FM6 to FM7 via ODBC

[DanBrill]

I'm going to be in a situation where the shop's main database is in FM6 and probably will be for the next year. We are about to put up a web page with some database features, and we'd like to drive the web database with FM7 Server or Server Advanced (once it is released) with the thought that the whole shop will be running on FM7 in 12 to 18 months.

There is some data that needs to come out of the FM6 system and into the FM7 system for web publication. I'm just messing around in the expirimental stage now using FM 6 Dev and FM 7 Dev. I'm trying to get data into an FM7 table from an FM6 file via an ODBC link. However, the ODBC driver is ungodly, terribly, awfully slow. Running a test it took about 2 minutes to import 55 first and last names! So...

1) Is this speed typical?

2) If not, what should I do to fix it?

3) If it is typical, what's a better way to get the data out of 6 and into 7 on an ongoing basis? One thought is to export it from 6 to xml and then import the xml into 7.

Thanks for any thoughts,

Dan

[Bob Minteer]

Dan,

Is the data which is coming from FM6 going to be "on demand" from the web page (serving realtime data) or will it be used to create static pages periodically by the webmaster ?

I think XML would be a good solution -vs- ODBC. I have, in the past, attempted some import gymnastics using PERL, and Filemaker via ODBC. It wasn't pretty (except pretty slow).

How are you planning to trigger import/export ? Which system is the initiator ?

If the FM7 side is in charge, I'd guess that you could just build the import (via XML) URL (pointed at the FM6 w/ Web Companion) with all the appropriate query parameters and retrieve/import the requested data. Error handling aside, it should be a pretty straightforward operation.

Those are my ideas...

regards...

Bob Minteer

[Computer Geek]

Dan -- I used the ODBC to create tables and fields in FM7. Slow wasn't the word for it .......