Upgrading from 7 to 8.5 issues?

[D-fendr]

There's a lot of papers on migrating from pre-7 FM, but I haven't found anything on going from 7 to 8.5. I'm wondering if there are any variations in scripts, calcs, commits, error trapping, etc. that need to be considered?

I have a small workgroup solution that's very complex. I've tested it as much as I can in 8.5 and haven't encountered any surprises, but I'd appreciate anyone's experience in this.

It's a small company and the application is mission-critical. So we have a large risk with a small amount of resources available to allocate for the upgrade.

I'd like to just upgrade the five Macs (OS 10.3-4) to FM 8.5 and run the files, but if anyone knows of gotchas, please advise..

thanks.

[John Mark Osborne]

There's really not much to worry about. FileMaker 7, 8 and 8.5 use the same file format so there is no conversion required. There are some great features in FileMaker 8 and 8.5 but in the vast scheme of features there is barely a difference. The only issue I can think of is if you have a mixed network of FileMaker 7 and 8.5 users looking at the same solution. In this case, many of the features specific to FileMaker 8.5 won't work on a FileMaker 7 client.

Regardless, you should definitely open the solution in FileMaker 8.5 and test it to see how it works, just to make sure. If you haven't gotten FileMaker 8.5 yet, you can always download the trial version and test your solution that way:

http://www.filemakertrial.com/?ovmkt=O5M3PJVLTCEPQOJPQEEJLCL7F8

[D-fendr]

Thanks very much, John.

I have a copy of 8.5 Advanced and I've tested it quite a bit; but, the app is unbelievably complex in terms of relationships, tables, fields, scripts and functionality. I can't possibly test every possible situation. I'll convert all clients to 8.5 to avoid any issues there.

I remember reading something a while back about error capture, something about a difference of when you should do "get last error" correctly. But I can't find it, and don't know if the change was with V7 or V8.

Unless I hear differently from someone, I plan to keep testing in 8.5, then launch. I hope I don't end up posting a topic on what I should have done first.

Thanks very much for your reply.

[ThatOneGuy]

Hi D-fendr:

I remember reading something a while back about error capture, something about a difference of when you should do "get last error" correctly. But I can't find it, and don't know if the change was with V7 or V8.

I was bitten by this in version 7. For Get ( LastError ) to function as intended in a script, it must follow the script step we want to test. No surprise there; logical.

One day, trying to be a good little programmer, I inserted a Comment in between. The script failed! It took me a while to figure it out because I had made several changes. When the script reached my If Get ( LastError ) = n trap, there was no error in the registry because FM7 treated the Comment step as having been "successfully executed." This behavior was "corrected" in version 8.

[D-fendr]

That was it!

Ah, one more nagging fear removed now...

thank you very much

[John Mark Osborne]

Ever since the Set Error Capture script step was introduced (FileMaker Pro 3.0), you've always had to place the test for the error immediately following the step that produces the errror. Otherwise, the next script step will replace the stored error number with another error or a zero for no error.

[D-fendr]

I wanted to add for the record how it went - thus far.

In one script step that references a count of related records, I had to commit before the proper value was returned, even though the field on the layout showed it without commit. A commit here is understandable, but odd to me that it worked differently in 7 versus 8.5.

The second biggest glitch was in an AppleScript run from FM. It's one of the 'Change Printer' workarounds. In 7 it used 'tell Filemaker..' and in 8.5 this errored. Changing 'Filemaker' to 'Filemaker Pro' fixed it. I have no idea why.

The third problem, thus far, is a find taking much longer in 8.5. It's on an unstored calc, pretty complicated; but still ran much faster in 7. I checked the File References, but that didn't help.

I created a new field and hard set it based on the calc field. I already had a place in the workflow that this fit, and it's likely I can use it elsewhere.

I'm very glad I upgraded, love the new list function among other improvements.

If I run into any other gotchas, I'll post them here. Thanks for the replies..

[Ender]

Ho D!

Your count problem sounds like the one I was experiencing here:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/171699/

About your Find on unstored calcs: Is this a hosted solution? If so, make sure your server/host is the latest version.

[D-fendr]

Thanks Ender,

I'm checking out the count/portal possibility.

No, it's not using Server.. it is being FM Network Shared by three clients, but using Pro, not Server.

thanks very much..

D-