Making FileMaker Even Better
Android, iOS, Mac, Windows & Web
LiveCode for FM lets you deliver across more platforms so you can reach many more customers from your FileMaker solutions. By providing a full featured and self contained app on each of our supported platforms, you can meet and even exceed the expectations of your customers. These days, customers expect apps. Apps are what LiveCode for FM delivers.
Android is here
Never turn another customer away because “we can’t do Android”. Your end users can now have beautifully functioning apps running on their Android devices. Android represents 53% of the market for high-end devices in the USA and 86% of the global market for mobile devices – reaching 99%+ in a number of countries. You can learn more about the Android market and see our guide on suitable devices here.
Our Android FileMaker apps are perfect citizens, taking full advantage of the features of the device.
Scan Barcodes
Record audio, take photos or record video
Send email using your Android email client
Print using native printing
All of this is automatic. If you have these features in your FileMaker solution running in FileMaker Go then you don’t need to change anything to use these capabilities. Wow your customers on Android using the software you already know and love.
iOS Unshackled
FileMaker Go is a lifesaver for many of you, bringing mobility to your FileMaker solutions. However, the experience is not always what your customer expects.
Firstly, they have to install FMGo, then your app, rather than being able to install your app directly from the App Store. Secondly, if you connect your solution back to FileMaker, Go requires always good connectivity to run your app. Frozen is not a good look for your app. Thirdly, FileMaker Go apps can become corrupted if your user’s device crashes, due to the way they are structured. Finally, if you need to access features that iOS itself supports but FMGo does not, you can’t – or not without using the iOS SDK and a frighteningly complex process to create or install your plugin.
LiveCode for FM solves all these problems. You can create a true iOS app store app, which has access to the native operating system and carries on delighting your users even when they are offline. LiveCode for FM is structured so that if your device crashes only the minimum amount of unsaved data will be lost, the app will not become corrupted. We support a broader range of OS features out of the box and can easily add support for more – just ask.
Self Contained Mac Apps
On Mac the FileMaker customer experience is also not straightforward. Your customer has to buy and install FileMaker, then download and run your solution. With LiveCode for FM you can build your FileMaker solution into an app so your customer does not have to install FileMaker. Your data remains in FileMaker Server – or you can even create an app that is entirely self contained with all the data it needs within it. Mac Runtime is back and better!
Self Contained Windows Apps
(coming soon)
All the same benefits that apply to Mac apply to Windows as well. We’ll shortly be opening up to Windows deployments, which will allow your customer to install your FileMaker solution as a native Windows app. Connect back to FileMaker or keep the data in the app. You’ll be able to send those apps straight to your customer, put them in the Windows app store or offer them for download from your own site. We can’t wait.
Web – Completing the Set
(coming soon)
We’re not stopping there. We’re carrying on work to bring the extensibility, professionalism and flexible syncing of LiveCode for FM to the Web. Lifting the limitations of the WebDirect experience, our web client runs fully within your browser, optionally connecting back to FileMaker Server using the Data API.
We will be supporting every feature accessible within a browser using native HTML5 elements. That includes some native device capabilities such as photo capture. Your app will use the same online/offline sync model that our desktop and mobile apps do, so if your customer loses a connection for a while and comes back the app will pick up and sync data. It’s going to be a great experience for you and for your users.
It’s Not Hard to Deliver on Multiple Platforms
Once your FileMaker app is compiled to work in LiveCode for FM you can take advantage of these benefits on each of the platforms we support without the effort of learning a new language.
Test on Mac to start out (so easy) then try your wings with some of the other platforms. Your solution may need minor modifications if you want to take advantage of our online/offline sync capabilities, as well as to support the many different screen resolutions and form factors of some of our target platforms. We’ve created lessons to hold your hand every step of the way. It’s worth a little effort to deliver that perfect customer experience.