Third-party Press Release
Connecting Data Releases fmDotNet for FileMaker Server Advanced
Connecting Data [http://www.connectingdata.com], a FileMaker
Solutions
Alliance Associate member and developer of the FMrobot
developer
automation tool, today announced the release and immediate
availability
of fmDotNet, a set of .NET classes for FileMaker Server 8
Advanced.
Wim Decorte, CEO of Connecting Data, described fmDotNet as
"an
extension to the .NET framework. In FileMaker terms, this is
a "plugin" to the
.NET framework. While the .NET framework itself has plenty of
tools to
work with XML data returned from FileMaker Server Advanced,
fmDotNet
makes it easier to use by providing pre-built XML parsing
code."
The fmDotNet classes, released as an Open Source project, can
be
downloaded from http://fmDotNet.sourceforge.net.
Additional
information and samples are available on the Connecting Data web
site at
http://www.connectingdata.com.
The fmDotNet classes are expected to find wide acceptance in
corporate
environments where developers and IS/IT professionals are
already
familiar with the .NET framework and where they will not be
required to
install and then manage third party software or scripting languages
in
order to utilize FileMaker Server 8 Advanced.
According to Decorte, "The target developer here is an independent
or
corporate developer who by choice or by necessity works with the
.NET
framework. With fmDotNet he or she doesn't have to
understand
FileMaker Server XML data grammars or how to extract data from
FileMaker. They
can stay within their .NET comfort zone. fmDotNet was
inspired by
similar work done for PHP developers by the creators of fx.php
and
fm-and-php. But fmDotNet is not limited to being used for dynamic
web
sites (ASP.NET), it can also be used in standard Windows
applications."
Without fmDotNet developers would typically have to write a
considerable
amount of code to issue commands to FileMaker Server Advanced
and
especially to parse the returned XML to extract information
from
FileMaker Pro files hosted by FileMaker Server 8 Advanced - an
exercise
that would easily require a couple of hundred lines of code.
However,
as an example of the versatility and power of fmDotNet, the
developer
instead can make one reference to fmDotNet and then add just a
couple
of lines of code to return the same result that otherwise would
require
those hundreds of lines of custom code.
FileMaker developers have reacted positively to the release
of
fmDotNet. "Once again, Wim Decorte has been a trailblazer.
fmDotNet will expand
the reach and the usefulness of FileMaker Server Advanced in
many
organizations," said Steven H. Blackwell of Management
Counseling
Services, a FileMaker Solutions Alliance Partner.
"Finally, the door is opened to .NET, and with that, Wim Decorte
has
removed an imposing barrier separating Filemaker from the rest of
the
programming world. 'Classes' may not mean much to the
Filemaker
community, but the addition of these classes empowers every
in-house VB
or other .NET language programmer to easily build any front end
to
Filemaker tables without needing to become expert at Filemaker or
its
XML grammar. That, in turn, opens up corporate IT to Filemaker
big
time.
By the same token, we Filemaker developers who can master a bit
of
programming are at last freed from the restrictions of IWP, or
of
having to master the intricacies of CWP and XML", said John
Weinshel of
Datagrace, a FileMaker Solutions Alliance Associate.
Connecting Data is an IT consultancy company that specializes
in
developing database driven management and production solutions.
The
company supports Windows, Linux, and Macintosh platforms.
Decorte, a
winner of the FileMaker Excellence Award given by FileMaker, Inc.,
is a
frequent speaker at industry events and is the author or co-author
of
several major White Papers featured on the FileMaker corporate
website.
FileMaker(r) Pro 8 and FileMaker(r) Sever 8 Advanced are products
of
FileMaker, Inc. of Santa Clara, California. With more than 11
million
units distributed worldwide, FileMaker Pro is used by workgroups
within
the Fortune 100, the top 250 school districts in the U.S. and each
of
the top 50 U.S. undergraduate colleges. Since shipping in August
2005,
FileMaker Pro 8 has received numerous top editorial awards from
leading
publications, including "Product of the Year" awards from PC
Magazine
and Macworld. FileMaker Pro was recently selected as a 2006 Codie
Award
finalist in the "Best Database Management Solution" category by
the
Software Information Industry Association.
FileMaker, Inc. is a subsidiary of Apple Computer, Inc., of
Cupertino,
California [NASDAQ: AAPL]