Converting fp7 files to fp5 - any hope?

[JariV]

Hi,

I've created a solution with FMProDev7, it has 6 tables and 100-150 fields in each.

Now there emerged a need to provide the solution for users running Win98 in their computers, which means that the solution would have to be made with Dev6.

Is there any even remotely practical way to convert a fp7 file to fp5?

The prospect of redoing the whole thing does not sound too inspiring...

Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Jari V

[Fitch]

To at least get started, you could export each table as merge, open it in Excel and save it. The, when you drag the file onto FileMaker, it asks if you want to use the first row as field names. So at least you won't have to create all the fields from scratch, or worry that you missed one. But you'll still have to change their type.

[JariV]

Thanks a lot,

That will help quite a bit.

Any ideas how to convert calculation fields? - that part seems pretty tricky...

Jari V

[Fenton]

Copy into a (good) text editor. Replace the new function names with the old names, when there is an equivalent ( Get(...) -> Status(...) ), ";" to "," (US), etc.. One good thing is that you can have both FileMaker apps with their calculation dialogs open at the same time; though that makes me nervous so I close the one I'm copying from. Have backups; not a good time to crash.

[JariV]

Thanks again.

Using a text editor here in between calc dialogs really makes many things easier.

Jari V

[Fitch]

You could also print the fields and scripts to a PDF, and use that as your copy source. That way you won't have to keep opening and closing each field/script one by one.