moving databases??

[dumified]

Hello, I currently have a FM Server version 5 on a windows 2000 computer, and would like to transfer the database on that server to another server that has FM Server version 7. However, I haven't been able to figure out how to transfer the database from one to the other, since the file formats are different. I changed the formats to the *.fm7 but the database still couldn't start. If anybody knows how to transfer databases from FM Server v5 to FM Server v6, please let me know. Your advice is greatly appreciated.

[stanley]

Dumified:

Welcome to the Forums.

The simple answer is to open the .fp5 file using FileMaker Developer 7 (I'm not sure if the regular version of FMP7 will do this) and the file will be converted, after a dialog. However, there are definitely some caveats to this. There are any number of things that can go wrong, and things that will have to be changed.

There is a white paper on file conversion on FileMaker's website, and there has been quite a bit of discussion of the topic here on FM Forums, especially under "migration" - dig around and you'll find loads of info. There are also quite a few third-party products which claim to do the conversion cleanly, but I don't know anything about them.

-Stanley

[Fenton]

Regular FileMaker Pro 7 will convert databases. As Stanley says, there are a number of things that can go wrong; some things are just a little different. Whether these differences will cause problems often depends on how you programed your files. The converter tries pretty hard to compensate, converting and even adding steps where necessary; but there are ambiguous situations.

Be sure to upgrade your FileMaker 7 to the latest version, 7.0v3. Many small problems have been fixed. I haven't converted any large solutions lately, so I don't know if they've modified the converter. I imagine so.

Convert all your files at once, if they are in the same folder. At least read the documentation that came with 7; it is pretty good; there is one on conversions. Also read about Accounts and Privileges, or you may have trouble opening your files afterwards.

[P.S. One of the things that "goes wrong" is that your version 6 files have many superfluous, obsolete File References; which you could not see in 6, but can in 7. These can cause slowdowns, especially on opening, and steps between files.

There is an application named MetaData Magic ($200) which can fix these BEFORE conversion. Or you can manually fix them afterwards (very tedious if you have a lot; not bad if there's just a few, and few scripts).]