I am redesigning a v6 system in v7. One of the nice things about v7 is how much easier they made it to separate the front-end from the back-end. So this is what I want to do.

The reason I need to do this system this way is that we are unable to make changes to the live system as it is a validated, FDA compliant system. Whenever we do a change to the system we have to go through change control. The code changes have to be made on a backup of the files, then, when the changes are tested and approved, we have to migrate the production data into the new files then prove that all the data migrated correctly. It is a royal pain in the you know what.

So I said all that to say this...I really need to move everything out of the back-end as much as possible, so that when we go through change control, all I have to do is replace the front end file with the changes. So, I would like to set up the relationships in the front-end file. Will this work?

Search the forums for +separation +model, or check the FM7 Migration Foundations and Methodologies white paper on the filemaker website.

Separating the interface from the data has become much easier in FM7. Haven't done much with it myself yet, but it certainly has a following.