LiveCode for FM Native – Update with Demo Video

LiveCode for FM Native

FileMaker, for those who didn’t know, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple.  Although FileMaker does work with Windows and Linux (FileMaker Cloud), Apple doesn’t do Android and neither does FileMaker.  Which is a shame, considering the size of the non-iOS market, and the fact that Apple continues to lose ground to Android:

• In the US, Apple’s iOS share dipped 4 percentage points year-over-year (YoY) to 40%. Meanwhile, Android gained 4 percentage points YoY to reach a 60% market share.
• iOS also lost market share in Europe’s four largest markets. iOS market share fell 4 percentage points YoY in Great Britain and 2 percentage points YoY in France. Apple’s OS share declined less than one percentage point in both Italy’s and Spain’s smartphone markets.
• iOS market share in Japan fell 5.5 percentage points YoY. Meanwhile, Android gained 6.1 percentage points to achieve a 48.4% share, up from a 42.3% share in November 2016.
• In China, iOS market share edged up 5 percentage points YoY, while Android’s market share fell by the same amount. This brought total iOS market share in the region to 24.3%, up from 19.7% in the year-ago period. This is a turnaround for Apple, which previously faced declining iPhone shipments in China.

These stats are provided courtesy of Business Insider.  And as you can see, Apple (and FileMaker, as a result) are losing ground.

LiveCode for FM Native

There is a plan, however, for making FileMaker work on Android:  LiveCode For FM Native.  LiveCode for FM is the brainchild of Kevin Miller, the founder of LiveCode.  LiveCode is a rapid development tool for creating native applications for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, Server and the Web–all from the same code.

Miller sought investors last year in order to develop LiveCode for FM, and the final product is getting close:

We’re very excited to bring you an update on the progress we’ve made towards LiveCode for FM Native. We have an initial version of the tool which, although not quite ready yet, is getting very close to something we’re ready to release.

This video shows a slightly tweaked real-world solution developed by MaJic Solutions Ltd. being run through the tool.

As you can see from watching the video, the process is almost entirely automated. User interaction is only required to drag-drop in the solution file, choose the layouts to convert, choose the initial layout for the native app to display, and set the deployment options.

Watch this video and you’ll see just how far the product has come in a very short while:

I watched the earlier videos last year, the ones where each layout had to be converted at one time.  Very laborious.    What I see in this video shows lots of promise:  The process is pretty much automatic.

And it communicates with FileMaker Server.

Here’s hoping progress continues at this rapid pace.  I am sure developers (and clients) out there are ready to tap into the rest of the potential market not using iOS.  I am.

Source: LCFM Native Progress Update with Demo – LiveCode for FM

“If the plan doesn’t work, change the plan, but never the goal. ” 

– Unknown