# Claris Developer Tools Now Free and Available to Everyone
**URL:** https://the.fmsoup.org/t/claris-developer-tools-now-free-and-available-to-everyone/2888
**Category:** Resources
**Tags:** developer, advanced-tools
**Created:** [May 3, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://the.fmsoup.org/t/claris-developer-tools-now-free-and-available-to-everyone/2888 "2022-05-03T20:38:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Malcolm](https://the.fmsoup.org/u/Malcolm)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://the.fmsoup.org/t/claris-developer-tools-now-free-and-available-to-everyone/2888/1 "2022-05-03T20:38:00Z")
Claris has just announced that it is making its developer tools available to everyone and they are free. You can find the announcement on the [Claris community web site](https://community.claris.com/en/s/question/0D53w00005jgPs4CAE/claris-developer-tools-now-available-to-everyone?s1oid=00Di0000000eyqY&OpenCommentForEdit=1&s1nid=0DB0H000000fxYs&emkind=chatterPostNotification&s1uid=0050H00000CUvSq&emtm=1651596027683&fromEmail=1&s1ext=0)
The three tools now available are
1. [iOS App SDK](https://community.claris.com/en/s/article/iOS-App-SDK)
2. [Data Migration Tool](https://community.claris.com/en/s/article/FileMaker-data-migration-tool)
3. [Custom App Upgrade Tool](https://community.claris.com/en/s/article/app-upgrade-tool)
The Data Migration and Custom App Upgrade are powerful tools that make upgrading safer, easier, faster, and more reliable.
The iOS App SDK is a developer tool that enables you to convert a FileMaker database into an iOS app! Claris is not recommending this as a pathway to delivering apps to the App Store. (Then what is it for? I suppose it is provided as a tool for enterprise deployments.)
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### Author:  [@samfmp](https://the.fmsoup.org/u/samfmp)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 3:32am UTC](https://the.fmsoup.org/t/claris-developer-tools-now-free-and-available-to-everyone/2888/2 "2022-05-04T03:32:10Z")
Thanks, is there any video introducing the custom upgrade tool? I have watched 1of them from ISO FileMaker Magazine. It seems I need some knowledge of XML and use text editor to find out the change part.
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### Author:  [@Malcolm](https://the.fmsoup.org/u/Malcolm)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 4:17am UTC](https://the.fmsoup.org/t/claris-developer-tools-now-free-and-available-to-everyone/2888/3 "2022-05-04T04:17:25Z")
The custom upgrade tool has some technical hurdles and a major gotcha.
You have to be able to generate diffs from the XML output by the Save Copy as XML command. Generating the XML and performing a diff to generate a patch file is fairly easy. You can find youtube tutorials that walk through the process of diffing and patching.
Most importantly, _the upgrade can only be performed on a file that has GUIDs present_. In other words, you must have planned for a custom upgrade in advance. This requirement is going to trip up most people.
### How do you know if a file has GUIDs?
Did you run the upgrade tool with the `‑‑generateGUIDs` subcommand on the original version (v1) of your app before you distributed the file? If you have not done that, then your file is will not have the GUIDs present.
If you think that you will benefit from the custom upgrade tool then you need to plan ahead.
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### Author:  [@MonkeybreadSoftware](https://the.fmsoup.org/u/MonkeybreadSoftware)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 5:17am UTC](https://the.fmsoup.org/t/claris-developer-tools-now-free-and-available-to-everyone/2888/4 "2022-05-04T05:17:45Z")
See also more details in the context podcast:
> **[The Context Podcast | The Evolving Claris Platform (with Peter Nelson and...](https://www.thecontextpodcast.com/80)**
>
> In this episode, Martha Zink, Ernest Koe, and Todd Geist are joined by Peter Nelson and Andrew LeCates from Claris to discuss not only the exciting forthcoming changes to the Claris platform that were unveiled in that webinar, but also the intention...
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### Author:  [@JamesG](https://the.fmsoup.org/u/JamesG)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 2:53pm UTC](https://the.fmsoup.org/t/claris-developer-tools-now-free-and-available-to-everyone/2888/5 "2022-05-04T14:53:30Z")
Does this effectively mean the annual developer subscription will now be waived? Seems pointless paying for it now that all of the benefits are free to all!
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### Author:  [@MonkeybreadSoftware](https://the.fmsoup.org/u/MonkeybreadSoftware)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 3:19pm UTC](https://the.fmsoup.org/t/claris-developer-tools-now-free-and-available-to-everyone/2888/6 "2022-05-04T15:19:13Z")
FDS still includes a FileMaker Pro + Server license.
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### Author:  [@planteg](https://the.fmsoup.org/u/planteg)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 3:47pm UTC](https://the.fmsoup.org/t/claris-developer-tools-now-free-and-available-to-everyone/2888/7 "2022-05-04T15:47:59Z")
I think we will get updated later on this. As @MonkeybreadSoftware specified, FDS is FileMaker Pro + Server license. This is different. FDS was supposed to be cancelled some time ago and replaced, but we never heard of the replacement. I hope they make their mind this year, for sure a lot is going on at Claris.