Using FM server master file to update clients databases files

[swells808]

Hello all,

This is my first post here so forgive me if I am in the wrong topic. Here is the situation: I have 4 users with Macbook Pro's with Filemaker 8.5 advanced loaded locally and a Windows server at the office with filemaker server 8. Each user has a file they use for contact management on their computer. They all have essentially the same file and use it regularly. Sinc they are mobile they don't always have an internet connection it's not possible for them to just connect to a hosted version on the server. What I would like is when a user opens the database it searches for the hosted version to synchronize data and update.

I really haven't been able to find any information on this specific topic. Is this possible and can someone point me to information/tutorial somewhere? Ultimately I would like to send this out to a group of 8 clients and used advanced ability to export this as a standalone app and have the same ability.

[Ender]

You might search for 'synchronization' or something similar. That's essentially what you need here. The trouble is syncronization algorithms can get fairly complex, depending on what you want to do and whether there are related records that must be syncronized as well.

The basic idea is that each record will have a modification timestamp. Records that were created or modified since the last sync get moved into the other file, replacing any existing records with the same IDs. It gets complicated when a record has been modified since the last sync in both the client and server copies. You have to figure out how you want to deal with these situations.

There is a product out there that helps with syncronization, called SyncDek. As I recall, this uses email to update the records, so this may work with Runtimes.

[swells808]

I figured but, didnt know if this was built into FM 8. Is there any tutorials out there that someone would recommend.

[swells808]

*Bump*