max no of relationships before performance hit...

[Batfastad]

Has anyone reached a limit of relationships between files before they get a performance hit?

We have 15 users running all day, with about 25 files - off filemaker server.

Currently there are about 15 relationships.

Anyone found a limit where performance starts to go, or is there a formula to work out a reasonable maximum?

Just I've been thinking of expanding our database and the plans I have would involve creating a few relationships per additional file.

Any ideas?

[Ender]

You've got a long way to go. Calendar databases alone can have more than 35 relationships.

The downside of having a lot of relationships is having a lot of indexed key fields on the right side.

[Batfastad]

I thought FileMaker would be able to cope.

It's just our solution is so complex now that trying to add features is a bit of a minefield.

Thanks for giving me a bit of reassurance! These new features should actually reduce the number of relationships in the long run to be honest but best to be safe!

Thanks again

[Ender]

The minefield you should be wary of is the use of related fields in sorts and finds. These types of operations are big performance hits (especially in FM6 and lower), and they are deceptive: They work fine on your developer machine, but once you put the solution on the network and get data in it, it starts to really bog down.

This performance problem is especially bad when there are a lot of related records, or if there is more than one related field involved. Something as simple as sorting portals can give WAN users headaches.