Hosting on Mac for Windows users...

[agraham999]

Is there anything that might be a negative by hosting a database solution with FM Server Advanced (7) on a Mac (OS X Panther) to Windows users that would cause trouble or be a problem? I have a client that uses all Win machines...but I'd like to be able to program some Applescript features and for that I need a Mac to serve the database.

Thanks!

[Reed]

I've been hosting on a Mac using FMS 5.5 and 10.2.8 with great success for a while now. All the client machines are on Windows.

I'm migrating to 7 but I haven't bought server advanced yet. I'm still testing with a plain copy of filemaker 7 hosting on a Mac. All but one of the 5 clients are windows. No problems...

[agraham999]

Thanks...I didn't think it would be a problem...but wasnt' sure.

[Tony O]

.but I'd like to be able to program some Applescript features and for that I need a Mac to serve the database.

If you're doing backend stuff in applescript directly on the Mac server, you're all good (like automated backups, opening / closing files to update calculations, etc).

But you're using Applescript in any scripting steps, be aware that they will not work for the Windows users who are connecting to the host. Script steps operate locally on the user machine and should be platform specific. Choice of database host (Mac, Win or Red Hat) makes no difference. This is not a ding against hosting on the Mac, just a caveat for your design.

Workaround; use an if statement in the script to identify the user platform, then direct to either an applescript (for macs) or a DDE executable (Win). This is common enough practice that you should be able to find many examples here on the fmforums.

hth,

Tony

[Tony O]

P.S., my baby picture is fatter than yours, Reed, nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah. ')

Tony