Claris FileMaker and Apple

A lot of people do not realize that FileMaker, and its parent company, Claris, is a wholly-own subsidiary of Apple.

That’s right, the awesome, cool-factor company of Apple owns FileMaker Pro. FileMaker has been around for decades, since some time in the 1980’s. I started using FileMaker at version 4.1 in the mid-90’s, and it is currently up to version 19.2.

Some might immediately think that because it is owned by Apple, it might only work with Apple products, but that is not the case. FileMaker is a cross platform tool. Here is the way Wikipedia describes it:

FileMaker is a cross-platform relational database application from Claris International, a subsidiary of Apple Inc. It integrates a database engine with a graphical user interface (GUI) and security features, allowing users to modify the database by dragging new elements into layouts, screens, or forms. It is available in desktop, server, iOS and web-delivery configurations.

There are some advantages to being owned by Apple, of course. FileMaker Go, which is the iOS app version of the software works great! on the iPad, and iPhone. It gives a very rich user experience which faithfully reproduces the awesome user experience and ease of use of FileMaker desktop. FileMaker Go is a free app download from the App store.

The most notable factor about FileMaker is the easy to use GUI-interface combined with incredible power under the hood. FileMaker can connect to almost anything on the web using API technologies and cURL functions. It can connect to ‘big data’ using SQL/ODBC connections.

For those unfamiliar with FileMaker, feel free to contact us, we will give you a quick tour of this awesome software. We often do training classes and personal mentoring as well. We are available if you need to contact us.