Develop on FM6, Serve via FM Server to FM5 AND 6?

[Paul F.]

I'm a school "tech guy", and we have a school wide database..

Most of our "client" machines (all Macs) are running FM5.0.

I'm beginning to upgrade some machines to OS X, and want to use the OS X native FM 6.

However, we can't afford to move to FM6 for ALL machines at once.

Here's my question;

Can I develop (that is, change layouts, fields etc) a database on FM 6, to be served by our Filemaker Server to CLIENTS running Filemaker 5 AND Filemaker 6?

I would not be utilizing any features that 6 has over 5 (that I am aware of) until we've COMPLETELY moved to FM6 in a year (maybe two... depends on budget...).

For reference, I'm talking about a K-8 school, with about 30 client machines and a database of 15 files with around 450 students (with about that many records)...

I'd sure appreciate it if someone knows this one! I've been through the Tech archives at Filemaker and either the question isn't addressed, or I'm "Search Incompetant"...

Thanks!

Paul F.

[_ian]

You will be fine as long as you don't use any FileMaker 6 specific script steps or functions. The actual file formats are the same so mixing FM 5 and 6 clients is ok.

Ian

[BruceJ]

Ditto on above. I've done this as well. Just to be safe I'd do my developing on FMPro 5.

[Paul F.]

Thanks folks!

That's going to make moving my site to OS X (requiring FM6) a LOT more endurable and cheaper!

Paul F.