What s New in FileMaker Pro 7

What's New in FileMaker Pro 7

FileMaker, the database product, has been around since 1985, and it has undergone a lot of evolution during that time. The immediate predecessor product to FileMaker Pro 7, FileMaker Pro 6, was already a very mature and time- tested application. As mature as the product was, though, FileMaker Pro 7 represents a quantum leap in functionality. We'll do some quick technical specification comparisons to give you an idea of the significance of the changes.

Technical Specifications

One of the easiest ways to see what's changed in the product is to compare specifications between FileMaker Pro 6 and FileMaker Pro 7 (see Table 1.5).

Table 1.5. FileMaker Pro 6 and 7 Feature Comparison

Feature	FileMaker Pro 6	FileMaker Pro 7
Number of tables per file	1	1,000,000
Maximum file size	2 gigabytes	8 terabytes
Maximum amount of data in a text field	64,000 characters	2 gigabytes of data
Number of significant digits in a number field	14	The first 400 significant digits are indexed, including integers, decimals, and signs. Nonnumeric data, such as letters , is available in the index (for find requests ) but is not evaluated in calculations and relationships.
Number of characters in a number field	120	800: 400 on either side of the decimal
Maximum number of files allowed open on the client	50	Limited only by memory
Maximum records per file (theoretical limit)	100 million	64 quadrillion over the life-time of the file
Maximum amount of data allowed in a container field	2 gigabytes theoretically. This is the file size limit.	4 gigabytes
Maximum number of fields in a table	5,900, depending on the length of field names	256 million over the lifetime of the file
Number of script steps supported by Instant Web Publishing	10	74
Number of FileMaker clients hosted by FileMaker Server	250	250
Number of Web clients hosted by FileMaker Server Advanced	N/A	100

File Format

The file format for FileMaker 7 is radically different from earlier versions of FileMaker Pro. Earlier versions of the product were limited to one table per file, whereas FileMaker 7 allows one million tables per file. Not only is the file format different, but the network protocol that FileMaker uses to communicate between hosts and guests is different as well. That means that if you need to, you can run both FileMaker 6 and FileMaker 7 on the same network and the two versions won't "see" each other on the network. After you convert FileMaker 6 files into FileMaker 7, the FileMaker 7 versions will no longer be readable by FileMaker 6. "Conversion" in this sense is actually a misnomer, because when FileMaker 7 converts a FileMaker 6 file, the original file is left untouched. Instead, FileMaker 7 uses the original to create a new version of the file.

Along with the file format change comes some dramatic benefits. Our favorite one is that if your database crashes, files no longer become corrupted (we can vouch for this). Also, you can now make changes to everything ”field definitions, table definitions, access privileges ”while the database is being hosted with guests logged on.

Relationships Graph

The Relationships Graph is a graphical representation of the relationships between table occurrences. We say "table occurrences" because there can now be only a single relationship between two table occurrences. If you need to have multiple relationships between two tables, you need to display those tables multiple times on the Relationships Graph ”hence the term table occurrence .

In Figure 1.4, the Relationships Graph shows that because there are two different relationships between Person and Team Member, the Person table has two occurrences on the chart.

Figure 1.4. This Relationships Graph shows two occurrences of the Person table, each with a different relationship.

For more on the Relationships Graph, see "Adding a Relationship," p. 157 .

Enhanced Relationship Functionality

In previous versions of FileMaker Pro, relationships could be constructed only on the basis of a key field (match field) in one file being equal to a key field in another file. These relationships, or joins, are known as equijoins in relational database terminology. FileMaker Pro 7 supports multiple join types. Now relationships can be constructed where one value is less than, greater than, or not equal to the other value.

In addition to the multiple join types, FileMaker 7 also supports complex joins, or joins with more than one criteria. In Figure 1.5, the new Edit Relationship dialog clearly shows the different join types and the multiple join criteria.

Figure 1.5. This relationship shows all team members for the selected Team ID, excluding the current person's record.

Multiple Windows per File

For the first time, a user can have more than one window open per file, and more importantly, more than one window open per table (because it is now possible to have multiple tables per file). Imagine that you're looking at a list of customers to review unpaid orders when the phone rings. A different customer is on the line, and he wants to discuss his last statement. In earlier versions of FileMaker, you would lose the found set of unpaid order customers while you went and found the record for the calling customer. In FileMaker Pro 7, you can just create a new window while still in the customer table. You can find the caller's record in that window while still preserving your found set in the original window. This feature alone has significant implications in how FileMaker database developers need to think about the system interface.

