Converting backwards from FM7

[Stick]

I have developed a solution in FM7 to use with IWP. However I did not realise that the server 7 had only just been released and hosting companies say in general it is going to be the middle of August until they are fully up and running with this!

I need this working for July 12th - therefore is there a way of converting back from FM7 to FM6?

Emma

[Neverland]

Emma -

The short answer is "no." Unlike a word processor there is no save as to another version per se...

...but you can export your data out and import it into a FMP6 file. Other things (layouts, scripts, etc.) you will have to build from scratch but if you have FMP7 to work from hopefully the time it takes to recreate in FMP6 will be shorter.

And also keep in mind that the IWP capabilities of FMP7 are light years ahead of FMP6 so there may be some extra work involved in FMP6 to get it to work like FMP7.

Good luck!

SR

[Stick]

Thanks, that's what I was afraid of!

What are the main differences between fm6 and 7 for IWP?

[Reed]

There are huge differences if you are using scriptmaker buttons on your IWP layouts. You can only execute simple scripts with the old IWP (like three steps) and only a few steps are supported. If you really want to use IWP, I wouldn't mess around with FM6. But if you don't know custom web publishing, I don't know if you can learn it and implement a site in 2 weeks.

How many users will need access to your site? Could you just get a hosting service to let you put FM7 (not server) on a box with a static IP, and then get your site rolling from there. 5 concurrent users can connect to your site that way. Then when server advanced comes out and there are people who offer hosting, you can move your site there with no changes and increase your capacity to 100 concurrent users.

I'm currently working on a combined workstation kiosk/IWP scheduling solution to replace my FM6 workstation/canned perl cgi scheduler

I plan to implement a test in July of the web scheduling portion using plain fm7. I have about 100 trained users of my equipment, and maybe 20 people schedule instrument use each day, so 5 concurrent sessions may be enough. Since I doubt I'll ever have more than 5 instruments on which to place kiosks (the instruments are at least $200,000 each) I shouldn't need more than 5 networked kiosks.

If I can come up with a reliable automated (applescript) backup solution without using FMS, I could get by without dropping $2500 for server advanced.

[Stick]

For information, I contacted rapidhost.co.uk and they said they could host the database in the way that Reed has said.

They were very very helpful!