FileMaker

FileMaker began as an MS-DOS-based computer program named Nutshell, developed by Nashoba Systems of Concord, Massachusetts in the early 1980s. Nutshell was distributed by Leading Edge, an electronics marketing company that had recently started selling IBM PC-compatible computers. With the introduction of the Macintosh, Nashoba combined the basic data engine with a new forms-based graphical user interface (GUI). Leading Edge was not interested in newer versions, preferring to remain a DOS-only vendor, and kept the Nutshell name. Nashoba found another distributor, Forethought Inc., and introduced the program on the Macintosh platform as FileMaker in April 1985. When Apple introduced the Macintosh Plus in 1986, the next version of FileMaker was named FileMaker Plus to reflect the new model's name. Leading Edge published Nutshell 2.0 until September 1986, after which Nashoba marketed the software itself. In mid-1987 Forethought was purchased by Microsoft for the former's PowerPoint software. Microsoft expected to continue distributing FileMaker and deprioritize the competing Microsoft File, but Nashoba decided to self-publish the next version, FileMaker 4. It included FileMaker Pro 14, FileMaker Pro 14 Advanced, FileMaker Server 14 and FileMaker Go 14. This was followed by version 15 in May 2016 and version 16 in May 2017; both including equivalent Pro, Pro Advanced, Server and Go versions. In late 2016, FileMaker began annually publicizing a software roadmap of incoming features already being worked on, as well as identifying features they are moving away from or may deprecate in the near future. FileMaker Inc. had always had a hard time describing what FileMaker software was, because it covered a plethora of ground unrelated to databases; user interface, security, rapid application development tools, etc. At their annual developers conference in August 2018, FileMaker Inc. initiated a new marketing program called "Workplace Innovation Platform" to address the problem of its self-described software category. FileMaker Cloud On September 27, 2016, FileMaker Cloud was introduced, including a Linux server (CentOS), which was offered exclusively through the Amazon Marketplace. In November 2019, FileMaker Cloud was reintroduced as a software as a service product offered directly from Claris for FileMaker Pro 18.0.3, using the FileMaker Server Cloud 2.18 service on Amazon servers. Despite this, it was managed by Claris instead of through the Amazon Marketplace, and made use of the new FileMaker ID authentication. Linux and Docker In October 2020, Claris released a Linux version of FileMaker Server, first on CentOS (19.1) then on Ubuntu (19.2). Version history • (*) indicates both FileMaker Pro/FileMaker Pro Advanced (Developer Edition in v4-6) or FileMaker Server/FileMaker Server Advanced FileMaker files are compatible between Mac and Windows. File type extensions are: • since FileMaker Pro 2.0 • since FileMaker Pro 3.0 • since FileMaker Pro 5.0 (including 5, 5.5, 6.0) • since FileMaker Pro 7.0 (including 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 10, 11 and FileMaker Go 1.0) • since FileMaker Pro 12 (including 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, FileMaker 2023, and FileMaker 2024) Self-running applications (runtime, kiosk mode) are platform-specific only. ==Internationalization and localization==

FileMaker is available in worldwide English, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. There are also specific versions of FileMaker for users of Central European, Indian and Middle Eastern languages. These versions offer spellchecking, data entry, sorting and printing options for languages of the respective region. They also contain localized templates and localized instant web publishing. The Central European version FileMaker includes English, Russian, Polish, Czech and Turkish interfaces. There are customized templates for Russian, Polish, Czech, Turkish. In addition Russian, Greek, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Serbian, Bulgarian and Hungarian are supported to varying degrees. The version intended for Southeast Asian languages has only an English user interface, but supports Indic-language data entry, sorting and indexing in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Panjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Similarly, the Middle Eastern version has only English and French user interfaces, but with its option to change the text direction to right-to-left, it does support Arabic and Hebrew data entry. == Scripting ==

FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Pro Advanced include scripting capabilities and many built-in functions for automation of common tasks and complex calculations. Numerous steps are available for navigation, conditional execution of script steps, editing records, and other utilities. FileMaker Pro Advanced provides a script debugger which allows the developer to set break points, monitor data values and step through script lines. FileMaker 13 introduced a script that more deeply queries container field document metadata. Dynamic Markup Language The FileMaker Dynamic Markup Language or FDML was a markup language used in the earlier versions of FileMaker introduced in 1998. FDML is also often referred to as Claris Dynamic Markup Language or CDML, named after its former company Claris. FDML was an extension of HTML that used special tags, such as [FMP-Record][/FMP-Record] to display FileMaker data on Web pages. FileMaker officially dropped support for FDML in 2004. == SQL and ODBC support ==

Since version 9, FileMaker has had the ability to connect to a number of SQL databases without resorting to using SQL, including MySQL, SQL Server, and Oracle. This requires installation of the SQL database ODBC driver (in many cases a third-party license per client driver) to connect to a SQL database. Through Extended SQL Services (ESS), SQL databases can be used as data sources in FileMaker's relationship graph, thus allowing the developer to create new layouts based on the SQL database; create, edit, and delete SQL records via FileMaker layouts and functions; and reference SQL fields in FileMaker calculations and script steps. It is a cross-platform relational database application. Versions from FileMaker Pro 5.5 onwards also have an ODBC interface. FileMaker 12 introduced a new function, ExecuteSQL, which allows the user to perform an SQL query against the FileMaker database to retrieve data, but does not allow data modification or deletion, or schema changes. FileMaker allows non-numeric characters to be stored in its "numeric" field type unless the field is specifically marked as strictly "numeric". Through a third party, Actual Technologies, FileMaker 15 and forward, also, support ODBC connectivity to IBM I 7.3 (AS/400), IBM Db2 11.1, and PostgreSQL 9.6.12. Using the Actual Adapter, these ODBC connections can also make ESS connections and be used as sources in the Relationship Graph. == Integration ==

FileMaker 16 provides integrations via cURL, JSON, REST-based FileMaker Data API support. Tableau Web Data Connector is offered to visualize FileMaker data. The REST-based API license is a free trial that expired September 27, 2018. FileMaker 17 offers a permanent REST-based Data API. Standard licensing include 2 GB of outbound data per user per month. Container data does not count towards this limit, and inbound Data API data transfer is unlimited. FileMaker 19 for Linux and FileMaker Cloud provide a OData gateway, allowing JSON and XML output (Atom). == In popular culture ==

In Julio Torres's 2023 film Problemista, a major story element is the insistence by the character Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton) that her husband's art be catalogued using FileMaker Pro, "the Cadillac of archival software," and her refusal to consider alternatives like Google Sheets. The character Alejandro (Torres) falsely claims familiarity with FileMaker Pro with the hope that Elizabeth will sponsor his work visa. == See also ==