one of my more complex clients has a web application that is currently living on a standalone FM6/Lasso/OSX foundation and he is in the process of doing a complete upgrade. their FM6 system runs every facet of the company and they need to take it in steps. first up is the web app, and i want to see if anyone has done a reliable solution to import/export to and from 6 and 7. the direction i see as best case is an ODBC solution but i/ve never been able to figure out INSERT statements so i don't know if that will work. the next idea is an XML import/export.

what's a good direction to start taking this?

Insert statements are pretty simple once you get to know them

INSERT into Table (Field_1, Field_2, ...) Values ('Value_1', 'Value_2', ...) or

INSERT into Table (Field_1, Field_2, ...) Values (SELECT statement)

You can leave the list of fields off and the values will be assigned to the fields in their creation order.

As far as I know an ODBC connection to get data out of Filemaker prior to 7 is a total no go. For that matter while it works in 7 it

Many ways to move data to 7. I also completely rewrote our solution in 7 from scratch. To import data I exported a copy of the 5.x file which removes all layouts, scripts and relationships and converted to 7 I then imported into the new solution. I tested the week before the actual import, then tested the test import, finding all the little details and creating scripts and writing copious notes to speed up the actual import date.