Wim Decorte

That is correct: the virtual table needs to have sufficient records already created. You could loop and create records yourself but that would make it not multi-user safe. So pre-populate the table with enough records for what you will expect to find in $$VarContent

There is only one way to create the DDR: through the menu. What specifically are you looking for?

Dunno if it is a bug or not but if you look at the help for the "insert from URL" script step, you'll see a list of supported protocols. and FTPS is there but not SFTP (unless I really missed it).

The answer to the original question is that FM expects the format of the protocol part of the URL to be "ftps", not "sftp".... weird but true

Nice article, good to see the good use of External Authentication as well.

The command is the same on macOS as Windows since it uses the fmsadmin CLI as explained in the document above. You can also use the Admin API to make the change (and create your own GUI around it) fmsadmin set serverconfig backupinterval=x where x is a number between 1 and 99, the default interval is 5 (minutes).

I'm afraid you're speaking in riddles; why would you use applescript? What is described in the FM helps works without it. And works the same in FM as in Windows.

https://fmhelp.filemaker.com/help/18/fmp/en/#page/FMP_Help%2Ftextencode.html As @comment indicates, we've had these functions since FM16. Not a workaround, pure native functions. If you were expecting to apply the encoding and line-endings as options on the export field contents dialog itself, then no. That's not how it works.

That server is very marginal for specs, especially if you'll want to use webdirect. While the 2 cores are the absolute minimum requirement, your RAM is half of the minimum requirement. I would suggest bumping up to 4 cores and at least 16GB. Not saying that this will automatically fix things, but I've seen weird things happen when the machine is underpowered. Any clues in the FMS logs folder, especially the wpe logs and the event log?

Hard do say from the little we know. What's your current config? OS, disk size and specs, RAM,... Fresh install on a new OS or an upgrade? Triple-check that there is at least one file with an active account that has the webdirect extended privilege turned on? And only test with supported OSes and browsers. WebDirect is picky in that sense.

Yes, FM can handle it. For best results you'll want to use the "remote container" functionality which makes it efficient on hard-drive space usage and the related speed of backups. Your server will need the required amount of hard disk space (internal) for the projected size of your solution plus your desired backup strategy. Don't count on being able to store the 'live' pictures on a network share. Performance: what you describe wouldn't push FM's envelope but we don't have enough information to say yay or nay. Performance is a result of the design/architecture of the solution, the load that will be put on the solution and the hardware you'll use for the deployment. Many factors involved here; so the more info you can give the better we can help you. Migration: you can certain import all the regular data from CSV. As to the pictures: depends on how they are represented in that CSV. If it is in the form of a link where the images can be downloaded from then it should work, albeit it will require some post-processing of the imported CSV data to go and grab the images. Perhaps TapForms has an API as well that you can use to request the data.

Windows Server 2019 is NOT supported and there are issues mainly with web publishing. So revert back to Windows Server 2016.

Lots can happen to the files while they are being used, so I would argue that one can never have enough backups. Yes, you can can connect to FMS from the same machine FMS is on, but it is not ideal. But then P2P isn't either and if I had to choose between the two I would pick FMS every single time. Especially since it is already covered by the basic licensing. If this was my client though I would pick a small-factor machine to act as a server, or perhaps a dedicated laptop and lug that around.

A basic user license covers both the clients and 3 servers, so it should be fairly trivial to set up FMS on one of their laptops and continue to pretty much work like they do. Setting up FMS is not daunting, a simple written procedure will get them through it. And they will get all the benefit of live backups etc. 18 has been out for about 5 months now... P2P is still there. Where did you read that it will be discontinued shortly?