FileMaker Mobile 8 and the Future of PDAs

Thanks, Joe, for writing your "the-emperor-has-no-clothes" article
about Filemaker Mobile 8. I used to go to Filemaker meetings in the
Cupertino area at a time when features on all of the regular
Filemaker upgrades for Mac always lagged behind those for Windows—and
this from a company owned by Apple! I agree whole-heartedly with you
about FM Mobile 8's limitations. Case in point. I like to keep track
of mileage on my Palm Tungsten E2, but Filemaker Mobile will not
calculate MPG until I sync back to the main program. But I can buy a
$15 program specifically made for vehicle calculations that does all
that and much more right on the Palm. To me it is really insulting as
a consumer to be asked to pay so much money for such poorly thought
out upgrades to what could have been a stunning product for PDAs.
IMHO ever since "the enterprise" and XML became king at Filemaker
they don't really seem to care much at all for anything related to
the way "ordinary" people use (or would like to use) Palm devices
every day.

Bruce Williamson

While FileMaker Mobile is, indeed, a horribly feature-poor product,
it can be made to work with complex databases.

I have just such a database, and I sync it regularly to FMM7 (never
upgraded to 8, because, well, 8 is just as bad as 7 for my purposes).
What I've done is create a summary table which feeds the sync. This
table is created via a script run immediately prior to
synchronization. It contains only those records which are current
enough to justify carrying everywhere I go.

Thus, to the Palm, I have a one table database, with no special
features or bells and whistles which aren't supported on FMM.

On the sync backwards, I do much the same thing. The Palm data is
loaded up into a single staging table, and a script then meticulously
walks through the table and updates the source records, with a fair
bit of rules and error catching. Any sync'd records which have
problems (e.g. they don't pass validation) are flagged as such and I
manually repair the problems and then re-run the post-sync script to
add them to the database.

Sound like a giant pain? Yeah, it really is, but it's about all I can
do given that there's no other way to carry a database around with me!

I have to think that the future of mobile databases is not via
synchronization, but rather through mini-browser-optimized web
applications which serve databases to end users. (Heck, you could
drive such a solution through Filemaker's web publishing
capabilities!) By pushing the heavy lifting to the server, you can
create a truly platform independent application, which can be
accessed by mobile and desktop users, provided they have internet
access. (And with a smartphone, it's rare that you don't.)

--Nik

On Jun 7, 2006, at 11:29 AM, Nik wrote:
>
> I have to think that the future of mobile databases is not via
> synchronization, but rather through mini-browser-optimized web
> applications which serve databases to end users. (Heck, you could
> drive such a solution through Filemaker's web publishing
> capabilities!) By pushing the heavy lifting to the server, you can
> create a truly platform independent application, which can be
> accessed by mobile and desktop users, provided they have internet
> access. (And with a smartphone, it's rare that you don't.)

Build it. I'll buy it, and I'll sell about 30 copies within the
first week it hits the market.

Seriously, is anyone working on this, as far as the list knows?

Scott Wyant
Information Systems Analysis and Design LLC
310.839.0958
scott_wyantsbcglobal.net
swyantgmail.com

On 6/8/06, Scott Wyant <swyantgmail.com> wrote:

> > I have to think that the future of mobile databases is not via
> > synchronization, but rather through mini-browser-optimized web
> > applications which serve databases to end users. (Heck, you could
> > drive such a solution through Filemaker's web publishing
> > capabilities!) By pushing the heavy lifting to the server, you can
> > create a truly platform independent application, which can be
> > accessed by mobile and desktop users, provided they have internet
> > access. (And with a smartphone, it's rare that you don't.)
>
> Build it. I'll buy it, and I'll sell about 30 copies within the
> first week it hits the market.
>
> Seriously, is anyone working on this, as far as the list knows?

Hello Scott,

I've worked on several projects doing exactly this when I worked for a
Dept of Defense contractor back in the late 90s. The problem with
commercializing a solution that does this is that _every_ database is
custom. There are a number of web solutions that are available, some
database agnostic, some tied to the solution you're using.

The rub, and what keeps the concept from taking off, is that a
web-enabled solution has to be custom developed. It's got to be
designed to work with YOUR database. And if your database changes
structurally, it'll probably have to be updated as well. So, you
pretty much have to have a web development team on staff too unless
your database is quite mature. There's probably a consulting market
there somewhere but you spend so much time explaining the process to
the powers that be that you end up not covering your presales time
with the development costs...

Cordially,

Christopher Appell
European Market
FreeRecruiting.com
JobMart.com

Good evening,

On 8/6/06 at 12:09 AM -0700, Scott Wyant <swyantgmail.com> wrote:

>Build it. I'll buy it, and I'll sell about 30 copies within the
>first week it hits the market.
>
>Seriously, is anyone working on this, as far as the list knows?

Which part of it are you asking about? I see multiple parts to the problem.
First is building a web app which is streamlined enough to be usable on mobile
devices, and the second is synching the web-driven database with FileMaker.

