We are extremely happy that FileMaker has released FileMaker Go for iPhone and iPad. How great is that?
But, we are sorry to say that because of the way iPhone works, we can’t recommend or support use of FileMaker Go with current versions of Studio Manager. Don’t stop reading, though, there’s more to this story.
You can access Studio Manager from an iPhone or iPad running FileMaker Go with just a couple tweaks, but you risk getting into trouble and having a frustrating experience.
The main issue is that when you use an iPhone or iPad, hitting the Home button shuts down an app too abruptly. So, if you are running a script that happens to move data from point a to point b or even creates a new timesheet, it could be interrupted mid-script leaving loose ends and incomplete information. We are available to address this now on your behalf with your current version of Studio Manager, but it’s going to take some careful research to make sure we’ve nabbed all the scripts that would be troublesome on an iPhone or iPad.
The secondary issue is that Studio Manager layouts are built and optimized for a Mac that uses a cursor. There is a consensus and we agree with it that you should make your layouts touch-friendly if they are going to run on a touch-based device like the iPhone or iPad.
Because of these two issues, we think the way to go is to create some little layouts for the iPhone and some for the iPad. We’ve already got an itty bitty iPhone layout for login and another for task and time updating running in our lab. Some good and thorough thinking will be needed to decide what functionality will run well and will be essential on the iPhone and iPad. We will either make iPhone and iPad versions of important scripts or modify the scripts to do different things depending on the type of device that’s being used.
We plan to do three things to support FileMaker Go. First, we expect that the next major release of Studio Manager will include at least a modicum of features that can be used well with iPhone and iPad. Second, we plan to publish our work so that you can as easily as possible add compatibility to an earlier version of Studio Manager. Third, we’ll offer customization services and consulting to our customers so that they can make changes they want in their current version of Studio Manager.
We think FileMaker Go will be the very best way to access Studio Manager for people who are occasional or temporary users, have an iPhone or iPad, and don’t need absolutely full access to Studio Manager features. Better than web access. It is fun to use. It’s handy. At $20 for iPhone and $40 for iPad, it is the cheap, thin and mobile client we’ve been waiting for.
Please comment on this post if you have some ideas. If you have a top priority, let us know. We need your input!
We’ve been using FileMaker 11 with Studio Manager 10 every day since FileMaker 11 was released in mid March. Initially we were a bit reticent to give a full go ahead in case a new feature or change in FileMaker might conflict in some way with Studio Manager. But, things are going very well, so feel free to upgrade one or more of your client machines to FileMaker 11.
What about earlier versions of Studio Manager and FileMaker 11? Glad you asked. The only hitch is that Studio Manager 8 and 9 don’t know about FileMaker 11, so you’ll need to have me do a quick modification to the startup script for you. I’ve been charging $50 for the change. These days we are using the excellent Dropbox online service + application to share files. We’ll edit your file and return it to you in a jiffy. Contact us by email to schedule your upgrade.
We are currently busy at work on a minor upgrade: Studio Manager 10.1 that will boost your use of new features in Filemaker Pro 11 should you choose to upgrade. We started by reformatting the underlined “links” to improve the look of these buttons. FileMaker 11’s user interface is based on Cocoa now and text handling is different – scrunching the text vertically which makes underlined text look cramped. We found through experimentation that you can simply increase the height of single line text box by a pixel to eliminate the issue. Anyway, we went through all of Studio Manager 10 and have increased heights of text blocks everywhere to eliminate that minor font display glitch.
FileMaker 11 lets us add charts. When you’ve lived with a product for as many years as we have and been prohibited from charting, your mind draws a blank at first. After stalling on this initially, we are coming up with some good ideas and will not only include a few chart drawing buttons in our upcoming Studio Manager 10.1 release but will blog about it.
Charts are very easy to add. You don’t have to wait for Studio Manager 10.1 to be released. If you have FileMaker 11 on any of your machines, feel free to create some charts for important data. If you try your hand at a Studio Manager chart of any kind, drop me a line and I’ll be glad to help. I’ll provide a little free support for you so I can learn too.
Also, we are long overdue for a new Studio Manager demo, so plan to release the SM 10.1 demo very shortly after the release of Studio Manager 10.1. If you have ideas for us or things you would like to see in Studio Manager or questions about anything, please let me know.
Contact me at this email address.
I ran into an important piece of advice today and thought I better get it up for your information. Since I expect more FileMaker 11 tips to come my way, I plan for this list to expand. Feel free to add your own comments if you have something to add.
The first tip is about FileMaker 11 Server. Run the FileMaker 10 Uninstaller before Installing FileMaker 11 Server. One of FileMaker’s system engineers, Alexei Folger presented at the DIGFM FileMaker User Group Meeting on FileMaker 11. FMBiotech made a good blog post about Alexei’s presentation that is worth your while if you want to learn more about FileMaker 11.
We are testing versions of Studio Manager to see if there are any gotchas to running the brand new and fabulous FileMaker Pro 11. Initial testing shows that running Studio Manager 10 unmodified will entail some misbehavior. Until we’ve tested Studio Manager 10 extensively under FileMaker 11, we recommend against upgrading. We typically take 30-45 days to do this testing.
If you are as eager to check out FileMaker 11 as we are, we recommend you get FileMaker 11 or the trial version and play with it, even test a copy of your version of Studio Manager with it as long as you have Studio Manager 7 or higher. The charting feature alone may prove invaluable for your business. We’ll be very interested in your discoveries and will document and publish what we learn. What we don’t recommend is taking your production version of Studio Manager and running it under FileMaker 11 before some serious testing has been done. This is your valuable, mission-critical data after all.
You need OS X 10.5.7 Leopard or higher to run FileMaker 11 and 10.6 Snow Leopard is recommended. Keep an eye on this blog for breaking news relative to both FileMaker 11 and Studio Manager. The Look and feel of the product has a major yet very subtle upgrade going on. End-user charting is there.
Expect a quick release of Studio Manager 10.1 to quickly take advantage of new feature low-hanging fruit and nip any problems in the bud.
I’m tweeting my initial impressions and thoughts on tokerud.
I will be posting at least one article to my FileMaker Fever blog today on FileMaker 11 new features.
Hi folks. Just a quick note. We are still getting requests for upgrades to Studio Manager 10. And, we are offering a 15% off discount from our posted prices both new purchases and upgrades. You can take 15% off anything you see on our Pricing and Upgrades price tables.
Just a few minutes ago, we decided to extend the 25% off sale to January 15. We were a little late getting Studio Manager 10 out the door, releasing it on December 22nd. A little too close to Christmas for a lot of people. When we sent out notifications, we got a lot of gone for the holidays notices. Under the circumstances, we are really happy with the response to our sale.
And, we are pretty sure more of you want to upgrade to Studio Manager 10 but need a little extra time to evaluate the demo which didn’t come out until December 23. Some of you may want to deduct this expense in 2010 rather than the less than stellar 2009. Whatever the reason, contact us by phone 415 789-5219 or email Janet to discuss your questions or place an order.
