Building a

custom app using

Claris FileMaker.
A step-by-step approach to successful planning,
development, and deployment.
 5 Section 1: Plan

6 4 steps for planning your app

10 Write user scenarios

13 What level of security is required?

15 Develop a prototype

Table of contents
17 Ready to build your custom app?

18 Section 2: Create

19 Organizing your data

23 Choose a way to start

24 Prebuilt apps

25 Import data

26 Start from scratch

35 Section 3: Deploy

36 Deployment strategy

37 What is hosted file?

38 FileMaker Server —
FileMaker Cloud comparison

39 Helpful resources

© Claris
 Congratulations on taking the
first step toward creating a What is a custom app?
custom app! A custom app is an app created using Claris FileMaker, designed to meet the unique
business needs of a specific team. Apps can be created from scratch based on a
simple idea, by modifying a built-in template, or by importing data from existing
spreadsheets. Businesses use multi-platform custom apps on computers, mobile
This is a three-part guide to start you on the path devices, and the web.
to building a custom app using Claris FileMaker.

What are some of the types of content that can be accessed through
a custom app?

Learn what custom

apps can do—and Customer data
Custom forms
discover and define and feedback
your own goals for a
custom app. 
Spreadsheets Reports

Media files Signatures

Documents

© Claris 3
 Three principles help you build a custom app.

Building a custom app entails

three stages of work:

These pages,
illustrated in three
sections, will lead
you through the
process of creating
a custom app that
transforms the way
you do business.

© Claris 4
 SECTION 1: Plan
A step-by-step approach to
identifying user requirements.

Planning is essential.

It's time to take a step back and evaluate the aspects that are unique to your business.
In section 1: Plan, we'll walk through some important guidelines that will help define
your custom app.

© Claris 5
4 steps for planning your app.

These four steps will help you successfully prepare for building
your custom app.

1 2 3 4
Write user scenarios Consider integration, Prototype and get Get support building
and define security, and feedback. a custom app.
requirements. deployment.

© Claris 6
Defining the goals of the app.

What are your goals?

What would your team like your custom app to do? Define your goals and assess the needs of
your organization, as well as the needs of those who will be using it.

Evaluate the needs of everyone who will use the custom app.

Your business goals. Your team’s goals. Your users’ goals.

What metrics or efficiencies What does your custom How do your users want
would help your business app need to accomplish to interact with the app?
reach its goals? for your team?

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 Focus on users: Ways to discover and define their needs.

Use different approaches to assess

user needs.

Watch and learn Focus groups and workshops

Spend time with your users and learn their Collect multiple viewpoints.
existing processes.

Conversations and interviews Questionnaires

Discover problems, pain points, and Ask specific questions across a group to
unmet needs. better understand users’ workflow and
motivations.

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 Write a goal statement.

Use the prompts below to write a

goal statement:

Design a [what type of app or feature?]

for [which type of team member?]
to [what should this part of the app achieve?],
so [what is the impact on the business?].

Examples of a goal statement:

Problem 1:   Problem 2:  
Customers are upset when installation Doctors are idle while waiting for patients
staff doesn’t arrive on time. to complete paperwork.

Goal statement Goal statement

Design a staff tracking system for main Design a check-in app for receptionists to
office agents to view the status of field sign in urgent care patients quickly so
employees in real-time so they can restaff doctors have less idle time and patients are
projects or inform customers in advance if seen more quickly.
their installation will be delayed.

© Claris 9
 Write user scenarios.

By asking a specific series

of questions, you can
create user scenarios that
summarize how different
people will use your app.

Who will use your app?

What will users need the app to do?

Where will they use the app?

When will they use the app?

Which devices will be used to access it?

How will the app need to interact with current systems?

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Who will use your app?

User scenarios tell stories Customer

contacts
about how users get tasks
done and how they use data.
Which of your goal statements apply to the user you are
Equipment Inventory
describing? User scenarios help create the requirements for your
types (assets)
app. Define a user scenario for each user role.

Example user scenario:

Jennifer is a manager at a mid-sized

equipment rental company.

Field Rental
She needs a system to track customers and the reports agreements
equipment they rent.

Currently, she collects names, websites, addresses,

rental agreements, and equipment types from various
sources.
Business
She uses the data she collects for customer follow-up projections
after equipment has been rented, and for inventory
planning, income projections, and invoicing.

She distributes reports to field employees for customer

follow-up every week. Field employees would like to
access this data using mobile devices.

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 What devices will be used to access the app?

How will your custom app be used?