A web app can be built pretty easily using something like Ruby on Rails, and
<shameless plug> synchronisation between web and FileMaker databases can be done
using fmSQL Synch </shameless plug>.

<http://www.rubyonrails.org/>
<http://www.garrison.com.au/products/fmsql_synch.html>


Charlie

--
   Charlie Garrison <garrisonzeta.org.au>
   PO Box 141, Windsor, NSW 2756, Australia

On 10.6.2006, space aliens observed Scott Wyant saying:
>Build it. I'll buy it, and I'll sell about 30 copies within the
>first week it hits the market.

If all you need is a database that can be accessed and edited from a
mobile device using a web browser, you've probably already got most of
what you need on your Mac: Simply use MySQL, Apache, PHP and phpMyAdmin.

lucas

--
"You'd have to kill me and prop me up in the seat of my car with a smile painted on my face to get me to go near Hollywood."
  -- Philip K. Dick

I enjoyed reading your article on FileMaker 8 Mobile.  Being a FileMaker develper, I too greaty enjoy the capabilities of the latest version of FileMaker Pro on the desktop.  I know that FMM is pretty limited - especially in comparison with the desktop product.  One option that you might want to consider taking a look at is AppForge.  AppForge is a cross-platform development tool that uses VB.net or C#.net as the development language.  It supports PalmOS, Pocket PC, Blackberry, and Symbian platforms.  And the database support is very robust. 

The reason I mention AppForge is that it can provide a conduit for connecting to desktop based FileMaker databases via the use of ODBC and the AppForge conduit.  At least this way you can have the best of both worlds - a strong application development environment for PDA's, and the strength of the desktop FileMaker environment.

Take a look.  I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Tim
www.solutionmakers.com
FileMaker FSA member
Author of "FileMaker Pro Design & Scripting for Dummies"

--
===================================
tim.trimblegmail.com
"There are 10 types of people in the world.  
Those that understand binary and those that don't!"
www.timothytrimble.info
==================================

The second part of the article title got me thinking. I recently
purchased a new PDA, despite knowing the PDA market isn't the healthiest
at the moment. For me, the killer app and reason to replace my Palm Vx
last year was GPS navigation.

Of the four groups of navigation devices on the market today,
(cellphone, standalone devices like the Tomtom Go, in-dash devices like
those from VDO Dayton, and PDA), I prefer the PDA. YMMV, of course, but
the Palm T|X with TomTom Navigator I chose was Just Right for me.
Cell phones have too small a screen (and I hate cellphones), standalone
devices mean there's yet another single-function device to carry, and
in-car devices are too expensive (twice the cost of the other three
choices) and not flexible enough (no POI files or address book
integration, not portable).

Features I like about my Palm are the big screen that can be rotated
(portrait/landscape), and TomTom's integration with the Palm's address
book which means I can select a contact to navigate to in two taps,
instead of having to laboriously enter an address. The Palm's
handwriting recognition can also be used.

Otherwise, I mostly use the PDA's standard functions (address book,
calendar, notes). I also have a Bible on it, which I like because the
Palm is smaller than a paper Bible, and offers quick lookups and
searches. It still surprises other members of my church, though.

Harro de Jong

>On Jun 7, 2006, at 11:29 AM, Nik wrote:
>>
>>I have to think that the future of mobile databases is not via
>>synchronization, but rather through mini-browser-optimized web
>>applications which serve databases to end users. (Heck, you could
>>drive such a solution through Filemaker's web publishing
>>capabilities!) By pushing the heavy lifting to the server, you can
>>create a truly platform independent application, which can be
>>accessed by mobile and desktop users, provided they have internet
>>access. (And with a smartphone, it's rare that you don't.)
>
>Build it. I'll buy it, and I'll sell about 30 copies within the
>first week it hits the market.
>
>Seriously, is anyone working on this, as far as the list knows?

Have you ever tryed FileMakers build-in Instant Web Publishing?

maybe all you have to do is creating a layout with the few fields
needed on the road and publish it.

Than you're working in your original database with all the build-in
functions and calculations without any knowledge of html and
webdesign...

You have to know the address of your computer running the database
and the computer has to be reachable from the internet. Default port
for Filmaker is 80 - so the address would be something like
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80 (where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is your IP number) or
www.yourdomain.com:80

Try it out with your browser from the same computer running FileMaker!

Beware of security issues though. Backup regularily and use
FileMakers access restrictions!

"Normal" Filemaker licenses restrict web solutions to 10 different
users within 24 hours, I think. For extended needs you'll need the
"Unlimited" licens. Much more expensive...

for more advanced sollutions, you should considder Lasso from www.omnipilot.com
it gives you all the flexibility you want, and you can easily port
your sollution to MySQL or other databases later. (Web server and
webprogramming needed)

Andreas Steinmann

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  <http://www.natfilm.dk>