Security

Security administration in previous versions of FileMaker had several shortcomings. The biggest problem was that you couldn't revise security settings without kicking all users out of the system. Mission-critical database systems, however, can't be brought down without disrupting the organization that they serve. In FileMaker 7, database administrators can change any security settings while the system is up and running and while users already logged in.

The next biggest problem was that security settings were local to each file, and because each file could contain only a single table, this meant that complex systems with several tables were onerous to maintain in regard to security settings. There was no way to have centralized security administration without constructing your own secure login system, which many developers did. FileMaker 7 centralizes security in that all security settings for a particular file control access for all tables in that file. However, to the extent that tables are separated into separate files, multiple security settings still need to be maintained . For example, some developers advocate having separate files for tables and for the interface that controls the data in those files. In that case, the database administrator has to create two sets of security settings: one set for the file containing the data tables and one set for the file containing all the interface elements.

There were other, more minor problems as well, such as the inability to use the user's network login information to authenticate the user to the database. The result was that users had to log in to the computer and then log in to the database system. From a pure security standpoint, that was an added level of security, but from the user standpoint, it was irritating , and another password that had to be remembered . FileMaker 7 has the capability to authenticate in different ways. The standard way is for the usernames and passwords to be stored in the database. FileMaker Pro can also authenticate through FileMaker Server, which can refer to external authentication resources. Such resources might be an LDAP server on the network, or just the Windows workgroup server that controls access to the network.

NOTE

LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol . A LDAP server acts as a centralized list of resources on the network. The LDAP server determines whether a particular logged-in user's computer can "see" network resources such as printers, file servers, and hosted FileMaker databases, and presents them to the user as selectable options. In the case of FileMaker servers, however, that doesn't prevent a user from locating the server independently of the LDAP server.

Another problem with previous versions of FileMaker was that passwords couldn't be given expiration dates. In FileMaker 7, passwords can be set to expire every x number of days. In addition, they can also be specified to have a required number of characters, and users can be required to change their passwords at the next logon.

These are just a few of the changes to FileMaker's security features. There are too many to describe them all here.

For a complete overview of FileMakers new security features, see Chapter 12, "Implementing Security," p. 315 .

Calculations

The calculation functionality has changed considerably in FileMaker Pro 7. One of our favorite changes is the ability you now have to comment anywhere within the formula of a calculation. Almost every FileMaker developer has had the experience of revisiting a calculation that was devised months before. It always takes time to re-familiarize yourself with a complex formula, and this commenting feature helps out immensely.

For the first time ever, FileMaker can format text as the result of a calculation. There's a new class of functions called text formatting functions , and they enable you to manipulate the size, color , font, and style of text.

FileMaker has also now enabled you to create your own custom functions by using FileMaker Developer 7. In previous versions of FileMaker Pro, you needed to author a plug-in to add custom functions. Now you can use FileMaker Developer to add them to a file, and reference those functions in calculations while using a regular version of FileMaker Pro 7.

Scripts

Scripts can now be set to run with full access privileges on a script-by-script basis. This is extremely useful if you have users with a low level of system access who need to run scripts that perform actions (such as deleting or modifying records) that require a higher level of access. The script itself can be authorized to do what the user cannot.

Scripts can also be set to be available for execution from the Web. In conjunction with custom extended privileges (yet another new feature in the revised security system), scripts can also check the privileges of the current user and conditionally perform actions based on the privilege set or extended privileges that have been assigned to that user.

Layouts

Layouts have changed as well, especially the controls on the table view. You now have control over the user's ability to reorder columns, resize columns , and sort data when a column header is clicked.

On a layout-by-layout basis, you can decide whether record changes will be automatically saved, as they were in previous versions of FileMaker Pro, or whether the user needs to deliberately commit the record to save changes.

For each layout, you can specify whether the Tab, Return, or Enter key advances the user from field to field, and you can also allow fields to be entered in find mode but not in browse mode (or vice versa).

Web

Instant Web Publishing has been greatly enhanced, and is much more powerful than ever before. FileMaker Pro 7 can still host it on a limited basis, and FileMaker Server 7 Advanced can host up to 100 Web connections.

Server

FileMaker Server can now host up to 250 FileMaker client users at once, and when using FileMaker Server Advanced, it can host Web connections and ODBC/JDBC (Windows only) connections as well. One of the server administration options is to encrypt the network traffic between FileMaker Server and the FileMaker Pro clients or Web Publishing Engine clients.

FileMaker Server can also be the authentication authority for hosted systems, and it can in turn authenticate users with domain or workgroup servers.