New Android App Building Service

Get your FileMaker App on Android with our new App Building Service.

I’m pleased to announce today a brand new option to get your FileMaker apps on Android quickly and without any hassle: The LCFM Android Build Service.

Claris Official Partners
The process of Android deployment of FileMaker apps using LCFM Native is becoming increasingly complete, robust and mature. We’ve added support for the vast majority of the FileMaker feature set out of the box and are adding more features every day. We have been partnering and working closely with Claris to improve the product experience throughout much of this year. Claris have been a wonderful partner to work with, their input has allowed us to greatly improve the compile process.

The Build Process
A good number of you are now successfully shipping apps. Many more of you are nearly ready to go. That said, we are aware that we don’t yet have total coverage of every solution. While you can still go it alone and get the whole process done yourself, we are uniquely placed to make it a perfectly seamless process and take away the hassle. We have already worked closely with a number of you to bridge any gaps and get your apps ready. We’ve also seen that getting into the Android market place for the first time has a bit of a learning curve. You need to set up the Android SDK, make minor changes to your solution to support our online/offline sync model, test on suitable devices, and go through the process to submit an APK to the app store. You also need to have a Mac to use LCFM Native, and it needs to be running at least Mojave. If you have a Windows machine or you are running an older Mac, we have the solution for you, too.

Our new LCFM Android App Building Service takes all the hassle away. Here is how it works. You send us your FileMaker file and we’ll compile it to Android with LCFM. We’ll use the automated feature report to add any last missing features we encounter that your solution is using. Our QA team will test your solution fully on a range of Android devices. We’ll fix any bugs we encounter and resolve any incompatibilities. Then we’ll deliver it back to you as an APK ready to go.

Future Proofing
We’ll also make sure that any tweaks we’ve made to the compiler tool are included in future builds and that you have a fully working LCFM Project folder that you can use if you want to build your own APKs to distribute updates yourself in the future. Optional extra services include modifying your original FileMaker file to work with our sync model, adding additional functionality not found in FileMaker through custom script steps, and managing the Google Play app store submission on your behalf. We can also optionally include rebuilding updates for your app as and when they become available.

The Cost
So what does it cost? For the moment we’re including the basic service – building, testing and delivery an Android APK – free within the cost of your user pack. You can get a quote to see how much your user pack will be here. We ask an up front commitment of a portion of your user pack cost, with the balance due on delivery and acceptance of your APK. Your annual user pack subscription won’t start until that final delivery date, so your renewal will be due 12 months after that.

We’ll need to take a look at your solution, generate the feature set report and agree what your initial user pack size will be before we can accept you into this program. Assuming we’re able to accept you, typically we have seen it taking between 4 and 8 weeks to turn around an average sized solution, including building, fixing any issues and fully testing it, though as each solution is unique that timescale may vary. We’ll be very happy to take a look at your solution and give you a personalized estimate.

Additional services such as modifying your solution to work with our sync model or managing submission to the Google Play App Store are extras and we’ll need to see your solution so we can make an accurate estimate of the effort involved.

Spaces on this program will be limited so get in touch today to secure your place in the program.

Learn more about the Android Build Program here.