[106] in sw-release-announce
FileMaker 5.5 Released at MIT
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kevin M. Cunningham)
Thu Mar 28 18:09:07 2002
Mime-Version: 1.0
Message-Id: <p05010404b8c951a5852b@[18.152.1.50]>
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 18:08:44 -0500
To: winpartners@MIT.EDU, itpartners@MIT.EDU, sw-release-announce@MIT.EDU
From: "Kevin M. Cunningham" <kcunning@MIT.EDU>
Cc: infosys@MIT.EDU, itag@MIT.EDU, filemaker-release@MIT.EDU
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
Date: Thursday, 28 March 2002
To: MIT Community
From: Software Release Team
Subj: FileMaker 5.5 Released
-----------------------
Information Systems is proud to announce the availability of and
support for FileMaker Pro 5.5 and FileMaker Server 5.5 for Macintosh
and Windows. This software is available to MIT faculty and staff,
under a volume license agreement brokered for MIT by IS. (Students
are not included in the agreement, but will need to obtain FileMaker
products on their own, e.g., through GovConnection.)
FileMaker Unlimited 5.5, also included in the agreement, is not yet
available for distribution at MIT, but is expected to be soon.
Who Should Upgrade and Why
-------------------------------------------------------------------
All current users of FileMaker 5.0 should upgrade to the new version.
All functionality in 5.0 is retained in 5.5, and new features have
been added.
Users of earlier versions of FileMaker (i.e., version 4.1 and
earlier) are now also encouraged to upgrade to FileMaker 5.5. There
are still some issues to deal with when upgrading, particularly if
shared databases are involved -- see the Upgrade Considerations doc
at http://web.mit.edu/is/help/filemaker/issues.html -- but most
pre-5.x sites should move to version 5.5, if possible.
Note that IS support for versions 3 and earlier of FileMaker will be
discontinued as of June 30th, 2002. Support for version 4.x may be
discontinued later this year or early in 2003, pending review of
community need.
If you need help or advice upgrading your site from a pre-5.0 version
of FileMaker, contact the Computing Help Desk (see below).
New Features
-------------------------------------------------------------------
FileMaker 5.5 includes several new features, including:
- record-level access control
- two-way dynamic ODBC exchange, including a new Execute SQL script step
- several new functions, such as getfield for dynamic field access
- QuickTime import
Platform Support
-------------------------------------------------------------------
FileMaker 5.5 products run on all IS-supported Macintosh and Windows platforms.
Although FileMaker Pro 5.5 can also run on Mac OS X and Windows XP --
and FileMaker Server can run on Red Hat Linux as well -- IS does not
provide full support for these platforms at this time, so we do not
yet support the use of FileMaker on these operating systems at this
time either. (Note that certain new features are not included in the
Mac OS X version of FileMaker 5.5 anyway.)
See http://web.mit.edu/is/help/filemaker/ for current support information.
Backwards Compatibility: Some Issues
-------------------------------------------------------------------
FileMaker 5.x databases cannot be opened with earlier versions of
FileMaker (i.e., 4.1 and earlier).
FileMaker 5.5 databases *can* be opened using 5.0 -- and vice versa
-- but 5.5 features will not be available to 5.0 users. In most
cases, the 5.5 feature is just invisible to the 5.0 user. But with
certain 5.5 features, 5,0 users will see odd results. See the Upgrade
Considerations doc at
http://web.mit.edu/is/help/filemaker/issues.html for more details.
A Note About Security
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, FileMaker 5.5 added no new security features to the
product. Data is still sent "in the clear" and passwords are still
sent only weakly encoded, making the database potentially accessible
to unauthorized users. A summary of the security issue, and some
suggestions for reducing the vulnerability of your databases, is
provided at http://web.mit.edu/is/help/filemaker/security.html.
Where to Get FileMaker 5.5
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyone who previously obtained FileMaker software from IS under the
MIT volume license agreement brokered with FileMaker Inc. will
automatically be sent the CD for 5.5. PLEASE ALLOW TWO WEEKS FOR
DELIVERY from the date of this announcement. (The media will be sent
to the departmental representative who obtained the software, not to
each end user running FileMaker, so check with your local support
provider first if you are expecting the new version.)
Anyone who has not already obtained a license/CD from IS, or anyone
who wants to add additional licenses/CDs at this time, can submit a
request via the form at http://web.mit.edu/is/products/vsls/mitfmpro/.
Where to Get Help with FileMaker 5.5
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Support for FileMaker 5.5 is available from the Computing Helpdesk.
email: pc-help@mit.edu (WINDOWS) or mac-help@mit.edu (MAC)
phone: x3-1102 (WINDOWS) or x3-1101 (MAC)
web: http://web.mit.edu/helpdesk/
Documentation for FileMaker at MIT starts at
http://web.mit.edu/is/help/filemaker/.
Enjoy the new version of FileMaker!
______________________________________
Kevin Cunningham
FileMaker at MIT Product Release Coordinator
N42-240F, x3-0177
filemaker-release@mit.edu
