Kiosk mode OSX 10.3.5 FMDev7 to OS9 FM6

[gata]

Maybe someone can help me! I am somewhat of a novice at Filemaker, yet have managed to create a database solution for my bookstore. The database is a selection of Collectible books that are sold only on the internet.

I have a spare computer (an old Mac Clone) running OS 9, on which I have installed FMPro 6. I want to place this computer out in the b&m store for customers to browse our Rare books Collection in kiosk mode. I have some questions:

1. The database is updated almost daily when books are added or sold. I have these computers networked, but I am not sure how easy it would be to update the file on the "kiosk" computer. Would I just constantly overwrite with a new solution?

2. Does anyone know of issues that I might face going from FMdev7 to a computer running OS9 and FM6?

Thanks for any advice!

Catherine

[SteveB]

Ifr you are really running in kiosk mode, then you would have to replace the datafiles, since kiosks are not networkable. Since a kiosk is standalone (not requiring FM of any version to be installed), your second issue doesn't apply.

Steve

[Reed]

The bigger problem is that you will be trying to use your FM 7 runtime on OS 9. That's not going to work. If you want to make database for FM 6, you will have to start over from scratch and rewrite all your scripts, calculations, etc.

You will be able to export the data from your FM 7 version at a text format and then reimport it into FM 6.

But... if you have Dev 7 to enable kiosk mode in a .fp7 file, this does not mean that you can use plain FM 6 to create a kiosk enabled file. You will have to get your hands on a copy of FM Dev 6. (Or someone who has it and can make the kiosk for you.)

A better solution, IMHO, would be to find a computer that runs OS X. Jaguar or higher. I'm sure you can find a used iMac or something like that for <$100. Or even a cheap PC. I have an old PII 400 that someone was going to throw away that I'm using as a kiosk. As long as it will run 2000 or XP you're in business. Then you can set up your kiosk on it without any problems and just swap out the primary file, or set up a script that will import new data from a file exported from your main DB.

Or, you could get one more copy of FMP7, and host the kiosk file from one computer connecting to that file using FMP 7 on the kiosk computer. Then any updates made to the main DB are automatically shown in the kiosk.

When people say kiosks aren't networkable, they really mean that runtimes aren't networkable. A FMP file hosted by FMP or FMP Server will open in kiosk mode on any FMP client that connects to it, provided you've used FMP Developer to enable kiosk mode in the file.

How is the book database updated from the available books on the internet. Is this your website, or some other?

[gata]

Thanks for the reply!

As I understand it then, any kiosk runtime solution created in FM 7 will not work on a computer that is running Mac OS 9.

I think that I could probably find an old imac with OSX- but since I had this old mac clone, that was to be my first try. I would rather find a cheap computer running OSX than start from scratch to redo my database in FM6 (I have some somewhat recent copies in FM6 because I just updated to FM7 a few months ago- but now the records have changed quite a bit with additions and deletions)

In answer to your question, the update process is as follows:

The book database on my emac is the master db. I have employees list books on other workstations occasionally, and I import those records into the master db.

When I upload to the net, I export as tab delimited for the booklisting sites that I sell on (there are two used, antiquarian sites) and I also update my own website which is PHP/MySQL based (I am having some unrelated issues with the upgrade to FM7 because I used to have to pull my website files into excel to get them into the correct format to upload to the MySQL database on my server and I can't do that anymore for some reason- very complex!) When books are sold- they automatically delete from the website that they sold from. I have my shipper just manually delete all sold books from the other websites each time she processes orders. I also have her manually update the master database here- so they all match up.

Adding a kiosk into the mix will be a little bit more of a headache, but possibly worth it because we have a great walk-in crowd to our store who would probably love to browse our collectible selections.

Any ideas?

--Catherine

[bruceR]

The kiosk-mode computer CAN be networked. I don't know why you're being told otherwise. A standard Filemaker file can be set up to open in kiosk mode.