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| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Predecessor | FileMaker Inc. |
| Founded | 1987; 38 years ago (1987) |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | |
Key people |
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| Products | Claris Emailer,ClarisWorks,Claris CAD, ClarisDraw,Claris Resolve,Claris Impact,FileMaker (Pro, Go, Server, Cloud),Claris Home Page,MacWrite,MacPaint,MacDraw,MacProject |
Number of employees | 300 |
| Parent | Apple Inc. |
| Website | claris |
Claris International Inc., formerlyFileMaker Inc., is a computersoftware development company formed as a subsidiary company ofApple Computer (now Apple Inc.) in 1987. It was given thesource code andcopyrights to several programs that were owned by Apple, notablyMacWrite andMacPaint, in order to separate Apple's application software activities from itshardware andoperating systems activities.
In 1998, the company divested itself of all but its flagship product, and reformed as FileMaker Inc. In 2019, FileMaker Inc. announced at DevCon that it was restoring the Claris brand name. Also in 2019, Claris acquired Italian startup, Stamplay, acloud-based integration platform which connects web services like Dropbox and Slack without writing code,[1] and announced they would rename their product offering as Claris Connect.[2]
The company develops, supports and markets therelational database programFileMaker. The FileMaker Platform is available for themacOS,Microsoft Windows andiOS operating systems and is aimed towards business users and power users.
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In the early days of theMac, Apple shipped the machines with two basic programs, MacWrite and Mac Paint, so that users would have a working machine "out of the box". However, this resulted in complaints from third-party developers, who felt that these programs were good enough for so many users that there was little reason to buy something better.[4]
Apple decided to allow the programs to "wither" so that the third-party developers would have time to write suitable replacements. The developers did not seem to hold up their end of the bargain, and it was some time before truly capable replacements likeWriteNow came along. In the meantime users complained about the lack ofupgrades, while the third-partydevelopers continued to complain about thepossibility of upgrades.[citation needed]
Eventually Apple decided the only solution was to spin off the products to a third party of its own creation, forming Claris in 1987. Claris was also given the rights to several lesser-known Apple products such asMacProject,MacDraw, and the hitApple II productAppleWorks. Claris' second corporate headquarters (nicknamed "The Wedge") was inSanta Clara, about six miles from the main Apple campus.[citation needed]
At first Claris provided only trivial upgrades, limited to making the products continue to run on newer versions of theMacintosh operating system. In 1988, Claris purchasedFileMaker from Nashoba Systems and quickly released a rebranded version called FileMaker II, to conform to its naming scheme for other products, such as MacWrite II. The product, however, changed little from the last Nashoba version. Several minor versions followed; it was succeeded by FileMaker Pro 1.0 in 1990. In the meantime, development began on major overhauls of their entire product line, including FileMaker. Each of these would be eventually released as part of the Pro series of products.[citation needed]
In 1990, Apple decided that Claris should remain a wholly ownedsubsidiary, as opposed to being completely spun off in aninitial public offering. The company president soon left, and over the next year most of the other executives followed.[citation needed]
That same year Claris also purchased an integrated application written by two former Claris employees. After rebranding in a style similar to FileMaker, MacDraw, and MacWrite, it was released in 1991 asClarisWorks, and became another huge success for the company. After a lengthy series of ups and downs, this product was eventually taken back by Apple in 1998 and rebranded asAppleWorks (for Macintosh).[citation needed]
In September 1992, Claris released a cross-platform version of FileMaker for both the Mac and Windows; except for a few platform-specific functions, the program's features and user interface were the same. Up to this point FileMaker had no real relational capabilities; it was limited to automatically looking up and importing values from other files. It only had the ability to save a state—a filter and a sort, and a layout for the data. Version 3.0, released around 1995, introduced new relational and scripting features.[5]
