We are looking for a product to use to create royalty-free, runtime CD-based apps that do not require the user to install support files (plugins, DLL's, etc). We have a web-version using SQL and ASP that works great but need to port to a CD. Client does not permit installation by end-uers of any files.

Can FilemakerPro Developer do this for us?

Thanks in advance for sharing! [email protected]

You can create an FM solution that will run from a CD (with no royalty). The difference between Filemaker and Filemaker Developer is that the latter will bind a runtime engine to your solution. You will wind up with approximately 15 DLLs, an EXE and however many files your solution will occupy.

Further to Steve's remarks, it is true that a CD which carries a FileMaker runtime can be self-contained, requiring no installed components (other than a compatible operating system) on the user's computer.

The chief limitation of this approach is that the applications will be constrained to a read-only, so preferences selections and any other user related or user-generated data will always be lost when the application closes (unless a file can be created/updated on a local writable drive of course).

On the other hand, the facility exists with the Developer edition, to create a seamlessly cross-platform application where the content is shared (eg on an ISO9660 format CD) between platforms, and only the ancillary files and executables are 'duplicated' (ie separate versions provided for each platform).