FileMaker Pro Client / Front End and SQL Server Backend

[jennyk]

Hi,

A similar question was asked, but the responses have been dry. Hope someone can help me on this.

I've been developing on MS Access for quite some time now, and recently I have been asked to do a few things with FileMaker Pro.

With MS Access, I've been using Access as the front end client (with all the business logic), and MS SQL Server Database as the back end database / data repository. This was achieved by 'linking' the SQL Server tables via ODBC (system / user DNS) - this integration ability is seamless and logical, especially for scalable deployment.

As I'm hoping to duplicate this deployment model for FileMaker Pro - i.e. use FileMaker Pro as the client end, and SQL Server as the back, I was wondering whether there is this facility to 'link' a remote table and have it display as a local table, like MS Access.

I've done some investigations, and it seems that Filemaker, through ODBC, requires scripts to perform SQL statements (to be defined by the developer) on tables at the remote end - i.e. the logical nature of displaying remote tables as though they are local is just not there.

is this true? or can remote tables be treated as through they're local like MS Access?

Any pointers to the right direction?

Many thanks,

Jenny.

[Wim Decorte]

No, you can't link tables like you can in Access. That means you'll have to do a lot more work with the SQL script steps.

Also check out the PDM SQL plugin which offers a bit more flexibility

[jennyk]

Thanks Wim for the confirmation!

I guess its back to the old drawing board.

Cheers.