Last week saw the birth of another new version of the FileMaker Platform. Version 13 is a huge step in terms of the ability to design great interfaces, and the ability to deliver them consistently on every platform, now including the web.
But every good platform needs it’s developer tools to keep up to date with all the new changes. We’ve got some details about the upcoming updates and compatibility issues with BaseElements, RefreshFM, and RESTfm.
BaseElements 4
The current ( 4.0.7 ) version of BaseElements will open and run in FileMaker 13. You can generate the DDR with FMPA 13 and it will import into BE 4.0.7.
However, none of the new v13 features will be imported into BaseElements 4.0.x. These will be missing from the Analysis, and you may get false results.
We will shortly be making available BaseElements 4.5.0 which will address all of the new features of FileMaker Pro 13. This will be a free update for people who have an existing licence for BE 4.
The 4.5.0 runtime will be built with FMPA 13, so will have the same system requirements as v13 ( i.e. no Windows XP ). But the main BaseElements files will open just fine in FMP 12 or 13, and you can use either version.
BaseElements Future
We have already started working on a new BaseElements 5 that takes advantage of the new functionality in FMP 13, and includes a new UI and a wholly revamped import process. This will be next year some time, and will be a paid upgrade.
RefreshFM
RefreshFM 2.0.2 will not open in FMP 13. We will shortly release a free update to RefreshFM ( version 2.1.0 ) that opens and runs in FileMaker Pro 13 or later. This will also include modifications to the automation process that allows it to run under Mac OS 10.9 with the new gatekeeper functionality for AppleScripts.
Any existing setups can be imported into RefreshFM 2.1.0 and sent out as an updater to users running in FileMaker Pro 13.
RefreshFM Future
We have already got a new version of RefreshFM 3.0 in development, which will go into beta shortly, and this features a brand new UI and a completely updated setup process. We’re very excited about this one, and really looking forward to getting it out into the wild.
RESTfm
RESTfm 2.1.1 will install and run under FileMaker Server 13 just fine. Seeing as installing FMS 13 on a machine that previously had a copy of FMS 12 requires an uninstall of 12 and a new install of 13, you will also need to re-install RESTfm. Also be aware that the default locations for web documents has changed in 13. Check the pdf documentation that comes with FMS 13 for more details.
Sending data to RESTfm 2.x from FileMaker Pro 13
However, lots of users will be sending data to RESTfm from FileMaker Pro 13. Using plugins, this hasn’t changed. But the Insert From URL script step has changed between 12 and 13 and now no longer produces the same result. I will be documenting all of the details about the changes from 12 to 13 shortly, but the short version is that FMP 13 cannot post to RESTfm 2.x using InsertFromURL.
Because of the broken way that InsertFromURL modifies the url before sending, we need to have a new encoding fix at the server end to handle this. This likely won’t be done until RESTfm 3.0 is released which we are hoping to have complete early next year.
Free FileMaker Plugin
Our free BaseElements plugin continues to work fine under FMP 13 and the 64 bit version will also run in FMS 13 for server side scripting, or server side web publishing.
As always there are updates and changes in progress for this plugin, so keep an eye out for those.