How to consolidate files into tables

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Boulder, Colorado - March 18, 2004 - New Millennium Communications announces FMrobot, a tool which automates the process of creating tables and fields in FileMaker 7 databases. The initial release is a commercial beta version for Windows only. The full commercial version is expected by the end of March. A Macintosh version is also planned.

FMrobot can be downloaded for evaluation and can be purchased at

http://www.newmillennium.com.

With FMrobot, you can consolidate tables from one FileMaker file to another, as well as effectively duplicate tables within a FileMaker 7 file. You can also build a "library" of "template tables" which you can transfer into any new solution.

The data source for the field names and definitions is the Database Design Report produced by either FileMaker Developer 6 or FileMaker Developer 7. An imminent free upgrade of FMrobot will also support field definitions defined in records in a FileMaker database.

Fields may be brought over selectively. Field names and field types will always be created correctly, as will any aspects of the field definitions (calculations, auto-enter values, validations, etc.) which do not have other dependencies. For calculations, if the necessary dependencies (other fields, etc.) are not all in place, the calculation will be "commented out" (now possible in FileMaker 7!). Furthermore, if any error of this sort

occurred, a comment is placed in the field comment field (new in FileMaker 7!). Later, when the dependencies have been added, you can simply uncomment the calculation.

The next version of FMrobot (which will be a free upgrade to initial purchasers) will include a FileMaker Pro database as a front end to the tool. If you extract your field definitions by using Design Functions, MetadataMagic, or the FMD 6 or FMD 7 Database Design Report, you will be able to import them into the database and modify the field names and definitions in a helpful interface. You will be able to use 'replace by

calculation' and other time-saving features of FileMaker Pro, and then find, sort, and/or selectively mark the fields which you want to bring over to your new table.

New Millennium Communications is proud to be collaborating on FMrobot with Connecting Data. The principal designer of FMrobot is the incomparable Wim DeCorte.

We expect to be providing frequent incremental upgrades to FMrobot in the next couple of months, at no additional charge to existing owners. A revision history will be included with the product and available on our web site.

FMrobot is $199.95 for a single-user license, and $99.95 for each additional user in an organization.

FMrobot can be downloaded and purchased at http://www.newmillennium.com.

For questions: mailto:[email protected].