Claris released FileMaker 19.1 a few days ago and while an incremental update may not have been newsworthy in the past, this release definitely warrants a look. (Technically this is version 19.1.2, and 19.1.1 was an internal, not-released version.)
Shorter Releases
It’s important to appreciate that Claris has shifted from the large 12 or 18-month release cycles of the past to now more frequent, smaller releases. The result for all of us is not having to wait a year or more for a significant feature – each release should be impactive in its own right.
19.1 is a perfect case in point. Claris’ primary feature in this release is the new inclusion of Add-ons, tied to the Claris Marketplace and shipping with nine included objects.
FileMaker 19.1 Release — Our New Favorite
FileMaker 19 introduced a flexible array of JavaScript capabilities in FileMaker: we are now able to interoperate with JavaScript within a web viewer, as well as run JavaScript routines in scripts. As we’ve written in the past, this opens the doors wide to an incredible span of web tools, libraries, platforms and integrations. These nine add-ons are just the tip of the iceberg…
…But, what a tip it is: it’s been years since FileMaker offered new interface objects. The last new element was card windows. Here now, because of the JavaScript capabilities in FileMaker 19, we have nine great components to fold into our FileMaker solutions. Our immediate favorite is the Kanban board. We’ve had to live with some pretty creative voodoo in native FileMaker in the past, or accept an integration to an external web app, in order to deliver Kanban boards in our custom solutions. This add-on is clean, simple, and works like a charm. We’re thrilled.
More Exciting Features
Another favorite: the activity timeline. With it you can display events on a vertical timeline and easily see a progression of operations, a sales pipeline, milestone dates, and so on.
As much as these nine add-ons are wonderful, we’re very much inspired to create some of our own and look forward to seeing what the Claris community creates as well.
Other features include a new Apex Blue theme well-suited for contemporary web and FileMaker apps, support for Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (a form of single sign-on authentication), and two new functions that provide details on a current file or server’s location (time zone, as one example).
Ready to Get Started?
If you haven’t explored FileMaker 19 yet – and 19.1 – we encourage you to do so.
For our clients, we’ll be rolling out an update to our popular Genesis Accounting and Business Metrics product to support FileMaker 19 shortly. (We tend to wait for “dot releases”, given that finance teams, quite sensibly, favor stable software over new features!)
We’re glad to see Claris busy at work bringing the FileMaker platform steadily forward. We look forward to 19.2!
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