Newbie Alert - Which FM to buy?

[Todd Griffith]

Hi all,

Quite new to FM and still using the demo of v7, but I have a few questions before I actually purchase it, including which version to get...

Am I correct in assuming with FM8 Advanced that I can create a database that runs stand alone, and that others can search through and edit?

For instance, I'd like to create a contact database that our advertising staff can search through and add records to WITHOUT having the full blown FM package installed? I could just create it initially as a stand alone, then pass it along to them to populate with their data?

Then I'd like to create yet another one for our sports department (we're a small newspaper) to populate with football stats, etc, again without them having the full blown package.

I can think of hundreds of other uses for FM here at the office, but the expense would be just too great for everyone to have full versions if I can just create standalone versions of the databases that they can edit/modify.

Hope I'm making sense here...

TIA

[Zero Tolerence]

To creat runtimes (Stand alone apps) you will need FM 7 Developer or FM 8 Advanced.

However, runtimes are not multi user. For instance User A cannot search data that was entered on another computer by User B. At least not without some kind of a work around. (Which there are a few of).

I guess the question is, do you want your users to be able to add data and search data from a master database that has all the records from every user? If so, your looking at perhaps a seat license from FileMaker plus getting Filemaker server.

Or using a web browser with Server Advanced to do it. There are other work arounds, but without really knowing your answer to my question I can't suggest anything yet.

[Todd Griffith]

Well, my guess is that the runtime app would be placed on a server somewhere withing the building, and they could just launch it from there (We're talking OS9 and OSX clients here, and just a few at that, perhaps 3 or 4). When one has it open, the others couldn't access it, which isn't too much of a problem here.

I've also thought about the idea of web enabling it. And that would let several users in at once? Also, our servers here are OS9/ASIP, so I guess the FM8 Advanced would need to be installed on an OSX machine with a static IP serving it out to everyone.

Thanks!

[Fitch]

I don't think your users will get a good experience if you deploy runtimes in that way. The performance will suffer and it will be a maintenance headache for you too.

You probably would be better off just running the files on FileMaker Pro which the users could access through IWP. This limits you to 5 concurrent users which sounds like it might be feasible in the setting you described. If your web needs outgrow that, you would need to serve the files with FileMaker Server Advanced.