We've switched our payment processing engine from the built in Drupal Ubercart and Worldpay / Paypal to FastSpring. Everything has been checked to make sure it's all working, although if you have any issues please get in touch with us. All the pricing remain the same and full details are on the purchase page.

For anyone who'd like more info about the how and why, there is more in the latest post on our blog.

I've uploaded a beta version of BaseElements 3. This first release is Mac only while I sort out some issues with the plugin on windows. Hopefully that should only be a day or two.

Some new features :

• FMP 11 compatible.
• FMPA 11v2 Runtime.
• Faster imports than BE 2, even with importing more data!
• New Smart Find.
• Lots of new layout styling with Condition Formatting.
• Lots of cleanups.
• Lots more...

There are also some other points that are works in progress and will be fixed before the beta goes final :

• Plugins still need to be setup with the new import.
• Indirection will also need to be adjusted.
• We want to add some more features before the final too.

Generally, we've spent a lot of time on the import engine, so although we believe it's completely accurate, I'd like some more public testing. The public beta period is more for getting the new v11 import option in front of those who are waiting for it while we add in new features.

The links you need are :

BaseElements_Mac.dmg - fp7 files.
BaseElements_Mac_MU.dmg - Sharing enabled version.
BaseElements_Mac_Runtime.dmg - Runtime.

There is lots of content on the site to update, but I wanted to get this out early to people can start to play with it. If you've got any questions or issues, please use the support pages, or contact us directly or even send us a note on twitter.

This beta will expire at the end of July, and for now will use any current v2 licence. The final version will be a paid upgrade from v2, although any purchases made since the 1st of March 2010 will get the new version for free.

We've posted a long note updating the status of BaseElements in FileMaker Pro 11. You can read the whole thing in the FAQ section of our website. You can keep up to date with our progress on the blog or the subscription list or our twitter account.

We've finally completed work on BaseElements 2.6.0 and it's now available for download. This one has been a while in coming and many people have asked where it's at, so we'd like to thank everyone for being patient. More on the delays below, but firstly the good news : New Features.

BaseElements 2.6.0 contains the super-duper whiz-bang fmSearchResults so you can search anywhere within your solution analysis for generic text. It's fast and contains a great user interface for searching. If you like what you see in BaseElements, make sure you download their demo materials and consider putting it in your own solutions too. We'll have more on the implementation of fmSearchResults later.

Also this version is now completely multilingual. BaseElements now speaks Swedish and Japanese, and we'll have a bunch more languages available soon too.

There is more detail in the release notes as there are some more tweaks, fixes and features as well.

And for anyone interested in the delays, one of the issues we've had to overcome with the localisation is how do you translate the buttons in custom dialogs. We'd looked at not translating them (not a great option), or providing dialogs via a plugin. We decided to develop our own plugin so that we could have a single plugin to do the general file functions and the dialogs. After a lot of development and testing time, in the end the single plugin option didn't work out, and we've instead reverted to using Troi File and adding Troi Dialog, but making it optional for those wanting translated dialogs. The extra time and work involved in developing and testing the plugin is the reason for the delay. We may come back to the plugin later, but for now it's on hold.

We will also write something up about our experiences with translating BaseElements for those interested in the process.

For now, grab your copy of BaseElements and if you've got any questions or issues, jump over to the support website http://baseelements.tenderapp.com/ and let us know.

BaseElements now has it's own twitter account :

http://twitter.com/baseelements

And we'll be posting more regularly there as we work through new features and additional content on the website and in the software itself.

All of the FAQ pages, Tips and Tricks and support options are available on our new TenderApp support site :

http://baseelements.tenderapp.com/

There you can submit a support request and browse the public discussions and Knowledge Base / FAQ pages.

You can also send us email directly that goes straight into our support system :

support@baseelements.com

If you're having any other issues, feel free to use the contact form as well.

Our list of FileMaker Features, sorted by which version they were introduced has been updated for FileMaker Pro 10. There isn't a lot of direct items in this, as some of the big changes in FileMaker 10 were to do with dynamic subsummary reports, the new status toolbar, saved finds and Script Triggers.

It's good to see this list kept up to date though, as it is a valuable reference for those who inherit older solutions or need to tailor their development for a client with an old version of FileMaker Pro.

BaseElements has been featured in the latest SeedCode newsletter. We were excited to work with John and Matt to bring their latest product, fmSearchResults to BaseElements. It was very easy to setup and get working and is a great addition to our tool as well.

The final results of this will be in BaseElements 2.6.0 which will be release soon with a few other new features as well, but in the mean time if you'd like to see fmSearchResults in action you can try the BaseElements 2.6 beta. (Scroll to the bottom of the page for the download links.)

There is a bit more detail about BaseElements and fmSearchResults in the SeedCode site, and we'll have even more to say about it soon with the release of BE 2.6.0.

Goya is looking for translators for their forthcoming update to BaseElements to support multiple languages. We've nearly completed testing and development of multiple language support for BaseElements 2.6.0 ( a free update for 2.x owners ), and we're looking for helpers to translate the UI of BaseElements into languages other than english.

At this point, we're not fussed about what languages you're able to provide, although the major FileMaker ones (French, Spanish, German, Italian etc ) would be great, we'd like as many language options as possible ( klingon anyone? ).

Please use the contact form to let us know if you'd like to help and can offer your services. There will be benefits for ongoing translation helpers.

I'll update this post with details of languages that have been taken as it happens.

Update 4 : I've now added a new FAQ page with the complete status. We're still looking for helpers, so contact us if you're interested. Below is the list of completed languages.

Spanish : Done - Thanks to Cesar Morales from ADNPlus Inc.
Dutch : Done - Thanks to Nicky Decorte from ConnectingData.
Swedish : Done - Thanks to David Wikström from CamelCase data.
Italian : Done - Thanks to Giuseppe Pupita. Buliga Software.
Pirate : Done - Thanks to Cesar Morales from ADNPlus Inc.
Japanese : Done - Thanks to Shin Ninagawa from Splash Inc.
French : Done - Thanks to Raymond Studer from RSCP.
German : Done - Thanks to Daniel Wilhelm from Datasol.

It seems that there are lots of people who like BaseElements enough to write to us and let us know. We recently got this in an email from Vernon Downing :

---

After using BaseElements 2 for a short time, I want to express how pleased I am. It is extraordinary software. The superb layouts had me immediately focused on the warnings and the associated detail of my application. I was able to easily isolate and document true problems because it was all so clearly presented. BaseElements 2 is an excellent analysis tool (and I have tried others), but I was equally pleased at how easy it was able to extend its usefulness with custom summaries.

After only a few minutes of getting oriented, I was able to turn out specialized data structure reports perfectly suited for my particular application development activities. Using the supplied layouts as templates, my learning curve for building those summaries was short, indeed. In minutes, BaseElements 2.0 provided me results that had previously taken me hours of work.

Thank you, BaseElements Team.

---

Thank you Vernon. If you are still undecided about whether BaseElements can save you time and money in your FileMaker development, then maybe grab yourself a demo code and give BaseElements a try.