Will it need to be available on multiple operating systems?
Here are some questions to consider:

David Johnson

What devices? Will mobile users need What type of data will Do mobile users require
Mac and Windows desktops both landscape and they need to collect full access to data?
for Field Team Manager and portrait layout options? besides text? Mobile users will need
Sales Team Reps, and iPad iPad will be used in both Field employees need to access to customer and
for Sales Team Reps and orientations by field and capture customer signatures rental data.
Field Team Reps. sales employees to look up and take photos.
customers.

© Claris 12
 What level of security is required?

Every custom app needs security. As you think about what type and level of
security your users need, here are some things to think about.

How will you secure sensitive information?

Will you display customers' personal Will the app contain credit card numbers
information? or other financial data?

Does your app contain trade secrets? Do you need to comply with other
regulations, like HIPAA?

How will you secure sensitive information?

Handle security authentication internally by creating user accounts and passwords
using Claris FileMaker software.

Alternatively, you could use external authentication using outside systems such as
Open Directory, Active Directory, or O Auth.

Automatic SSL certificate provisioning included.

Determine whether you need to encrypt your data, so you can choose
the proper settings when building the app using Claris FileMaker.

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 Plan ahead for a smooth rollout.

“Deployment” refers to the

way you make your custom
app available to users.
 
Deployment is an integral part of creating a custom app. Plan for it
early in the process.

Think about delivery and accessibility:

How will it be delivered to users?

How many people need access?

Will they access it remotely?

Do you need a systems administrator?

FileMaker Cloud and FileMaker Server allow

multiple, simultaneous users to securely
access your custom apps.

© Claris 14
 Develop a prototype.

Now that you have a clear vision of your users’ goals and
requirements, it’s time to design your custom app.

Start with a prototype or sketch.

By showing a prototype to your users,
you can test functionality and usability
early in the development process. This
ensures that users understand the
direction you are taking and agree that it
will meet their needs.

You can find many free iOS

wireframing templates online.

The goal of a prototype is to check the concept of your custom app with the team before you
invest too much time in development.

The prototype can be a “paper prototype,” in Users provide feedback about the “paper Expect to go through several revisions to your
which you provide a rough sketch of the prototype.” draft prototypes to ensure that you get enough
elements, provide a list or descriptions of the feedback from your users.
actions a user might take, and show how your
custom app will respond.

© Claris 15
 Test your prototype.
Design Validation Cycle

Validate your design

with the intended
users before
spending too much
time in development.
Refine Users
Test frequently with users. Good development prototype
is iterative. Keep revising and refining your
design, while getting feedback from users
about each revision.

Implement users’
Feedback

© Claris 16
 Ready to build your custom app?
What’s the best
model for you?
To choose the best
approach, first ask 1 Do it yourself
Start developing on your own,
yourself: supplementing your knowledge with
other resources, including:
Custom App Academy
How much time do you have to
Training tutorials
devote to the project?
Webinars and videos
Do you like learning new
technology? Online community
Do you have a budget for Third-party training classes
consulting help?

2 Hire a consultant
Third-party consultants offer a range
of services and can be brought in at
any time and at any stage of the
process.

3 Get a coach
Combine your resources and the
expertise of a consultant for a
blended approach.

© Claris 17
 SECTION 2: Create
Guidance for designing and
creating a custom app.

Start building your custom app using Claris FileMaker.

This section provides an overview of the steps for building a custom app using Claris FileMaker.
Learn the essential components of FileMaker and then begin to make your idea a reality.

© Claris 18
 Organizing your data.

Now that you've You’ll group your data based on what the data represents. These groups are
called entities. Entities describe generic groups or classes of things that are

covered all the steps for distinct from one another.

planning your custom Each entity is described by using attributes, which provide specific
information about an entity.
app, it's time to figure
out how to organize
Entities Customers Equipment
your data. This is called First Name Make
data modeling. Last Name Model

Website Serial Number

Attributes
Primary Phone Number Description

Company In-Service Date

Address Value

© Claris 19
Relationships

Relationships connect data stored in different

tables, so that when you are looking at a
record in one table, you can have access to
relevant data in another table.
They are connected by data that matches in both tables
(usually a unique identifier, or unique ID). These matching
fields are also called keys.

Here are some examples of relationships:

Vehicle Oil changes Patient Visits

Company Address

A company can have multiple addresses, A vehicle can have multiple oil changes over A patient can have multiple doctor visits,
connected by a unique company ID. time, connected by a unique car ID. connected by a unique patient ID.

© Claris 20
 Layouts

Layouts are the foundation of the user interface, allowing the user to
view and interact with the data.

Form View and List View provide you with a lot of flexibility on Table View displays data similarly to a spreadsheet, but limits
what the layout can look like. These are the two most common the amount of formatting you can do the layout.
views used for your users to interact with the data in your app.
 

