FM Go doesn't sync. However, you can access the Filemaker Solution from your machine if you have it set to share the file via IWP. From there you can make edits and entries.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
'Filemaker Go' Released for iPhone and iPad
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
FM Go doesn't sync. However, you can access the Filemaker Solution from your machine if you have it set to share the file via IWP. From there you can make edits and entries.
No, Bento isn't a relational database. Meaning that Bento is nothing more than a nice looking set of lists - no conditional branching, no calculations, etc.
If you want a cheap relational database for personal use though and want to be able to create directly on the iPad, I'd go with Handbase.
it never ceases to amaze me the number of people that get on this forum and post opinions about something they have no clue.
"no one uses FM Pro...." - really?! i wonder why it costs $1500 to attend the Developers Conference in San Diego next month.
"Bento is better than FM Pro...." - have you even bothered going to FM website lately and looking at the white papers on these two products? First of all, FM Pro is cross platform, Mac/PC. A database hosted on one can be shared with other platforms and a DB hosted on FM Pro Server can serve to both platforms as well. Bento is only for Mac and is not a true relational database
"FM Go will only benefit small companies...." - ummm, let's see, a FM product for the iPhone/iPad that natively supports FM Pro solutions already out there. i bought FM Go last night and without making one change to any of my existing FM Pro DBs it connected to them and everything worked instantly without a problem.
will FM Go get someone who uses/needs a DB to go out and by FM Pro if they don't already use it, maybe, maybe not. but for anyone out there that uses FM Pro no matter how big or small the company, FM Go will be a no-brainer if they're wanting to expand the capabilities of their current solution.
"no one uses FM Pro...." - really?! i wonder why it costs $1500 to attend the Developers Conference in San Diego next month.
"Bento is better than FM Pro...." - have you even bothered going to FM website lately and looking at the white papers on these two products? First of all, FM Pro is cross platform, Mac/PC. A database hosted on one can be shared with other platforms and a DB hosted on FM Pro Server can serve to both platforms as well. Bento is only for Mac and is not a true relational database
"FM Go will only benefit small companies...." - ummm, let's see, a FM product for the iPhone/iPad that natively supports FM Pro solutions already out there. i bought FM Go last night and without making one change to any of my existing FM Pro DBs it connected to them and everything worked instantly without a problem.
will FM Go get someone who uses/needs a DB to go out and by FM Pro if they don't already use it, maybe, maybe not. but for anyone out there that uses FM Pro no matter how big or small the company, FM Go will be a no-brainer if they're wanting to expand the capabilities of their current solution.
Thanks. Interesting comparison. Of course they use Java for MySQL which does drive the cost up, and if your ultimate goal is a web app I understand there are additional costs associated with FileMaker, putting the two roughly at parity for the 200-client case, and arguably close for the 25-client case. Reaffirms my thoughts on SalesForce...
You won't need the server edition, as long as you have a computer that will host the file for FM Go to connect to. A standard (or even advanced version) of FileMaker will host up to 10 connected users. As far as I can tell, there is no 'sync' needed, this is simply a way to connect to a database on a Mac or PC running FileMaker. Once connected, you can view or edit data. The data isn't actually stored on the iPhone. In other words, you can't just go use the iPhone offline, entering data, then get back online and upload your data. It's almost as if it's a very specialized VNC client.
Now, I've downloaded it and I can see that you can have a FileMaker file on the device and open it there, but I'm not sure yet if there's a way to reconcile that data with another database. But if all you needed was a database on your iPhone and don't need connectivity with other databases, you could do this by building your file on a Mac or PC in FileMaker, then transfer it to the device.
How much less do you think the MySQL solution would be with another development environment?
The only thing that looks half decent about the desktop software is the packaging. It looks and feels like Windows software - clunky and clumsy. Bento looks a little prettier but it's still a clumsy app and on the iPhone, iPad bears no resemblance to the desktop version. Even sync is hit and miss as to what you end up with on the handheld device. This software may not have much competition but it's not something I would recommend, ever.
Yes, it allows for FileMaker scripting, but not every desktop script step is supported. They outline which are supported on their site.
No one uses Filemaker in companies. No one.
Just had to chime in here - Over the years I have worked on experimental flight tracking systems for Lockheed Martin, Catalog photography systems for JC Penney, material inventory systems for American Apparel, equipment calculators for Caterpillar, and numerous other institutions large and small.... all in FileMaker.
In all of these cases, FM combined the ability to meet all necessary client specs, operate in cross-platform environments, have an aggressive cost point and time to market, and have an extremely low barrier to use for both end users and administrators.
I've become almost excusively a PHP/mySQL developer over the last few years, and yes, there are solutions for which I've used FM in the past that I may do differently now. BUT, in many cases FM has been the perfect solution to a given problem, and you would be very surprised at the number of companies which do have FM solutions as part of their overall DB mix.
- Dustin
Just had to chime in here - Over the years I have worked on experimental flight tracking systems for Lockheed Martin, Catalog photography systems for JC Penney, material inventory systems for American Apparel, equipment calculators for Caterpillar, and numerous other institutions large and small.... all in FileMaker.
