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If you have a business that communicates with the world around you (and which business doesn’t?), the use of mobile and web applications is becoming increasingly vital as a data transfer tool.
Informing clients about shipments, receiving reservations from visitors, collecting data to enhance your CRM, sending out automated emails or SMS—whatever process you can think of, it likely involves a database and some form of communication.
In your case, that database might actually be FileMaker. Claris FileMaker is one of the earliest and most mature low-code/no-code platforms—or to use a modern term: vibe-code. It has always been at the forefront of user-friendly database development.
But nowadays, setting up a database is not enough. We recognize that interacting with your data is just as important as storing it.
How to interact with your FileMaker data(base) through the web
If your FileMaker solution is hosted on a FileMaker Server (and connected to the web), there are several ways to allow external parties to read, write, or engage with your data. We group these into three categories:
1. Native Web Interfaces (Claris standard building tools)
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WebDirect - The simplest way to publish FileMaker layouts to the browser. No coding required. It’s quick to set up but better suited to internal use cases. Performance and mobile support can be limiting in more demanding scenarios.
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Claris Studio - A newer addition in the Claris ecosystem. Studio enables web-based form entry, dashboards, and some level of cloud data handling. It’s still evolving but gives a glimpse into Claris’ cloud-first future.
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2. Integration Protocols (Connectors on which to build your own frontend)
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FileMaker Data API - RESTful, secure, and scalable. Ideal for building modern web apps or mobile interfaces using tools like Vue, React, or Flutter. Also great for integrating with external platforms.
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OData - A standard protocol designed for analytics and business intelligence tools. Best suited for dashboards, charts, and data extraction via Power BI, Tableau, or Excel.
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ODBC/JDBC - SQL-based connections for reporting and integrations with legacy enterprise systems. Powerful but limited to structured, tabular queries.
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Custom Web Publishing (CWP) - The original web integration method via PHP/XML. Still supported and powerful, but considered legacy. Requires more setup and technical knowledge.
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3. A smarter approach: FM BetterForms
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- While the above options serve different purposes, they often require trade-offs in speed, design flexibility, or scalability. That’s where FM BetterForms comes in. FM BetterForms is a web application framework specifically built for FileMaker. It lets you create fully customised, responsive web and mobile apps that connect directly to your FileMaker server via the Data API—without the need for middleware, sync engines, or external databases. FMBetterForms offers:
- Modern Vue.js-based interface
- Secure, scalable, mobile-ready
- Rich UI components and two-way data binding
- Works natively with FileMaker scripts, layouts, and logic
- Ideal for client portals, scheduling, onboarding, data capture, and more
- While the above options serve different purposes, they often require trade-offs in speed, design flexibility, or scalability. That’s where FM BetterForms comes in. FM BetterForms is a web application framework specifically built for FileMaker. It lets you create fully customised, responsive web and mobile apps that connect directly to your FileMaker server via the Data API—without the need for middleware, sync engines, or external databases. FMBetterForms offers:
We build anything with FM BetterForms
Below you will find a couple examples of fully browser based WebApps build on and connected with a 100% FileMaker backend (database).
ResourcePlanner
GoogleMaps Integration
SaaS Application
Calendar Planning