Form view List view Table view

John Smith
John Smith First Name Last Name

Sammie Junior
John Smith
Sammie Junior
Mary Jones Sammie Junior
Mary Jones
Mary Jones

Robert Jenkins
Robert Jenkins

Sarah Smith Sarah Smith

© Claris 21
Reports

Dashboard Report
Gain valuable
insights into
your data by
visually
representing it
in dashboard
and reports.

Dashboards use the charting tool and Reports display data in categories,
global fields to summarize the data. Use summary fields and present data
At different levels of a hierarchy.

© Claris 22
 Choose a way to start .

There are three ways to get started:

Prebuilt apps: Import your data: Start from scratch:

FileMaker comes with Importing is as easy as Create a database from
prebuilt apps that you can dragging and dropping. the ground up, starting
customize. with no data or layouts

© Claris 23
 Prebuilt apps.

Use a starter app or

sample app available
from the File menu.
Projects Estimates

Event Management Resource Scheduling

Contacts Meetings

Assets Expense Reports

Content Management Product Catalog

Invoices Personnel Records

Inventory Time Billings

Tasks Research Notes

© Claris 24
 Import data.

When you import data, you are

bringing data from another
source (usually a file) into a
FileMaker file. You can import
data from:

A Microsoft Excel file.

CSV, Merge, and other

supported file types.

An external source like

ODBC or MySQL.

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 Business automation.

When building your custom app, it’s likely FileMaker provides an intuitive scripting language to help with this. This
language is easy to read and write, while also providing considerable power
that you’ll need to automate some aspect of
and allowing you to model complex scenarios.
your workflow.
In addition to the scripting language, FileMaker includes calculation formulas,
functions, and other useful tools for streamlining processes.

© Claris 26
 Scripting

Scripting allows you to automate

processes, from simple navigation
tasks to complex reporting and
workflows.

Automation is accomplished by creating and

using scripts. A script consists of a series of
instructions. Scripts can be invoked by
performing an action in the app. For example:

Selecting an item on a menu

Clicking a button on a layout

Entering a layout

Navigating between records

Opening a file

© Claris 27
 Calculations

A calculation
uses a formula to
generate a result.
Sometimes the result is displayed on
the screen, like formulas are displayed
in a spreadsheet. Other times, the
result is used by a script to make
decisions about what the script does
next. The use of calculations in
FileMaker software is similar to the
use of formulas in spreadsheets.
 
Calculations can be used to populate
fields, provide tooltip messages, set
up dynamic emails, and much more.

© Claris 28
Calculations: Business Intelligence

Jennifer wants to know the total cost of

equipment. She is also interested in metrics
like the asset category, the asset purchase
date, the rental agreement starting date,
and the individual asset cost for inventory
planning purposes. Developing a custom
app using FileMaker can help Jennifer
make better business decisions by
monitoring these specific metrics.
 

FileMaker can present this

information in the form of
reports or charts for easy
visualization as shown in the
next few pages.

© Claris 29
 Data visualization.

FileMaker software can generate hierarchical reports that

summarize groups of records.

The assets on the report have been grouped into appliances, The same asset data can also be presented as a pie
cameras, computers, office furniture and telephone records for chart for easy visualization.
easy viewing of costs.

FileMaker Report

© Claris 30
 Role-based security:
Role
Who will use the app?

Executive Data-entry employee Field employee

Identity Layout

Authentication verifies the identity of the user. The

user creates an account which includes a username
and password, so that only defined users can access Executive report
the app.

Access Control
Data-entry form

FileMaker allows you to set access for each user by

creating privilege sets and associating them with
specific user accounts. Privilege sets control what a
user can do. For example, they determine what data Field rep dashboard
the user can view, create, edit, and delete. It also
provides controls over layouts, scripts, and other
settings. The executive has access to all three layouts, the data-
entry employee has access to only one layout, and the
field employee has access to two layouts.

© Claris 31
 Role-based security:
Privilege sets

Every new FileMaker app you create has

three pre-defined privilege sets:

1 Full Access
The user has complete access to the file.

2 Data Entry Only

The user can view, create, edit and delete
records; and import and export data.

3 Read Only
The user can view records and export data.
To better meet your business needs, you can
define additional, custom privilege sets for
fine-grained control over what a user can do.

© Claris 32
 Managing accounts locally or externally.

FileMaker provides two

types of accounts, local
and external, allowing
you to manage them
within each individual
FileMaker file or
externally from a
directory service.
Local accounts are defined within the FileMaker file
itself. You can have as many as you want, and you can
use scripts to create and modify them automatically.
 
With external accounts, accounts are created in an
external system, such as Active Directory, Open
Directory, or O Auth so that authentication can be
managed by an IT administrator.

