Developer Utilities

FileMaker Pro takes you from your first simple database all the way into power-user territory. It lets you create complex relational databases with ease, design virtually any layout imaginable, and add features of your own invention with buttons and scripts. With it, you can create any database you might need for a small business or organization. Once you have more than a handful of people using your database, you may eventually outgrow even FileMaker Pro's abilities and need to buy another FileMaker product. In Chapter 18, for example, you can see how FileMaker Server lets more than five users work in a database at oncesomething FileMaker Pro simply can't handle. When you learned about Custom Functions in Chapter 11, you got a hint of some of the extras in the Advanced version of FileMaker.

In this chapter, you'll learn about FileMaker Pro Advanced 8. For a couple hundred dollars more ($299 for Pro versus $499 for Advanced), you get a whole raft of developer tools that will make your life easier and your databases better. If you find yourself troubleshooting long, complex scripts, Script Debugger may save your sanity and your valuable time. The analysis tools are indispensable if you're in a consultant role, working on databases that other people created. And most FileMaker developers have longed for an easy way to keep their more adventuresome users away from potentially destructive menu commands (including but not limited to Delete All Records). Finally, a new feature called Custom Menus gives themand youthe godlike power to determine which commands are available to a database's users.