As FileMaker 2025 rolls out, Claris keeps highlighting one key theme: improving developer quality of life. But what exactly does that mean? With any release, there’s always a question of where to spend the development budget. Often, the shiny new technology gets the bulk of the attention (hello, AI) while the smaller improvements that directly impact developers get shifted to the back burner. With FileMaker 2025, Claris did both!
This release includes both large and small enhancements that make developers’ lives measurably easier – and that translates directly to efficiency gains for your business. Key UI improvements include Collapsing Script Steps, Folders for Custom Functions, Enhanced Table View, and an improved Replace Field Contents. It’s also been reported that many dialog boxes throughout the tool now remember their resized dimensions between sessions.
On top of that, Claris has added new functions and script steps that will meaningfully change how most developers approach common tasks. Some were originally built for the new AI capabilities but are available for standard FileMaker development as well. These include: GetTextFromPDF, GetRecordIDsFromFoundSet, JSONParse, and Go To List of Records.
There were also over a hundred small tweaks and fixes – the full FileMaker 2025 release notes are worth a read. Below, we do a deep dive on a few of the standout new features.
GetRecordIDsFromFoundSet and Go To List of Records
These two new additions work well as a pair. GetRecordIDsFromFoundSet is a function that retrieves all of the internal RecordIDs for a given found set. As a reminder: every time a record is created, FileMaker assigns in internal RecordID. This is not displayed anywhere by default, but can be revealed with the Get(RecordID) function. Importantly, the number displayed in the Status Toolbar is not the RecordID – it is the RecordNumber, which simply represents the record’s position within the current found set.
The type parameter accepts a number from 0 to 4, each controlling the format of the returned RecordIDs:
- 0 – Value Array
- 1 – JSON String Array
- 2 – JSON Number Array
- 3 – Value Array with Ranges
- 4 – JSON Range String Array
The screenshots below illustrate each output type using a found set of 10 records.
This function is really only useful for its connection with the new script step: Go To List of Records.
Go To List of Records
This is where the real magic happens. Once you’ve captured a list of RecordIDs, you can feed that list to the Go To List of Records script step and have it displayed that set in a new window with a different layout – skipping several steps that were previously unavoidable.
In the past, replicating a found set meant either capturing the find criteria and re-running the find in the new context, or creating a dedicated relationship and using the Go To Related Record script step. Preserving a found set was enough of a chore that opening a new window just to keep it intact was a common workaround.
Now you can simply capture the IDs and pass them to this script step. If you’ve ever used Snapshot links, the behavior is essentially the same, including returning to the same found set and sort order.
Some practical use cases:
- Manually select five records, grab their IDs, and open a new window showing only that found set
- Pass a list of IDs to a Perform Script on Server (PSoS) script so it immediately knows which records to act on
- Save regularly used found sets using GetRecordIDsFromFoundSet and return to them easily
- Eliminate relationships that exist solely for scripting purposes – simplifying the relationship graph for better long-term performance and maintainability
A few important distinctions to keep in mind:
- The RecordID is not your primary key
- The RecordID is not the RecordNumber
- This script step will only work if the target layout has the correct table context. Any Table Occurence will work, as long as it points to the same table the RecordID list was build from – otherwise you may get a found set, but it will be the wrong one
GetTextFromPDF
Fairly self-explanatory: GetTextFromPDF lets FileMaker extract text from a PDF directly into a variable or field. The Mac platform had a similar function called GetLiveText, but this new function is cross-platform – available on both Mac and Windows.
On its own, that’s already useful. But the real potential comes from pairing it with FileMaker’s new AI tools: extract the text from a PDF, submit it to an LLM along with a list of target fields, ask if to return a JSON object mapping the jata to those fields, then parse the result and use Set Field to populate your table. The result: automated data entry from any text-based PDF.
Original PDF:
And this is what FileMaker returned:
Collapse Script Parts
This one might be the author’s personal favorite – and it’s easy to see why. Not the flashiest feature, but likely one of the most used. When you hover just to the right of the script step numbers over a loop, conditional statement, or transaction block, FileMaker now shows a green arrow at the start of that part and a dotted line extending to where it ends. That alone is useful for navigating long or deeply nested scripts. Click it, and the entire section collapses — making it much easier to focus on a specific part of a complex script.
What’s Next
Those are the highlights we wanted to call out. FileMaker 2025 has a lot more to explore, and we encourage you to dive in deeper – these tools will save you time and save your clients money.
If you’re ready to upgrade to FileMaker 2025, or want to know how our FileMaker development team can help you get the most out of these new features, get in touch – we’d love to help.