© Claris 33
Test your app. Circle back and test your
design with users

After building your app, test

your design with the
intended users.

Testing is an iterative process and

a critical step in building your app.
The results of testing will
determine whether you need to
repeat another cycle of the design Test your app Users
process before moving on to the
‘Deploy’ step.

Implement users’
feedback

© Claris 34
 SECTION 3: Deploy
Best practices for sharing your
custom app with your users.

Deploy your custom app on premise or in the cloud.

Use this section to help decide which products you’ll need to successfully
deploy your custom app with your team.

© Claris 35
 Deployment strategy.

The term “deployment”

refers to the various
technologies,
infrastructure, and
techniques developers
use to make apps
available to users.
It also refers to the standard practices and procedures
by which a hosted (shared) FileMaker app is
maintained and kept running, including a backup
strategy for disaster recovery purposes.
 
Developing your deployment strategy is an integral
part of designing an app and should be done early in
the design process.

© Claris 36
 What is hosted file?

Hosted files allow many people to see

and share the same data. When a file is
hosted on FileMaker Cloud or FileMaker FileMaker FileMaker
Cloud Server
Server, you can securely share
information among FileMaker users.

With a hosted file you can:

Monitor and administer custom apps.

Automate backups for disaster recovery.

Secure your data via SSL encryption.

Provide robust scalability and network

resilience.

Deploy interactive apps to the desktop, iOS,

and the web.

View system and custom app performance

with an Admin Console. FileMaker FileMaker FileMaker
Go Pro Advanced WebDirect
Troubleshoot using log files to review
statistics.

Integrate with popular web services using

REST APIs.

© Claris 37
 FileMaker Server — FileMaker Cloud comparison.

With the Claris FileMaker platform, you can host your custom apps on a dedicated in-house server machine using FileMaker Server. Or
you can host your custom apps in the cloud using FileMaker Cloud. Let's look at a comparison between the two hosting options.

Category FileMaker Server FileMaker Cloud

Hosting You host your custom apps on premise. Claris hosts your custom apps in the cloud leveraging AWS Cloud.

Requires time to set up hardware, install operating system, and install and configure
Deployment No server software or hardware needed. Deploy custom apps in just a few minutes.
FileMaker Server software.

One subscription fee of $39 USD per month (billed annually) includes software and
Requires either an annual or perpetual FileMaker software license. Purchase in local service costs and one year of 24/7 support in English with a dedicated customer success
Licensing
currency. agent. Sold directly through Claris, so there is one consolidated bill and one point of
contact for sales and one for support. Purchase in local currency.

Hardware costs Need to invest in server-class hardware and budget for upgrades and maintenance. No up-front hardware costs. Leverages enterprise-class hardware from AWS.

IT impact Requires someone to perform administrative tasks. Minimal impact to existing technical staff.

Manage all team accounts, groups, and subscriptions in one location with FileMaker
Centralized management None
Customer Console.

Operational and minor software updates are applied automatically with auto-
Maintenance Monitoring and OS updates must be scheduled.
maintenance.

Need to create and manage backup schedules. Any backup can be used to recover Data is backed up automatically every 20 minutes. Greater flexibility in restoring
Backups
data. backups.

Tested to support up to: 500 FileMaker Pro Advanced, FileMaker Go, or FileMaker Tested to support up to: 250 FileMaker Pro Advanced clients.
Capacities
WebDirect clients. 100 FileMaker Go, FileMaker WebDirect, or FileMaker Data API clients.

Can quickly scale up for fast-paced growth. Can scale down at time of subscription
Scalability May need to buy additional hardware and spend time with setup and configuration.
renewal.

Supports AES 256-bit encryption for stored data and SSL encryption for data in Supports AES 256-bit encryption, SSL/ TLS encryption, automatic file encryption, and
Security
transit. support for optional multi-factor authentication.

Supports external authentication via Active Directory, Open Directory, and OAuth 2.0
identity providers.
Authentication Use FileMaker ID, a new single-on system, to authenticate users. Supports optional
multi-factor authentication

© Claris 38
 Helpful resources

FileMaker Cloud Getting Started Guide

https://fmhelp.filemaker.com/cloud2/18/en/getting-started/index.html

FileMaker Server Installation and Configuration Guide

https://fmhelp.filemaker.com/docs/18/en/fmsinstall/

© 2020 Claris International Inc. All rights reserved. FileMaker, FileMaker Cloud, FileMaker Go, and the file folder logo are registered
trademarks of Claris International Inc., formerly FileMaker, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. Claris, the Claris logo, and FileMaker
WebDirect are trademarks of Claris International Inc., formerly FileMaker, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.

© Claris 39