With the release of the FileMaker 17 platform, there are many new FileMaker Go 17 features to review as well. Here’s a summary of the latest new features and changes to FileMaker on iOS.

New features in FileMaker Go 17

  • Keyboard shortcuts. As power iOS users utilize external keyboard devices, they have noticed a lack of support for common FileMaker Pro shortcut commands via FileMaker Go. The new functionality in FileMaker Go will not only bring support for dozens of shortcuts in FileMaker Go, but also custom menu support for those shortcut actions.
  • Local notifications. You will notice a new script step in FileMaker 17 called “Configure Local Notification”. This new script step allows you to script powerful OS-level alerts to display to your users. Alerts can be displayed at a timed interval and will persist even if FileMaker Go is no longer running! You can also tie alerts to scripts to fire off actions from the alerts. This functionality was previously only possible via 3rd party external apps, like AlertFlag.
  • Drag & drop support. Text, photos and files can now be drag-and-dropped in FileMaker Go, enhancing the ease of use for storing files in FileMaker Go.
  • App delegate. While not apparent to most, this is a big improvement to the FileMaker iOS SDK. The addition of an App delegate setting to the iOS SDK will allow developers to interact with iOS system events to provide a more seamless iOS app experience.
  • GetSensor() function. FileMaker rolled out an impressive new GetSensor() function that can query and pull data from various sensors in iOS devices. Ever since I developed CoreScope, I have been asking for FileMaker to implement similar functionality. Now that it’s here, I’ve documented all the amazing new metadata features of this function in this blog post.

Changed features in FileMaker Go 17

  • Launch center context menu. A new menu available in the launch center of FileMaker will allow you to perform a number of new file actions:
    • Pin/Unpin files: Allows you to pin favorite files
    • Delete files (Local files view): Allows you to remove files from the device
    • Remove files (Recent files view): Allows you to clear the recent files list
    • Share (Local files): Brings up the share/send file menu
    • Rename (Local files): Brings up a dialog to rename the file
  • Auto-complete/Type-ahead support. Edit boxes that use value lists will now support the “auto-complete using existing values” function via a native selector menu that will appear while typing. This will be especially useful for very long value lists, where you don’t want users to spend a lot of time scrolling to find a matching value. This update will result in quicker and more accurate data entry.

Deprecated features in FileMaker Go 17

  • Get(WindowOrientation) function. This function is being removed as better functionality has come along since its release in version 13.