Store job folders

[[email protected]]

Presently we run v9 server and clients in our office.  It has worked very well for many years.  If I can find the solution I would upgrade but I have not found a good reason, yet.

We design and sell pre engineered buildings.  When a building is designed is generates a folder for that job.  In that folder are program specific files and sometimes the folders are large in size.  It would be nice to drag and drop the folder (or anything else) into a field in filemaker and it would store it on C:/ and have filemaker reference it and be able to get it out through filemaker

It seems that all the solutions I have found so far have file type limitations?  Or it is clunky putting in the data or getting it out or only referencing it.

Would anyone know of a case study or if upgrading would easily solve the issue or a 3rd part solution or someone who has built this solution for a client in the past?

Thanks in advance, Larry

[Ocean West]

Welcome to the forums Larry,

Natively in FMP since version 12 they introduced the ability to store container contents (files pictures) externally on the operating system in a server controlled directory. It removes the burden on the database for size and backups because container data doesn't change as often as individual records. 

Supercontainer only stores a URL to a known path on the same server or a separate server you can see the content thru a companion plugin or even a web viewer. 

In the past I built a solution to manage loan documents I had a process that would store the pdfs in a location accessible to user using the database but also made a separate copy of the files on the company file server so that users could find documents thru the desktop in a very structured folder hierarchy  - school, campus, student, also with the method we stored records we had a very long file name using a UUID and be able to email students documents with just a URL so we didn't need to actually send PDFs which usually got bounced by mail servers or ended up in spam. 

I'd venture to say that any hardware / os upgrades in your future will render access to FM9 obsolete. Upgrading to latest version will give you many more options, with a plugin you could navigate your folder hierarchy and have links out to the file where they are stored. Perhaps with an operating system script to open directories. 

Hope this helps.

 

[[email protected]]

Can I buy a newer version without a subscription?  If so what version?  I understand it will be a lot of time and money to convert the databases and data I have been running for years.  But if it will work I think it will be worth it.  Would filemaker give me trouble if I bought used versions like I have done in the past? 

Really thank you for your help,

Thanks, Larry

[Ocean West]

Yes it's called Perpetual license if you wish to purchase and own the software you can even get maintenance if you purchase for multiple years means you get upgrades over the course of your maintenance, its a more expensive up front but after 5+ years its ends up being cheaper to pay maintenance vs leasing.  Below is the cost for 5 users. 

Perpetual	1 Year	2 Year	3 Year
Cost	$2,700	$3,185	$3,620

 

Annual	1 Year	2 Year	3 Year
Cost	$900	$1,710	$2,430