Hi all,

We recently received a contract to create a new database system for a
client. they purchased the equipment and software themselves, which
included a new OS X server with FM Server 7. However, we have found
that FM Server 7 leaves much to be desired, and would like to switch
back to FM Server 5.5, which we have been using steadily and soundly
for years. The problem is, we didn't discover this until a great deal
of work was put into database development. We have four large
databases with literally thousands of fields, many involving complex,
interrlated formulas.

The good news is, everything that was done in the FM 7 databases was
done with tools that existed in FM 5.5. My question is, is there any
sort of utility out there that will allow us to automatically move the
database structures from FM 7 to FM 5.5? This would save us a
tremendous amount of time, as I am sure you can all imagine.

Thanks,

Matt

Matt <matt.singerman (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

Matt, you have to realize, if you think about it, such an inquiry isn't
going to find a positive answer. It's like asking "If I build a program
to run on Win XP, can I port it back to run on Win 3.1 too?" Or Mac OSX
to Mac System 7, not to be platform-centric.

Why don't you, instead, ask if there are fixes or upcoming version
upgrades that will address the shortcomings of Server 7 which seem to be
show-stoppers for you. I assure you that at this time, 18 months after
the introduction of 7, there are plenty of satisfactory installations of
Server 7 in production environments. Particularly on the Windows 2000
or 2003 Server platform, FM Server 7 is plenty stable.

FM 5.5 is obsolete technology. Everyone who currently has such a system
is or should be planning their upgrade strategies, even if their current
system is running optimally, and such a rebuild is years out. The
conversion from 5/6 -> 7 is hard enough, a backward conversion would
be...how to put this tactfully...a non-optimal use of resources.

Go with what you've got. Anticipate a new version being released "soon"
(that's 'soon' in software speak) that should address some of whatever
issues there are with FM 7. We hope. Fervently.

Lynn Allen
--
Allen & Allen Semiotics www.semiotics.com
FSA Associate Filemaker Design & Consulting

Hi Lynn,

The issue we have faced is a change in the deployment plan. The
databases are now to be web-enabled using Lasso; however, FMS 7 itself
is simply not capable of this. We would have to upgrade to FMSA 7 for
$1500 to get the same funcionality that comes with FMS 5.5, which is
money a small nonprofit simply does not have to spend. As such,
backporting is our only viable option, unless you know of a way to
enable the Web Companion option that was available in FMS 5.5 with FMS
7. Thanks for your help.

Rebuilding it will not cost $1500, no. The man-hours required to
reprogram it to work with FM 5.5 would not equal the cost of upgrading
to FMSA 7, Lasso 7, and the cost of the man-hours to get these running
properly, which is, unfortunately, considerable.

I am aware that FMS 5.5 requires a Web Companion-enabled client running
FileMaker Unlimited, which we have.

We have already discussed pricing with FM, and the prices we have been
quoted at the ones I have listed.

Thank you for your thoughts on non-profits and funding. I will pass
them along to my boss for his consideration.

In article <slrndg374k.idn.t-use (AT) ID-685 (DOT) user.individual.de>, t-
use (AT) gmx (DOT) net says...
By steeper learning curve he means you should have someone who's
prepared to call themselves a "computer programmer" around who
volunteers their time.

Given FMs pricing (special pricing for non-profits iirc), and Rapid
Application development capabilities, you'd be hard pressed to get
anything custom written for less. The initial 'capital cost' of FM pays
for itself pretty quick. Any remotely savvy user can set up an FM
report, generate an oddball found set and export it, tweak a layout,
etc. Unless your perl/php/sql-guru is working for free I'd expect it to
cost a lot more in the long run.

b4 you go to all this trouble, check out FMWeb School's FX Forge. It is
a series of Wizards to help you build web pages (active not static
pages) from a FMP database. As a member of FMPug (fmpug.com) I am in
the process of reviewing FX Forge but am not at a point where I can
speak to it specifically. BTW, the entire fmpug.com site is a FMP 7
database served with php.
http://www.fxforge.net/

perfectly true. However, comparable hosting prices seem to be much lower for
SQL than for FMP!?

Apart from that yo have to take what FMP offers. If this is good enough for
you, you're well off. But don't expect any further option: FMP then will be
most annoying to bypass its limitations.

In article <4302639C.E7A5E88 (AT) gmx (DOT) de>, csa (AT) gmx (DOT) de says...

True.

Largely due to the fact that when you pay for hosting you are covering
the licensing through your subscription. mysql runs on linux and neither
have licencing fees.

FM requires license, and it runs on Mac / Windows which also require
licenses.

If you're paying for hosting, then your capital costs are nil because
the host provides the licensing, and you just have to balance the
increased hosting costs against the liklihood of much greater
development costs.

If you're hosting your own server then you don't need hosting. In this
case, it looks like they've already purchased the requisite software, so
they've already made the initial cost outlay, and switching to mysql now
isn't going to get that back. :|


/agreed

There is no denying FM is more limited than many systems out there...
its also one of the fastest and easiest systems to build working
applications in because of it. As always you've got to use the right
tool for the job. If FM meets all the requirements its generally a good
tool. If FM doesn't meet the requirements - no amount of rapid
application development or ease of maintenance is going to do you much
good if the application can't do what its supposed to do.

If you are considering switching to a SQL backend, but want to keep at least
some of the RAD capabilities of FileMaker, consider Servoy: www.servoy.com.
Servoy uses a SQL backend (almost any of them) instead of having its own
native db. The cost is comparable, and in fact cheaper in many scenarios.
There's still a bit of a learning curve, but even the creating methods
(scripts) with JavaScript is similar to how you create calcs in FM; select a
function, add your parameters.

As an added plus, many of us who use Servoy either are or were also
FileMaker developers, so there are plenty of "interpreters". :-)

--

Chris Cain
Extensitech, Inc.
ccain (AT) extensitech (DOT) com


"42" <nospam (AT) nospam (DOT) com> wrote

In Filemaker 7 you can print all fields via File > Define > Database
select the 'Fields' tab
select all fields
Print
Print all pages as pdf
so every field with info is printed, after that you can select the text
and rebuild it in Filemaker 5.5......

On 2005-08-15 15:50:30 +0200, "Matt" <matt.singerman (AT) gmail (DOT) com> said: