Product Reviews

Mobility is big news these days and for devotees of FileMaker Pro who also embrace the Palm platform, FileMaker Mobile could be just what you need. You do need to have FileMaker Pro 5 already installed on your PC, and this 'Mobile' option installs the necessary extras on the Desktop. The Palm elements of FileMaker Mobile are then installed on the device via HotSync.

Once through the install routine, databases created on the PC are now available for transfer to the Palm: the setup process lets you choose the field from the database and your preferred method of synchronisation. Databases with 20 fields or fewer can be transferred in their entirety to the Palm or, if necessary, you can select a subset of fields. This is useful if you want a simple contact list of names and numbers without the extra detail that may be stored in a PC database. There's a limit of 5,000 records, although this should be enough for most applications.

Synchronisation options allow the duplication of records if a conflict is found, for handheld data to overwrite the desktop version or vice versa. Once you're on the road, you can view the data in either list (one record per row) or detail (one record at a time) form. The data is constrained by the unavoidable straight-jacket of the Palm's small screen, so in the list view, much scrolling will be necessary to see a complete record if you have more than just two or three fields. This is, in itself, one good reason for trying to keep the number of fields to a minimum as you move data to the Palm. Navigation with the arrow buttons is easy, however, and you can swap at a tap to a more detailed view. Buttons for adding a new record and for searching

While FileMaker Pro 5 lets you build multitable databases with some relational features, these can't be transferred to the Palm. Only single-user, flat-file databases will make the transition, which limits the usage to simple contacts lists, price lists and the like. Furthermore, only four of the eight field types supported by FileMaker Pro can be transferred to the Palm. These are text, number, date and time fields, reinforcing the idea that FileMaker Mobile users will get the best results if their data is relatively simple. Dedicated FileMaker users who have created run-time solutions with FileMaker Developer 5 (where the files that comprise a database have been bound together into an application) will find that these can't be transferred to the Palm.

The Palm-side element of FileMaker Mobile isn't built for number crunching. It's recommended that calculations and summaries be performed on the PC, which is also where any reports must be generated. Unfortunately, there's also no support for 'beaming' records to another Palm using the infrared link, or for using additional storage in CompactFlash cards or other external memory stores.

This mobile solution is aimed at business users, students, home-based business users and general consumers, and indeed all of these could make use of FileMaker Mobile so long as their needs were relatively straightforward. Database solutions for the Palm are relatively thin on the ground and this offering from FileMaker, although limited, will be welcome. Its appeal is also likely to be limited to those already using FileMaker products, as the need to learn and use FileMaker Pro 5 (reviewed issue 62, p220) before being able to benefit from databases on the Palm makes it an expensive solution in terms of both time and money.

FileMaker's multiplatform heritage - it's one of the few DBMSs to run on both PCs and Macs - doesn't carry over to handhelds. The Mobile software only runs under Palm OS, although the company says it's 'evaluating the possible directions for future mobile products'.