We went to the Claris conference & liked what we heard

Claris Engage, formerly FileMaker DevCon, is a gathering of hundreds of FileMaker developers who use Claris FileMaker tools alongside experts and execs from the Claris organisation. 2024’s event was the first face-to-face occasion since before the pandemic, and took place in the impressive surroundings of the Apple Campus in Austin, Texas. The location is a powerful reminder that Claris is backed by one of the world’s most innovative and successful businesses.

Face to face with Claris leadership

We enjoyed three days of in-depth technical sessions, including a deep dive into Claris Connect and Claris Studio. We rubbed shoulders with developers from all over the world, 650 in total, and received briefings from Claris FileMaker experts. 

As Claris Platinum Partners, we also had exclusive access to the top of the Claris hierarchy. Alongside other platinum businesses, we talked face-to-face with members of the senior management team. They wanted to hear our views on recent changes and we wanted to hear their roadmap going forward. 

And yes, they’re listening. They realise that the now-defunct concept of a ‘Claris Platform’ being introduced in parallel with Claris FileMaker was confusing. And they are very clear on the road ahead. The core product is Claris FileMaker and will remain so. The focus is on continuous improvements to FileMaker and getting Claris Studio and Claris Connect fully ready for commercial use.

What do Claris Connect and Claris Studio do, again?

Let’s recap on Connect and Studio and how they slot into the FileMaker world. Claris FileMaker itself is the perfect platform for building the internal workhorse of business – that’s your business management system. But if you want to integrate it with other software systems, or give users outside the business access via a web portal, you need experts to craft a bespoke solution for you. (These are two important aspects of our work.)

However, Claris Connect and Claris Studio are going to provide rapid new solutions in these areas. Neither of them is fully ready yet, but we can see that they are coming on in leaps and bounds. We can expect them to be fully functional within the coming year. Studio will make it easier to deploy simple web portals quickly, and Connect will do the same for integrating other software systems with FileMaker. For bigger, more complex applications, bespoke web portals and bespoke API integrations will still be needed, but for quick, limited tasks these will be two big steps forward.

A down-to-earth update

So after three days’ intense immersion in Claris (and Apple) world, we touched back down beneath the grey British skies – but with a spring in our step. What we had heard during our time at the Apple Campus was both reassuring and eminently sensible.