I'm looking for some direction on whether it makes sense to host a 4G file in FMP 7 containing ~86 million telephone numbers (the national do not call list) and make it available as a look-up table for checking telephone numbers against it from the web using IWP. We don't seem to be having much luck. Most of the issues are due to the slowness of importing and indexing in FMP 7 and the fact that the file is so huge to work with. Any advice?

Have you tried MySQL?

Garry

No, we are just familiar with FMP (been with it since it was 2.0). Perhaps we need to broaden our horizons if you think it would be a better solution, but would we have to abandon FMP?

You would have to use custom web publishing to do this...

1) Split the file into multiple sections. For example, area codes 001..300 go in one file, 301..600 in another, etc. You might have to break it into smaller pieces but you get the idea.

2) Make a web form with one input field for the phone number.

3) Make a javascript function that checks the form input (on submit) then, based on the area code, directs the request to the corresponding table.

Just an idea. I don't know enough yet to verify that this would work but I'm pretty sure that it will.

I guess that you are using OS X to host the database. If so, you can install MySQL and phpMyAdmin (free).

With phpMyAdmin you can setup the database and import the data.

You can then use php with a simple web-page interface for the look-up.

You can still integrate, in the page, data from FM.

The reason I'm suggesting MySQL is because of its speed for handling large amounts of data. I love FM, however it may not be the best tool for this job!

All the best.

Garry