FileMaker 7 Released

MDLarson

MDLarson

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Hey... I don't know if there are many FileMaker folks around here, but I sure am. I'm pretty excited for this release, as it fixes a lot of my frustrations about the product. It's on Apple's homepage and...

http://www.filemaker.com/
http://www.fmforums.com/
http://www.macnn.com/

For those who don't know what FileMaker is, it's a relational database app that's really easy to use / develop on. It directly competes with Microsoft Access, and of course it's cross-platform. Apple owns FileMaker Inc.
 
Well, in my office we are using FileMaker 5.5 server version. Unfortunately, it's on a Winblows 2000 Server box. What I find interesting is that it has to run as an application instead of running as a process. I hope that's not the case with the newer versions. We might be looking into a newer version, but I would have to ask my boss...
 
We are running FileMaker Server 5 on Windows NT as a service (same as process, right?) I'm surprised that your Windows 2000 runs it that way; Mac OS 9 runs it as an application too.

And I'm sure that Mac OS X can run it as a background task as well. Sorry, I'm not sure about the terminology on some of this stuff. :)
 
Why do they still refuse to take advantage of MacOS X's superior web server capabilities? Is it really so hard to build a slick link between FM and Apache with PHP and/or Perl classes to get the data the way web developers would like it? The built in web server is crap and I don't want to have to turn to 3rd party solutions when the best implementation is so obvious :rolleyes:

Having said that, I haven't tested it yet, just looked at the features, so I can't give any further comment.
 
Question: I'm supposed to be working with someone who uses Microsoft Works. There's no Mac version (I think I'm happy about that, it seems to be a rather nasty product from what I've seen, at least compared to Apple's stuff :D). Anyways, when you said FileMaker competes with Access, I wonder is there a way to get him to use that instead of Access? If it means he has to do a lot of work to change, then he'll probably prefer to continue using Access by himself without my help.
I guess my real question is how can I work with someone on a PC who uses MS Access if I want to stay on the Mac. Is there any way?
 
MDLarson said:
We are running FileMaker Server 5 on Windows NT as a service (same as process, right?) I'm surprised that your Windows 2000 runs it that way; Mac OS 9 runs it as an application too.

And I'm sure that Mac OS X can run it as a background task as well. Sorry, I'm not sure about the terminology on some of this stuff. :)
Click to expand...

Actually, I realized that it was only the pro version, so that's probably why. It allows for multiuser access, but the app has to be launched for it to work instead of being a service. I just noticed on the FileMaker site that the Server version runs as a service :p
 
dlloyd said:
I guess my real question is how can I work with someone on a PC who uses MS Access if I want to stay on the Mac. Is there any way?
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Well, there's always Virtual PC! There is no Mac version of Access.

nixgeek, that makes sense; I didn't think that you might be running Pro instead of Server. You might want to consider getting FM Server if you have a lot of clients.
 
Yeah I know there is no version of Access for the Mac, and I thought of VPC too. I was just wondering, is there a way something similar to Works could be set up using Filemaker? For both platforms?
 
'Works' includes MS Word, too, I believe, so I'm not sure what you mean. But there's no easy way to port Access databases to FileMaker. Not that I know of at least...
 
Dang, I already knew that ;)
I guess I'm not making myself very clear, let me try one more thing :)

Is it possible to replace the Access DB with FileMaker in any way?
 
M$ is creating a version of Access for the Mac...not that it's a good thing, but it's comming.

Have him buy a copy of FileMaker...doubt he'll want to spend the money required though.
 
dlloyd said:
Dang, I already knew that ;)
I guess I'm not making myself very clear, let me try one more thing :)

Is it possible to replace the Access DB with FileMaker in any way?
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Pretty sure the answer is "no", unless recreating a similar FileMaker solutoin from scratch counts. As far as capability goes, FileMaker will meet or exceed Access easily (I'm going off of others' words, as I've never used Access).
 
Do they have Microsoft Works or Microsoft Access? Works is a very different product (and does NOT include Word, it has its own seperate word processor/spreadsheet/etc modules)

Filemaker Pro 7 has the ability to import Access data, not sure about Works data...

And with FMProMigrator (http://www.fmpromigrator.com/), you can export Filemaker DB to Access MDBs (or whatever).

It'd be better if you were both running the same software, though, and from what I'm told FMPro *is* a better product... So if he's thinking about buying a new DB product, that'd be the one to get.
 
Ripcord said:
It'd be better if you were both running the same software, though, and from what I'm told FMPro *is* a better product... So if he's thinking about buying a new DB product, that'd be the one to get.
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Yes, I understand Access' main advantage was its use of tables as opposed to FileMaker 6's and earlier 1 table / file structure.

FileMaker files could each contain only one "list" / "table" per file, which meant that for a contact database, you could have 3 related databases for a Companies / Contacts / Phone Numbers structure. Now, with version 7, you can have "millions" of tables and nested tables within one file.

So, no more real advantage to going with Access anymore.
 
I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want to switch, and *I'm* pretty sure I don't want to go to the PC in order to use Works *shudder*, so I guess he'll just have to get along without help :)
 
dlloyd said:
Where do you have that info from? :)
Click to expand...

Was looking at FSU's computer store when I saw it, I think they might have let a cat out of the bag. When I questioned someone they were very sure about it being available later this year as they stated, "Microsoft Access for Mac (available in June)".

Did find a mention of it on two of their IS department pages:
http://www.lis.fsu.edu/Prospects/ssd33_hardware_software.cfm#Mac
http://www.lis.fsu.edu/orientation_part1/technicalinfo.html#Mac

Have to find link in the auctual store...thought I saved it. When I get home (out of town right now) I'll look on my other computer.
 
Dunno, but I won't be getting it. Access is a major pain to me, and I'll stay as far away as possible. If Filemaker isn't capable, then there's always MySQL, Sybase, Oracle, etc. Anything but Access!
 
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