Troubles with creating a DSN using Filemaker 8...???

[angelleye]

In the past I've successfully used Filemaker with my ASP applications by installing the DataDirect ODBC driver. It worked great with Filemaker 7. I just got some Filemaker 8 files, though, that I'm getting back into this and I'm having trouble with the ODBC for some reason now. The files are the same exact files that I used with 7, but have been upgraded to 8. There are about 5 different Filemaker files that I use, and with Filemaker 7, each of these would show up during the creation of the System DSN when I went to select the Data Source. Now, though, only 2 are showing up here no matter what I have open. It shows Auctions, which is only 1 of the Filemaker files I'm using, and then another that says Default. They both seem to give me the same data when I connect to them, which isn't anywhere near all of what I need. I need to create seperate connections to each of the Filemaker files, but they won't all show up!??

Any information about why this would be happening would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[angelleye]

Nevermind, I got it. Sorry. It's a lot nicer in 8 too! ;)

[angelleye]

Ok, actually I am having some troubles with this. I've gotten it connected and I can display products to my page and got my shopping cart even working completely. However, I'm to the stage of inserting records back into Filemaker and began having all kinds of problems.

I'm getting parsing errors a whole lot and also, many of the tables in the DSN don't seem to be showing up via ODBC.

For instance, I have a Filemaker File called Leads & Clients that shows up and successfully connects in the DSN configuration. I can also connect to it successfully within Dreamweaver. When I try and view the fields in the Leads & Clients file, though, it shows None, as if there aren't any tables in it. When I look in Filemaker itself, though, ther are about 50 records in this File.

The File also includes an embedded data area from another Filemaker File called Invoices. It shows a list of all of the invoices a certain client has purchased if you're looking at that record in Leads & Clients.

In Dreamweaver, when I view the connection to the Leads & Clients file, I see both Invoices and Leads & Clients show up. If I view the invoices table it shows me all of the Invoices fields. However, Leads & Clients shows none.

The same thing happens with my Invoice Items file, the file that holds each product a customer buys on any given invoice. There are LOTS of records in the Invoice Items file, but it shows None when I try and view the fields from within an ODBC connection.

Any information on why this is happening and how I can fix it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[angelleye]

I'm just as confused all heck with this ODBC using Filemaker. I've done plenty of applications connecting to Access databases with ODBC and this has never been a problem for me. First time going with Filemaker (client's decision) and I can't figure out for the life me how it goes about selecting data sources.

It says in the Filemaker help that you have to create a new DSN for every Filemaker file that you want to connect to. Well, when I go into the DSN configuration and it brings up the list of Data Sources available, it lists some that I don't even have files for!? Also, if I create a DSN from one that does exist it ends up also having lots of the data from the other files within it.

I think this must be because of the way Filemaker relates that stuff..?? Is this going to conflict with my ODBC connections? Could it be part of the problem I'm having??

I've tried creating a seperate DSN for every file, and then I also just tried using the one that shows up called Default when I create the DSN. Default seems to contain the same "tables" and fields as the other things when I do them seperately, and I get the same result. 2 of the "tables" or Filemakers Files or whatever I'm suppose to call them can be connected to just fine but I can't see any of their fields from within the ODBC source.

[angelleye]

Ok, even some more info. Hopefully I can explain this a little better.

One of the Filemaker files is called Invoices. This file contains fields for the customers information, products they bought, how they're paying, etc. The customer information, for example, is actually stored in a file called Leads & Clients. I believe there must be a lookup associated with this, because if you're in the Invoices file and you type in a phone number that exists in the Leads & Clients table it automatically fills in the customer's address information for you.

The problem is, I'm trying to create invoice records from the web. When I use ODBC to view the fields I can insert into, these fields are not included in the Invoices data source...the reason I think is because they're not in that file, they're in Leads & Clients. The problem is, when I view the Leads & Clients data source, it shows None, as if there aren't any tables within that file.

So, I'm kinda screwed. When people insert these from within Filemaker locally they just go to invoices and type in a phone number. If it doesn't exist in Leads & Clients they go ahead and fill in the other fields right there in Invoices and then it creates that record in Leads & Clients for that customer.

So how am I suppose to go about this from the web?

[Wim Decorte]

If you're using ASP.NET then check out www.fmDotNet.org.

Since it uses FileMaker Server Advanced's XML publishing engine it completely bypasses xDBC. There's a little more overhead involved in the XML traffic but I've found it just works better.

The DataSet that fmDotNet returns includes a table "main" and named DataTables for data in portals.