Phones

FileMaker Updates FileMaker Go for iPhone, iPad

FileMaker has announced significant updates to FileMaker Go for iPhone and FileMaker Go for iPad. The applications let users work with Apple owned award-winning, FileMaker Pro databases on iPhone or iPad.

Users can now produce PDFs directly from FileMaker Go and either save them on their mobile devices or email them. This feature, insists FileMaker, lets mobile users easily save and distribute reports, create invoices, and share project status directly from their iPad or iPhone.The updates add the ability to save a copy of a complete database and email it directly from FileMaker Go, adding the opportunity to exchange databases from devices without needing to dock with a desktop or laptop.

The updates also deliver new ways to work more efficiently with photos and other media and information insists the database specialists. FileMaker Go users can capture photos on an iPhone, or take photos that are already in the photo library of an iPhone or iPad, and insert them directly into a FileMaker Go database. Photos stored in a database can then be emailed out later using FileMaker Go.Other file types, such as spreadsheets, can be emailed directly from FileMaker Go.Also new is the ability for FileMaker Go users to import records from local or hosted FileMaker databases using script steps.

iOS app developers may take advantage of the newly enhanced URL protocol from FileMaker for calling FileMaker Go. Using the URL protocol, developers can now specify a FileMaker Pro script and script parameters. This allows developers of commercial and in-house iOS applications to extend FileMaker Go databases and provide a wide spectrum of useful solutions such as bar code scanning.

"FileMaker Go for iPhone and FileMaker Go for iPad have stirred up huge excitement in the FileMaker community and beyond. Initial acceptance has been strong and this is just the beginning," said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president of marketing and services for FileMaker.

"With these free updates, we are already making both apps even more powerful and adding new ways to share information remotely."The updates are available free from the Apple iTunes App Store. FileMaker Go for iPhone, iPod touch costs £11.99 and requires the iOS 4.0 Software Update or later. FileMaker Go for iPad, costs £23.99 and requires the iOS 3.2 Software Update or later.

FileMaker Go, which launched in July 2010, has already received much editorial praise, including a 5/5 star rating and a coveted Editor's Choice award from Macworld in the UK. You can read those reviews here and here.