In all of these cases, FM combined the ability to meet all necessary client specs, operate in cross-platform environments, have an aggressive cost point and time to market, and have an extremely low barrier to use for both end users and administrators.
I've become almost excusively a PHP/mySQL developer over the last few years, and yes, there are solutions for which I've used FM in the past that I may do differently now. BUT, in many cases FM has been the perfect solution to a given problem, and you would be very surprised at the number of companies which do have FM solutions as part of their overall DB mix.
- Dustin
MySQL is essentially free. There are paid versions which include support, but even they are not too expensive. Development is expensive though. You have programmers and support staff, training, etc. You also need to build the 'front end' interface, be it web, java or compiled. It's really important to look at it from all angles, because MySQL solutions get very expensive very quickly if your building your own system.
I agree. I'm in the publishing industry and everywhere I go there are FileMaker databases in play. While I recognize that Access has more to offer, it is not cross platform. If it were, FileMaker might not exist today. But unless I'm 100% certain my users will always use PC's, I'll always choose FileMaker so my bases are covered. One database for both platforms.
No, it doesn't run FM databases natively. It makes iPhone UI using the layouts from an FM database and syncs the data back to your FM database.
Why not make everything a web app? Oh yeah, because web apps have terrible UI and are inefficient. They've made great strides over the years, but native apps still offer much better UI and are still more efficient.
Access requires more actual programming than FileMaker. And no, free databases haven't taken over but have become popular because well, they're free. But any company has to evaluate the costs of having to employe free DB developers vs. any of their technically inclined staff being able to use FM Pro. With the free solutions, any database you want becomes a big project that needs requirements, planning, etc.
It's very hard for the average employee to whip up an ad hoc solution for his own job or the job of his team within a large organization if they don't already know PHP and MySQL (or another free solution). FileMaker allows this quite easily with an easy layout designer, scripting language, etc.
You don't have to put a binary file in the database if you don't want (you can optionally link it), but people have been doing it for years without issue.
4D exists today and is much more Access-like than FileMaker, in that it has a programming language rather than script steps. If 4D didn't knock out FileMaker, I doubt Access would. FoxPro didn't do it either. FileMaker is much more accessible to non-programmers than the other desktop database systems.
I jumped all over this and bought it for $19.95. Finally, I can put my custom designed FM Pro files on the iPhone. Amazing, because just yesterday, I was trying to figure out how to use Bento to bring my files over. It would be with great pain trying to go the Bento route, as it is designed for non-FM Pro database designers and has its own way of doing things. You had to use templates others designed. The FileMaker Go software works a treat. Relational databases operate as they do on my Mac.
FileMaker tried before on the Palm platform, but the hardware could not cut the mustard. After a few years, FileMaker eventually stopped developing for the Palm device.
FileMaker tried before on the Palm platform, but the hardware could not cut the mustard. After a few years, FileMaker eventually stopped developing for the Palm device.
My company's needs are a bit more simple than some, but we are looking at 6-10 tables and have a budgeted development cost of around $27k. I am sure this cost would be lower with FMP, and we could do more internally, but when we were looking at alternatives it seemed most viable.
For us, the web apps make much more sense than hard-coded apps. There might be some speed penalty, but we can fix much of that on the server side. It isn't like the old days on sluggish apps, but it does increase development cost some compared to dumb web apps or using active-X.
Do you have your own development team?
Do you have ongoing support available from a web administrator?
Pretty much any solution would work for you I'm sure. For me - if I were in your situation I'd be more worried about ongoing costs than build cost.
Upgrading a mixture of web server, bespoke code, Java interpreter, database when new versions come out (or security patches need to be applied) is something that I'd want someone with development skill to be doing - since APIs can change and deprecate, file permissions can need changing etc. This is where $$$ start to disappear.
Upgrading a monolithic app like FMP (for example) is far more likely to 'just work' and be testable by a non-techie.
I'd also be worried about general support. Far more likely to need support callouts on a bespoke system (log files tend to fill up, other issues arise) - so that's something else I wouldn't like if I was the person who 'knew about the computer' as well as being expected to do my own job.
And if you decide to change supplier, the more bespoke your system is - the higher learning curve you have to pay for to bring new developers onboard.
Syncing after offline use
I'm interested if anyone has any insight into the technical leap that precludes FM Go from having the ability to sync (i.e., allow offline use of database) with FM on the Mac or FM Server, while Bento for iPhone/iPad is specifically designed to sync with Bento for Mac. Is it a matter of single user (Bento) versus multiple users? Is the Bento sync strictly via local network Wi-Fi connection?
I'm interested if anyone has any insight into the technical leap that precludes FM Go from having the ability to sync (i.e., allow offline use of database) with FM on the Mac or FM Server, while Bento for iPhone/iPad is specifically designed to sync with Bento for Mac. Is it a matter of single user (Bento) versus multiple users? Is the Bento sync strictly via local network Wi-Fi connection?
There's several gotchas in regards to syncing. One is multiuser, the other is because it's a relational database. So to sync the system needs to have knowledge of logical structure of data. This is much easier if you just have to sync a simple list (like an address book for example).