An approach to uploading large fmp files to server

[lance667]

I have a situation in which our filemaker files are hosted on a remote server. We maintain our own set of databases on our local machines, but need periodically to upload the updated databases to the remote server.

The problem: The databases are about 500 mg, takes forever to send over (we are using Timbuktu). We would like to be able to make a smaller copy of our local database, containing only a subset of records. In this manner, we can upload a much smaller file to the remote server. The problem is, when we make a small subset and do "copy as" in fmp, the file only reduces in size a little bit. It is as though it is still copying most or all of the original database.

How can I make a small subset of records to upload to the server?

[danjacoby]

Two ideas:

Save a clone of the original DB, then making a copy of the clone and import the records you want to send to the server.

or...

Export the data as tab-separated text, then import it into the server DB.

[lance667]

Thank you ! That worked great

[lance667]

Actually, I spoke to soon.... The resulting cloned file, after importing my search results is almost as large as the original. The original databse has 1701 records in it, and I have imported only 382 records into the clone. It could be that Im not setting up the import settings properly.

Any suggestions?

Thanks so much

[Kurt Knippel]

Most likely situation is that the database itself is large, but that the records themselves are small. So even an empty copy is pretty big, while a full copy is not much bigger.

Do you have alot of layouts or graphics in the database?

[danjacoby]

How large is the clone before importing the records? It's also possible that the DB structure is large.

If so, check my second idea above; moving just the data may be the answer.

[lance667]

The DB clone file without importing any records is 294 kb, after importing the records it mushrooms to a whopping 450 MG, only 20 GM smaller than its original. We are going to try to create a new database that only contains one layout with a few fields that are needed for the customized webpage. We will then try importing to that to see if the size remains small.