No, I’m not talking here about the new, threaded portal rendering (aka “inline portal progress bar”) that is a key public feature point for FileMaker 15 I’m talking raw performance optimization. And, as you’ll see, this one is a “big” small efficiency! Users of a database application often spend large chunks of their workday in the application, so, like that 5 minutes shaved off the bus ride, small efficiencies add up through the same compounding effect. Portals being a very important part of the FileMaker user interface, anything affecting their performance, good or bad, is going to have a major impact on the user’s experience. such is the case with the improvements in portal performance that accompany the FileMaker 15 release. In the most extreme cases, these go entirely undocumented by FileMaker Inc. What’s this have to do with FileMaker, you ask? Well, the new FileMaker 15 is now available, and the inevitable question comes up “should we upgrade?” Sometimes the best discoveries when a new version of FileMaker hits the shelves are the “sleeper” features and under-the-hood improvements.
There’s a compounding effect: it doesn’t take long before these small gains in efficiency add up to a huge economic impact overall. The individual rider might shrug at a mere 50 minutes saved per week, but the planners and economists multiply that 50 minutes by the number of people who ride that route during a typical week and see something much bigger. In the transit-planning universe, planners and economists often get excited about 5 minutes shaved off of a 30-minute bus ride.