Reactor 2.0 brings "radical user interface" to FM

Digital Fusion says its Reactor 2.0 "radical user interface plugin" brings a host of new tools to FileMaker Pro. The plug-in comes with ready-made "black-box" controls allowing users to quickly create calendars, Gantt charts or live-filtering. The company says Reactor allows developers to access FileMaker's advanced interface features without HTML or JavaScript expertise.

Among the new features is something called the "Native Button," which allows users to easily create OS-native buttons with disable and hide by calculation. The company says the feature is quicker and easier than using conditional formatting techniques to create dynamically-controlled buttons. Reactor also features controls to create dynamically-controlled popup menus and draggable sliders with scroll-wheel support.

The "LiveFIelds" feature creates fields that automatically update as a user types. LiveFields can be used to create live-filtered FileMaker portals or to perform validation in real-time -- as a user types. Other new features include a Gantt chart control and ImageFlow -- a visual record browser that resembles Cover Flow. Imageflow includes click-wheel support to browse through images.

The most popular new feature, the company says, is a new Day Calendar Creator. With drag-and-drop support, users can quickly create appointment and booking calendars.

Reactor 2.0 is a Universal Binary requiring Mac OS X 10.4 or later with FileMaker Pro 8.5-9.0. Fusion sells a Reactor development license for $250 or a single "seat" license for $95.