John Bowman

FileMaker opened up registration for the 2009 FileMaker Developer Conference today. The conference will be held at the San Francisco Hilton from August 13-16. This will be a great break from the typical Phoenix locale, that though beautiful is quite warm in August. Early registration provides a $300 discount off the full rate; expiring on January 31, 2009. Starting today you can also reserve your room at the Hilton at the discounted group rate, which I did this morning. See you there.

Last week FileMaker released Bento 2. The new version has some nice tweaks, that add up to a great new experience. Not only does Bento interact seamlessly with iCal and Address Book, but it also now integrates with Mail alllowing easily to tag emails within a Bento layout. As FileMaker put it “we’ve added all the good features of a typical spreadsheet.” You can now easily copy across fields just like you would in a spreadsheet. The new feature I’ve enjoyed most is probably the simplest; the split screen. No more need for jumping back & forth between views. Use the split screen to view both the table layout and anyone of your graphic layouts. This is a major time saving feature.

I’ve seen some complaints that there isn’t an upgrade path, but for a database that can organize your entire life I think $49 is cheap.

Wired has a great article highlighting Leland Chee, the Start Wars Franchise Continuity Cop. I’ve always admired the Star Wars franchise for creating a far more consistent universe than others. Most other franchises are riddled with contradictions and/or non-canon material. With only a few minor missteps during the early years, Star Wars created a literal universe of characters all following a well documented timeline.

So, how does Chee keep track of the entire Star Wars universe? A FileMaker database containing over 30,000 records, called the Holocron.

One of the great features of FileMaker Advanced is the ability to generate a DDR (Database Design Report); providing information on all your database files, fields, scripts, layouts, relationships, and tables in HTML or XML format. Great information, but not always the easiest read. Enter Inspector 2.0 and BaseElements 2.0.

Both Inspector and BaseElements have been around for a while; Inspector was release in 2006 and BaseElements in 2007. I’ve been using Inspector for a couple years, but based on all the positive praise running through the FileMaker community regarding BaseElements I decided to check it out in more detail. I have to say that I’m impressed.

I found the interface of BaseElements very intuitive, more so than Inspector. BaseElements also highlighted errors that Inspector missed. The best part of BaseElements is it’s a FileMaker solution. Beyond the emotional satisfaction I get from utilizing FileMaker to analysis other FileMaker solutions, you can easily create new layouts to customize your view and reports.

Both Inspector and BaseElements are excellent programs, but BaseElements is now my top choice. BaseElements is a little more expensive than Inspector; BaseElements starting at $499 and Inspector at $399. Is BaseElements worth the extra $100? Definitely.

FMWebschool recently introduced FMTouch, enabling you to deploy FileMaker on your iPhone or iPod Touch devices. FMTouch fills the whole left when FileMaker stopped developing FileMaker Mobile (the last version was 8). Now you can easily have instant access to your database solutions.

You’ll need FileMaker Advanced to generate a DDR (Database Design Report) file, though FMWebshool is planning on providing a service to create a DDR for those who don’t have Advanced. The DDR file will need to be under 10MB, so you might need to clone and make adjustments to larger databases. Unlike FileMaker Mobel, FMTouch is a relational application. FMTouch also supports multiple layouts, portals and value lists.

Though still early, FMTouch is getting great reviews. The initial price tag of $99.99 was even reduced to $69.99 after feedback from the FileMaker community. Having used FileMaker Mobile in the past, I am looking forward to getting my hands on this new program. FMTouch is available through the business application section of iTunes.

Bento has been getting a lot of good press lately, for good reason. So I figured, why not add my voice to the choir. Bento was first introduced back in November 2007, shortly after the release of Leopard. It was announced as a new personal database specifically designed for the Mac.

I’ve been experimenting with Bento for about six months & I absolutely love it. My life has been “databased” for years. I had built custom FileMaker databases for contacts, artwork, books, movies, passwords … you name it, I had a database for it. Bento has easily replaced all those and in some cases allowed for a more robust database, since I was able to easily add elements that were on my to do list for years (who has time to work on their own solutions).

Bento comes with a nice assortment of templates, but the real power is in the easy customization. Special fields can be added with just a couple clicks. The straight forward interface doesn’t require any previous knowledge of FileMaker and is pretty Macintosh intuitive.

Will Bento replace your more elaborate database solutions? No. Can Bento easily organize your personal life or answer the needs of a small business, under one simple location? Yes. From everything I’m seeing Bento will become the next essential Mac OS tool for all users.

Bento is only $49 for a single license and $99 for a family license (5 pack). For a quick overview of using Bento with Leopard, check out FileMaker’s Bento Movie.

The FileMaker DevCon was last week in Phoenix, Arizona. Here are some quick highlights: Fusion Reactor was recognized with a FileMaker Excellence Award; Inspector saw some competition this year from Base Elements; 360Works was able to show off their new Supercontainer first hand; and it was announced that DevCon 2009 would be held in San Francisco.

It was an intense week, with obviously a lot more products highlighted during the product showcase and during the marathon of sessions than listed above. One of the great things about DevCon is how it inspires you to try new things; both in regards to FileMaker products and pushing the envelope of your own solutions. As I digest the overload of information and start trying out some new solutions I’ll post again.