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I wand to be able to view and edit data in a filemaker layout that comes from external FM databases AND remote MySQL databases. I do not want to import/export anything and I do not want to mess with ODBC drivers. I just want to be able to edit data locally and have the changes instantly occur to the remote DBs. Much the way Navicat works. Can FileMaker do this yet? The reason I want to do this is my MySQL db is for my web store and contains all data on my products, customers, orders, inventory, newsletter subscribers etc... and I would like to use that data in a layout that also uses local fm db data for some of my wholesale customers. I also want to make a Point Of Sale system using FileMaker for a retail location I am opening that is tied live to my web inventory so when retail walk in customer just bought the last 4 socks I have in stock that when I complete the local transaction that it reduces the inventory in my web MySQL db so web customers are not trying to by something that is out of stock. Has anybody used FileMaker to create a Point Of Sale system that is tied to a remote MySQL DB live?

Thanks for the urls. By downloading a table this makes a copy of the table that becomes a local copy. The remote table is still live and is receiving new data from the website. The remote table would then be out of sync with the downloaded table so when you edit the downloaded table and then upload the local table to the remote host it replaces the remove version destroying the new records created during the cycle. I asked if Filemaker functions this way to avoid destroying my data. You don't have to be so cold. You were new to this once too.

Sorry Bruce I am new to using ODBC drivers and am not familiar with how they function with filemaker. Importing sounded as though i had to do an external step. Is there a place on the web that details in laymans terms how an ODBC driver function together to access my remote DB. Is the driver just a gateway that allows filemaker to access the remote db directly or does the driver access the data and then filemaker accesses what the driver has downloaded? Either way Is the data downloaded, modified and then the remote table is dumped and replaced or is filemaker able to modify a single record without replacing the whole table? I am curious because if i am editing one of my customers data and the customers table has been downloaded by the driver or filemaker for me to modify and then a new customer is added through my website modifying the remote DB then when i save my local edit and it overwrites the remote DB that new customer's data would be destroyed. Am I just looking at the functionality the wrong way? Sorry if I seems such a newbie but I am used to accessing my remote DB info and modifying it with navicat which does not require the ODBC driver. It just connects directly to the DB as long as host, username, dbname and password are supplied.

Thanks for the links SlimJim. I also found the PDM Plug-in http://www.clickware.com/products_plugin.htm So I am reading up on both of these.

Did you ever get more detailed info regarding this? Is the mysql data saved locally and the the entire mysql table uploaded on save in FM thereby overwriting the live remote table? I sure hope not

Thank you for your reply. That's too bad. I was hoping I would not have to mess with exporting my remote db. It would be so nice to just open filemaker and not have to worry about an export of my remote data. Seems like this should be a "Feature" of filemaker by now with so many people managing mysql db data as well as filemaker db data. When you say "applescript or other utilities to import my data" are you referring to importing my mysql db data into Filemaker? If so what would you recommend? Is there a prewritten applescript that I can download that you know of? I purchased the ODBC driver last year from Actual Technologies for use with Excel so that's one thing down

I just purchased Filemaker Pro 7 yesterday and I am really impressed with the usability and power of the app! My question is when I was talking on the phone with the filemaker rep he said that I could connect Filemaker to my MySQL DB. In looking at the user guide it seems that all I can do is import a file to Filemaker. I want to access my live MySQL DB through Filemaker and be able to use the live data with local Filemaker DB data. Is this not possible? I run an online store and all my order info, customer info, product info, shipping info, wholesale info is in my MySQL db and it changes all day long. I want to be able to use Filemaker as my local front end to print out invoices, packing slips, letters to wholesale customers, labels for orders etc. Will i not be able to use Filemaker like this without constantly manually exporting a file from phpmyadmin and manually importing that into filemaker? Apps like navicat are able to access a remote MySQL db and manage the data so it seems that it should be easy to access a remote MySQL db through Filemaker and use the data with local data in a single layout.