tools to do so even in version 6!
Previous versions and information from Filemaker Inc. clearly state that the intaller is dual platform, Mac AND Windows on the same disk. So, unless amazon is marketing a special version this product should also work for Mac computers.

2 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Developer edition is an oxymoron, April 3, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: FileMaker Developer 7 (CD-ROM)

I purchased and installed this product and ran into a brick wall, that precludes its use as a serious development tool. My real rating is 0 stars.

Filemaker does not use tab controls. It gets around this shortcoming by requiring that a separate layout be designed for each tab. Importantly this is not just for the information on the tab, BUT FOR THE WHOLE COTTON-PICKIN layout!!!

Then when a user clicks on the tab "button", a new layout is repainted over the old. Even though Filemaker provides the ability to copy a form, I have found that the repainted forms "jump" and give an entirely unsatisfactory visual experience. Like watching a web form flicker repaint over a slow dial up connection.

Filemaker appears to be a maintenance nightmare. If you have a layout with header information and with a five tab area, and you wish to change the header information (field width, color, etc.) you have to change it five times on each layout!

I thought the purpose of databases was to normalize information, that is to reduce redundancy in data storage. Filemaker may reduce this redunduncy, but it it adds it back in spades when it comes to application development!

The screen flicker caused by full screen repaints and the large number of forms required to accomodated simple tab displays makes this a no brainer. Filemaker is fine for your receipe or CD collection database, but forget about using it for serious development.