Develop iPad/iPhone Apps with Filemaker

FileMaker Pro from Apple is a desktop database development system, similar to Access. After developing a solution using the  desktop version (either Windows or Mac), you can deploy it on iOS devices, (iPad, iPad Mini, iPhone), sometimes with minimal changes. On iOS, your application is run using the free FileMaker Go runtime which is available from the Apple app store.

This FileMaker-to-iOS thing seems to be a well-kept secret. Although there are umpteen zillion apps on the app store, creating an app the usual way requires a fairly steep learning curve to develop with the iOS development kit and Objective-C programming language.

FileMaker shortens all that.

It could also be an attitude problem. People get scared hearing the word “database”, especially when talking about mobile applications. My friend and iOS guru Jesse Feiller,  suggests “Don’t say that FileMaker is a database that turns into an app. Say that your program is an app that has a data storage component. Virtually every useful program has to store data somehow.”

The FileMaker web site has a comprehensive case study of a company, Lee Medical, which provides contracted nursing services. If you look at the video, you can see the nurses updating their electronic medical record using an iPad from the car. Since the study says that data isn’t stored on the iPads themselves, it would follow that the iPads are using a 3G wireless connection to send data to the back-end database.

The FileMaker site also has a page of application suggestions for FileMaker Go.

I also have a couple posts on FileMaker on that other blog.