oracle connection to filemaker

[bzzzz]

we have a filemaker pro server and some of the data needs to be imported weekly into an oracle database.

my understanding is this can be done and it is roughed out in the "FileMaker 7 ODBC and JDBC Developer's Guide"...available here if anyone is interested:

FileMaker Documentation

however, i know nothing about oracle, but i don't need to since there are people on staff to deal with that. i am presenting this connection option as the best way for the oracle guys here to get the data they need. the other option is for them (non-filemaker savvy people) doing exports and importing them into oracle. they don't want to do this because they don't like filemaker. i believe this whole process would be easier if i keep the oracle guys in what they know and love, oracle. once the extract was properly set up it could be done as cron job. all done.

so my question is, how would one accomplish this?

broad strokes that i could give to the oracle people to direct them.

i figure they could build a small custom app to do this, but i have no idea what is involved with that. or, perhaps the oracle application has the ability to run scripts?

any pointers would be helpful.

thanks!

[Ben Levi]

Hi,

I'm just starting out on a process to do something similar to what you want to do (I think)... except I need to go back and forth between FM and Oracle. I would recommend two options for you to look at:

1) Create a FM script to export the information to a comma-delimited file(s), which can then be easily imported into the appropriate Oracle table(s).

2) A more complicated route (theoretical at this point...I haven't accomplished this yet) would be to get FM talking to the Oracle DB directly through a driver such as http://www.actualtechnologies.com/ sells. This enables FM to connect through ODBC to the Oracle DB. Then use "Execute SQL script step" to create SQL statements to actually insert/update records directly into the Oracle DB. Note this can be dangerous to do because it writes directly to the Oracle tables, bypassing any DB logic that may be there (i.e. file locking, validation, indexes, etc.)

I'd be interested in how this process works for you...maybe we can share info about this. My email is [email protected].

Cheers.