Develop on PC, run on Mac?

[Rick Osgood]

We are planning to develop a specialized/expanded version of Biz Tracker for our business. It will run on our all-Mac network. However, our programmer wants to develop on his Windows PC.

How would be transfer his work, and ours, back & forth during development?

This is not clearly addressed in the FM Docs or Help files, although much is made of the "cross-platform" capabilities.

Information on this would be greatly appreciated!

[CoZiMan]

Only issues are plug-ins, fonts, and apple-scriptability. Not much, eh? Sheesh.

Do yourself a favor, find someone to develop on a MAC, there are plenty out there.

Or surprise your developer and "loan" him a mac.

He'll find the differences pleasing unless he's a pc-centric bigot. "Flexibility, Grasshopper."

I develop for the PC all the time and have to keep it down to 'Plain Vanilla" development. Really stifles the flexibility when you start to reach the limits of FMP. Especially critical since the OS version requirements came in with version 7. I have to flip between 5.5 Dev and 7 Dev. to fit the customer OS needs.

HTH

[Reed]

The main things to look out for are font and object size issues. Many people like to use Arial as a good cross-platform choice... Sometimes objects don't line up exactly right.

As far as plugins, most of them are cross-platform.... and CoziMan is right about Applescript, but I'm guessing if your developer is a windows guy, he won't know anything about applescript anyway.

It's not that there's any less flexibility on the PC side, but it's just easier to develop on the platform that you're developing for... Or at least have both machines handy for quick tests.

I develop on a mac for our all-PC network, and there are just some things I have to do on a PC. (Like using winbatch, autoit, vbscript and other windows only things.)

One thing I've had pretty good luck with as far as cross-platform extensibility is Perl. You can call Perl programs with parameters from filemaker data, and import the results back into filemaker. (Maybe not as seamless as a plugin, but easier to develop... and free)

[Rick Osgood]

What I'm really looking for is just the bare-bones mechanics of how to move the file from one to the other.. can he just email the FM7 file and I open it on a Mac?

And then how do I get back to him in a style that his PC will read, after I finish with my own changes? It is pretty rare for an app to just directly open in both operating systems, so I wondered if perhaps there was some conversion process required to port the files back & forth. Also, I see that nearly all FM files are posted in both PC and Mac formats.

[LiveOak]

The file format for FileMaker is identical on the Mac and PC. You can copy the file back and forth as needed with no type of conversion necessary. If you host the files you are developing on FM Server, both platforms can access and edit the files. It would also make checking cross platform appearance as you go along easier.

-bd

[321]

Rick,

I have a Mac at Home and a PC at work, of which I develop for the same file in both. I use an exteral USB 100mb zip drive, and just bring the drive to work or home with me. The zip is PC formatted, but it shows up no problem when I plug it into my Mac. Like others have said, make sure to check the work often on the platform you will be using in the end. I am only using one plugin that is multiplatform, and will be going online with PC's (applescript not an issue), so the main thing for me is to keep the fonts and layout appearing correctly. To do this, I create the layouts or do the final editing in the platform I will using to put the DB online (PC for mine).

Good Luck,

Eric

[Rick Osgood]

Thanks to all above for the information & advice!

We do plan to keep everything pretty much "plain vanilla", so that the system will be relatively easy to maintain and modify in future years. We'll keep the use of external plugins to a minimum, for the same reason.

[Siri]

Hey Rick, Seeing as you have a dev working on your POS now, do you think that you could share it with the rest of us peeps that are trying to develop a customized version. Ha! Just kidding.

I understood where you were coming from with your wishes for a free more fully realized POS but obviously you don't want to give away the work you are paying for as all labour requires some payment. The 'some' is the 'operative' word as most systems cost in the thousands (the one I'm trying to replace was over $5000) which seems like quite a lot for something as you said before is very similar for every small business out there.

Siri.

[flapjacks]

I know you can mix platforms on a network with FMP should pose no problems other than stated.

John