by Raj Kumar

Created on: April 22, 2010

Few months ago I was using database management systems like Microsoft  SQL Server, Sybase and Oracle. Recently I was assigned to work on FileMaker Pro. Our colleagues calls it FMP in short. Initially I thought FileMaker Pro could be a small utility kind of thing and my time will be wasted to learn just a third party plug-in. But FileMaker Pro proved me wrong. In brief I will say that you will love it. It looks good and easy too. You will be surprised that FileMaker Pro is so powerful  database management software. The main advantage is its easy-to-use feature which helps even beginner to learn it quickly.

In general, FileMaker Pro supports Windows and Mac operating system. It can be used to manage all information related to different areas like financial business, educational, private and public corporate. In FileMaker Pro, other corporate databases can be integrated smoothly. Many of features designed with desktop version are Web compatible.  Web compatibility of available scripts, inbuilt functions and methods in FileMaker Pro can be identified using Web compatibility option.

FileMaker Pro database provides user interface with easy-to-use tools which can be used by developers to create customized databases and important reports. It also provide features to publish data on web and share the database over a network using FileMaker External Network using client, ODBC/JDBC and IWP (Instant Web Publishing) using browser like Internet Explorer .  IWP can be turned ON/OFF and custom level user authentication settings can be set for individual database file. Developer can use all modes including Browse, Layout, Find and Preview. Based on custom permissions, user can do layout changes to get the desired look and feel of database table details.

FileMaker Pro 9 has many features like direct import of excel files, XML import, field formatting, table view, customized scripting and value lists. Along with account based security through Accounts & Privileges option, it also provides graphical view of database tables relation, split portal to avoid excessive scrolling, increase database capacity and manage all kinds of files and documents in Container Fields. You can directly create Adobe PDF files from within FileMaker Pro and email it using Fast Send feature. Dates can be entered quickly and accurately using Calendar dropdown.

FileMaker Pro 9 has some advanced features which help us to connect to external SQL data sources including latest versions of SQL Server, MySQL  and Oracle. We can extend these database tables to include calculation and summary fields. We can also perform our conditional formatting to FileMaker Pro controls and objects based on formatting criteria. Auto resize functionally makes it possible to adjust and resize objects with changes in windows size. You can keep related scripts in specific groups to smartly access them in more efficient manner. For flexible and easier distribution,  multiple document or reports can be combined in one PDF file. FileMaker Pro seems similar to MS Access but it is far better than Access. FileMaker Inc. has brought higher versions of FileMaker Pro in the database market. You can check out FileMaker Pro 10 and 11 also. Advanced level of FileMaker Pro server have more useful features which can be used by developers to handle more complexity in less time. That too in an easy way. 

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