By the mid-1990s it appeared to most observers that Apple was in serious danger of disappearing. The main ClarisWorks development team left Claris, disillusioned with the product and the market, and foundedGobe Software, which produced a Claris-like office suite forBeOS.[citation needed]
Facing declining sales, Claris management decided that FileMaker was the only product worth keeping, and put all of the rest of the products on indefinite hold. By 1998 the transition was complete and the company renamed itself as FileMaker Inc. Claris's only other major product, ClarisWorks, was taken back by Apple to becomeAppleWorks. The company kept FileMaker and Claris HomePage 3.0. The latter was discontinued in 2001 leaving FileMaker as its lone offering until January 8, 2008, when the company releasedBento, a template-based database application with a leaning toward information from other applications. Bento was discontinued on September 30, 2013.[citation needed]
During DevCon 2019, the developers' conference, FileMaker announced it was resurrecting the Claris name and re-branding commenced. FileMaker Inc. changed its name to Claris International.[6] The FileMaker product name remains as Claris FileMaker.[citation needed]
FileMaker is a cross-platformrelational database application. It integrates adatabase engine with a graphical user interface (GUI) and security features, allowing users to modify the database by dragging new elements into layouts, screens, or forms. It started as an MS-DOS app called Nutshell, developed by Nashoba Systems.[citation needed]
In the late 1980s, Claris began a major upgrade effort, rewriting all of its products to use a more modern and common user interface. The result was the "Pro" series: MacDraw Pro, MacWrite Pro, and FileMaker Pro. In order to provide a completeoffice suite they later purchased the rights to theInformix Wingzspreadsheet on the Mac, rebranding it asClaris Resolve,[7] and added the newpresentation programClaris Impact.[citation needed]
The series was released piecemeal over a period of about two years, during which periodMicrosoft was able to dominate the market withMicrosoft Word andMicrosoft Excel. While the Claris packages were arguably much more "approachable" than the Microsoft applications, the Claris software applications lacked some features of the now-mature Microsoft suite, leaving them lacking in "checkbox features." Their value was further eroded by aggressive bundling deals from Microsoft that could allow Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to be purchased for a cost not much higher than MacWrite alone—a bundle that Claris did not match. Claris did offer ClarisWorks, an all-in-one package; and, while the price was right, ClarisWorks was very limited and could not compete in the business market. Microsoft also released aWorks package.[citation needed]
Microsoft's domination of the Macintoshoffice suite software marketplace would be replicated five years later when (following the release ofWindows 95),Microsoft Office crushed its two main rivals in Windows software: theWordPerfect/Quattro Pro suite and theLotus SmartSuite.[citation needed]
By the late 1980s,HyperCard needed updating as well but Apple management did not see any value in the product and let it wither. Complaints eventually became loud enough that they decidedsomething had to be done. Studying the problem, they decided that all software should be released through Claris, and sent HyperCard and the Mac OS[citation needed] to them. Many of the developers refused to move to Claris, leading to a serious split in development that delayed future releases of both products. The Mac OS was soon returned to Apple; HyperCard was ignored for a time, before also returning briefly as a part of theQuickTime group.[citation needed]
In 1988, Claris publishedClaris CAD, a 2-D CAD package, and Claris Graphics Translator, a translation package for Claris CAD.[citation needed]
In early 1989, Claris published Smart Form Designer,[8] software to design forms, and a companion product, Smart Form Assistant, software to fill forms created by Smart Form Designer.[citation needed]
In 1994, Claris publishedAmazing Animation, software aimed at children and young teenagers, allowing them to produce their own short animated films.[citation needed]
In 1995, Claris purchased and releasedClaris Home Page, which enjoyed popularity as one of the few trulyGUI-basedWYSIWYGHTML editors of the time.[citation needed]
Other products added to the line includedClaris Emailer; Claris Office Mail, which facilitated setup by non-specialists[9] andClaris Organizer. These products were part of a new effort to diversify Claris and no longer chase the "office" market which, by this point, was considered a lost cause.[citation needed]
TheBento database product aimed at home users or small businesses was released in 2008 and discontinued in 2013.[citation needed]
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