is alpha five better than filemaker? for a very large governmental business such as a city police department which one is better alpha five or filemak

[alimrb]

is alpha five better than filemaker? for a very large governmental business such as a city police department which one is better alpha five or filemaker?

[mr_vodka]

I cant speak for Alpha 5 but I know there are members of these forums that have made law enforcement solutions using FileMaker.

[Lee Smith]

Why don't you ask this question on an Alpha 5 list?

[flapjacks]

Cause there ain't none.

John

[Lee Smith]

No kidding, that was my point.

Lee

[flapjacks]

Ya think! Hey I sent you an e-mail.

John

[gaby78]

Me too, I am interested in getting some feedback on this. The same question was asked on Alpha Five forum and responses were what one would expect. They claim that it is more feature rich, which I think is the case. But it also must have its share of bugs and negatives; that's what I want to know.

If someone has used both products, his/her opinion would be highly appreciated.

thanks

[geod]

Hi a few points, I am not a an Alpha5 expert, and I am a FileMaker developer about 10 years now.

1) A5 feature set is much larger that FM. There is lot of stuff in A5 I would love to see implemented into FM with FM style. Specific examples are not at the forefront of my brain so I will leave that as a general statement.

2) A5 does have a lot Genies that write code for you and does have a lot of what you would call End User features.

3) But I find it more programer (ie. code writing ) based than FM, the language being XBasic in A5, and it actually is the same language that alot of the program and interface of A5 is built on. So you can imagine the power available. It is an english language type syntax and does not have a huge barrier to learning but it is still programing.

4) The A5 default database type is dBase, but there is connectivity to other types and A5 is rapidly approaching the release of their Client/Server model which will support a lot backend DB's. They also have a Web Enabled version.

5) To me I find FM a more integrated environment in this manner, when you change a field name or script name, etc. in FM and choose save, all refernces in your file are updated. And if you have the Advanced vers. you can change file names and have all internal references updated. Not so in A5. You have to find and update everything manually. Some 3rd parties have written Utilites to do this, but FM is much more forgiving, so in this respect A5 requires much more advanced and precise planning for professional projects.

6) Overall you would probably spend less money on an A5 solution, I have seen some analysis that suggest this and concur, considering the price increase on the FM Server and Server Advanced on the previous two releases. The A5 runtime is less that FM Advanced and is networkable.

7) I first became aquainted with Alpha Software when I used their DOS Database Alpha4 to completely automate from payroll to point-of-sale, a small bookstore. That was years ago but I loved that program. When their first Windows version came out, to me it was pretty clunky, but I tried it anyway and could not connect with it. I upgraded a couple times and then 2 years ago after a long hiatus I got the recent vers. but still personally could not develop the same afinity for it that I had for the DOS vers. And about 10 years ago I had an opportunity to get some work with FileMaker, so I began to learn it and continue to do so to this day.

8) FM does have some powerful features you will not find in A5 but again I do not have a list compiled or framed right now. As all of us FM users know FM's ease of use is addictive and do not forget that FM is cross platform. Being able to run on a Mac has a lot of appeal to me. A5 is windows only. Plus vers. 7 and 8 have changed the playing field for FM and holds a lot of promise I just hope FM holds down their prices. FM is very easy to use but has a lot of hidden power and I have seen some very sophisticated solutions built with FM. For the projects I am doing now I prefer FM. But under certain situations and requirements one might choose A5. It is a very able program and certainly a whole lot easier to use than M$ Access. Hope this helped and if you have any questions I will try to answer but if you have specific queries about A5 I suggest you go to www.alphasoftware.com and click the link to their forum, they are a company that is very responsive to their userbase.

laterz.

ps. Just wanted to add that A5 has competent layout mode editing, but I fine the results of FM much more esthetically appealing for forms.. As far as reporting goes A5 is orders of magnitude ahead of FM. It is a fact that you can do very sophisticated reporting is A5.

Edited January 20, 2006 by Guest

[BruceJ]

Two weeks ago our accounts payable guy at work told me about Alpha5 after I had sent him an invoice for my Developer version of FMP8.

I downloaded a version of Alpha 5 for free trial and started playing with it. My FileMaker thgouht processes were a hinderence so I couldn't get my brain around it completly.

I was having flashbacks of trying to workin in MS Abcess after learning FMP3.

I read all the reviews that said that Alpha5 could do anything FMPro could, but was cheaper, more networkable without as many limitations and used a standard database format for data storage.

Talk about customer support.. the Alpah5 people keep calling me to make sure I was satisified and offering me all sorts of web conferences for training. I've never had FileMaker Inc. call me to offer free stuff - I take that back - they sent me a free Palm pilot along time ago when Mobile first came out.

I think Alpha5 can get the job done, but so does FMPro. It all depends on which one you cut your teeth on. Me, I'm an FMPro fan.

Edited January 20, 2006 by Guest

[gaby78]

Thanks geod and thanks BruceJ.

That thouroughly answered my questions. For what I am using it for I think I'll stick with FM.