In “ Take Control of Your Passwords,” Joe Kissell advises that you not link your accounts on the Internet, and I usually take Joe’s advice. I had mixed feelings about this feature at first. Once the FileMaker server has been configured properly, and a user account has been set up to use OAuth, a user trying to access the app will be given the opportunity to log in with credentials from one of the accounts mentioned above. in your browser) and in FileMaker Pro and Go. I expect other services to become available for authentication in the future - we can hope that Apple eventually supports OAuth more generally. OAuth support will make it possible for users to get into FileMaker solutions by logging into Amazon, Google, or Windows Azure. While We’re Talking about Access… - FileMaker 16 supports OAuth, an open authentication protocol. One hint: FileMaker Server 16 allows five different machines to be linked so that up to 500 users can access a file through WebDirect at the same time. Still, my sense is that WebDirect is the future of FileMaker deployment. Client connections to the server through WebDirect cost the same as client connections initiated from FileMaker Pro. For example, some of my apps support keyboard shortcuts that don’t work in a Web browser. The user experience via FileMaker Pro or Go is still richer than the user experience in a Web browser. I haven’t tried this, but a developer friend pointed out that there’s no reason a WebDirect FileMaker app wouldn’t now work well in Linux.īut WebDirect hasn’t entirely caught up to the native FileMaker clients. In fact, it works in pretty much any modern browser regardless of the device’s operating system. FileMaker Go, the mobile client program for FileMaker databases, runs only in iOS. In the screenshot below, you can see my FileMaker-based scheduling app accessed via WebDirect on the left and the same app inĪn added benefit of these developments is that they work well on smartphones. You can even ask the server to create a PDF and send it to you or to a client as an email attachment. With FileMaker 16, WebDirect now supports printing through the browser and generating PDFs as well, and the output is identical to what you’d get using FileMaker Pro. Earlier versions of WebDirect were pretty good at displaying and editing records, but they were lousy at generating reports. Because of WebDirect, your Web browser may turn out to be the thin FileMaker client that many of us have been wanting for years.īut the current fourth-generation release of WebDirect doesn’t just present FileMaker apps more reliably than its predecessors, it also provides a solution to the problem of generating formatted reports in a browser. Most of my clients don’t notice the difference, except that getting to their FileMaker app is now just a matter of loading a Web page. WebDirect is a technology that translates a normal FileMaker database file into an HTML5 Web page that users can view and interact with in a Web browser.Īn app presented via WebDirect looks almost exactly as it would when viewed in FileMaker Pro. It was good but not great when it first appeared, but now it’s approaching what I might call “usability parity” with FileMaker Pro. I’m simply sending them a URL and moving them all to the Web, thanks to WebDirect.įileMaker’s WebDirect technology has been around for several years now. At least, they won’t need to install a new version of FileMaker Pro. One of the best things about FileMaker 16 is that I can upgrade my users without them realizing it at all. I’m an independent developer who works only for my clients. However, I am not an employee of FileMaker Inc. Hello, WebDirect! - First, a bit of disclosure: I’m a certified FileMaker developer and a paying member of the FileMaker Business Alliance. Yes, the company has enhanced each in a few welcome ways, but the big news in this release is in technologies that are invisible to end users: FileMaker Server, WebDirect, and beyond. They are, respectively, the mobile and desktop clients used to run FileMaker databases. The just-released FileMaker 16 is the most significant update to the database platform in at least a decade, and yet most of the improvements have little to do with the company’s marquee products: FileMaker Go and FileMaker Pro.
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