Open/Open Remote Script...continued

[AlanP]

Sorry my original post was locked without my original question being answered...

I understand the comments, however we were all going off what Filemaker stated in the the Filemaker Pro 7 users manual stating that someone has to open the file then other people remote into it.

The problem is we are spread out in different offices and it's sometimes impossible to know if someone is in the file or not (hosting it) without going to open remote. I simply wanted to see if there was a way to either:

1) If already hosted go straight to open remote

or

2) Have some sort of other database (etc) which would should which files are open and allow an 'open remote' to occur when clicked (similar to the instant web publishing but via filemaker network tcp/ip)

We can't afford filemaker server or have a dedicated machine for this...thus the problem.

Thanks!

[stanley]

Alan:

You're going to have to change the way you work with FileMaker, or one day two concurrent users are going to access that file via the OS, and the whole thing is going to get destroyed. This is the number one cause of file corruption and data loss in FileMaker solutions. The tech brief Steven referred to in the other thread is at:

http://www.filemaker.com/products/upgrade/techbriefs.html

What you should do is have one machine work as the host all the time. The machine can be used for other things, it just has to run FMP all the time and have the file(s) in question open so folks can access it.

As far as a not being able to afford a dedicated machine - you've got to weigh the cost of a $500 computer against the value of all the data in your FileMaker solution. If you were one of my clients I wouldn't even give you the choice.

-Stanley

[AlanP]

OK thanks...I'll pass all this info onto my supervisors. The problem we have is our IT does not like Filemaker (each time we upgrade to the latest version it's an uphill battle since it's not a Microsoft product) and we simply can't purchase a new computer (IT has a three year wait for our area before we can get any new ones) and we can't have one of our terminals as dedicated because we are short on computers (so we share computers as well).

I wish filemaker would have mentioned this in the manuals...we went from 5 to 7 and this is a real wakeup.

[stanley]

Alan:

The behavior has not changed with the upgrade to 7; what you were doing was technically a no-no in 5 as well. You seem to not be understanding one point, though: you do not have to dedicate a machine to only hosting the FileMaker file; it can be used for other things (and as a client as well), just using FileMaker Pro. The key is that it has to be running FMP, with the database open, for users to access the data. This is all clearly spelled out in the documentation - in the FMP7 user's manual, Chapter 4 covers sharing in a pretty good amount of detail.

-Stanley

[Steven H. Blackwell]

I commend Stanley's comments to your close attention. Consider what might happen if your files became unavailable with no notice. What would be the cost then? The cost of inaction almost always exceeds the cost of taking action to host your files properly and safely.

The cost of a reasonable Server CPU and of FileMaker Server software is around $3,000 give or take. The cost of a rebuild and recovery is going to be multiples of that.

Given whatever opposition it is that comes from the IT department, what would be their solution to providing you the database management you need to fulfill your business goals?

I don't in tend or desire to berate you about this. But I have seen so many of these instances over the past 10 years. And they always wind up costing the end user client many times what a server and FMS would cost.

Steven

[AlanP]

Thanks for the help everyone. I've moved the files from the network drive to my computher where I host them 24/7 and we create backups to the network drive daily (and also have a feature if the power goes out, it will close filemaker and save a special backup copy).

For my clients I creatd an autoit script (compiled to .exe format) that opens filemaker for the user and brings them to the open remote command and then to the first computer (mine). I've attached it should anyone like to use it for their own clients.

As far as IT, it would require literally months or years for a solution to even be planned out before it was built...whereas with Filemaker we have always created our solution quickly and it has never failed over the past eight years. We'd love to have a dedicated computer/server but it's a lot of red tape and no budget.

Open_Filemaker.zip