Convert FMP datafile into MySQL file

[Jalz]

Hi Guys,

I want to play with having a MySQL backend with a FileMaker frontend. I already have a complete fileMaker solution that I want to disect and place on the web.

My Question is FileMaker has 5 datatypes

number, text, date, time, timestamp and container. What are the MySQL equivalents?

For text you,ve got varchar, text, longtext etc...where on earth do I start?

[JesseSFR]

I like the idea of having give the ESS features a work out but converting a FileMaker database to SQL sounds like a big hassle. I would love to hear how it turns out when you are finished.

Here is a link to all the data types in MySQL

Their homepage should be able to help you through a lot of your investigation period.

[mluka]

Hi, Jalz.

I'm looking at doing the same thing (converting FM DB into a MySQL). But it looks like a HUGE hassle, starting with having to learn Unix, apparently; using a command line interface; using "Terminal", etc.. I took a quick look, but it looked to me like I was going back at least 30 years to the days of ISAM and VSAM on OS/360, etc...

I was really disappointed by that first look and will start looking to see if there is a *graphical* interface to MySQL.

But please keep us posted!

[pehrlabel]

I'm thinking that Filemaker 9 might solve this problem for you. You wouldn't need to convert or export, you could just share.

Someone will have to know MySQL that works with you, but FM9 should be able to share with SQL databases just fine. It shares 2 ways, so if someone sets it up for you, (the tables and field types in MySQL, and the relationships in FM9), you might be able to keep editing and updating in filemaker 9 and the changes would go into your MySQL database automatically. They have to be on the same local network though, I don't think this works remotely.

I am brand new at this, and I don't even have filemaker 9 yet, so take my advice with a grain of salt. (Smart people feel free to jump in on this topic and correct me : )

If you have to do the MySQL yourself, Navicat works well, and so does SQLEditor on OS X. And OpenOffice's Base program is free, and I think people seem to like it.

There are lots of good MySQL books for beginners, but weigh the time it takes to learn MySQL vs. the money it costs to just hire someone to set it up right.

Cheers, Adam

[Genx]

I'm looking at doing the same thing (converting FM DB into a MySQL). But it looks like a HUGE hassle, starting with having to learn Unix, apparently; using a command line interface; using "Terminal", etc.. I took a quick look, but it looked to me like I was going back at least 30 years to the days of ISAM and VSAM on OS/360, etc...

Well, all you really have to know to start out is some basic sql - take you maybe a day to get a good grasp on all the basics i.e. the base statements: Select, Update, Insert, Delete (and of course From, Where).

If you then actually plan on interacting on a large scale with MySQL via a programming language you'd probably have to spend another day or two getting to grips with Views, Stored Procedures, and the available Joins within MySQL.

But even then, as Adam mentions, there are indeed things like Navicat, or open source softs like PHPMyAdmin etc. that provide a nice GUI and will write most of your code for table creation and modification, view mods, complex select statements etc - leaving you to have to write only minimal ammounts of code.

Edited July 22, 2007 by Guest

[mluka]

Hi, Genx. Sorry to disagree slightly with you...

Well, all you really have to know to start out is some basic sql

The SQL language is not a problem; you're right that one day is ample time to learn the basics of that language and will allow you to do probably 90% of what you need to do with the database.

The problem, from my point of view, is with the database mySQL itself. I downloaded the "free" version for Mac OS X from the MySQL AB site.

I fully expected to install a Mac OS X application. Not a Unix application. The installation itself looked like a Mac OS X installation, But after that, poof!

I couldn't find anything, in the OS X environment, that related to mySQL! Checking some online documentation points to some directory (Oooops, that's not OS X anymore) which is not even visible from the OS X environment! It also hints at some Unix instructions (which I can't quote accurately at the moment because I'm not at the same place and not on the same machine) such as "sudo"; having to log on as "root", checking that only one instance is running, connecting to the database, etc.

I mean, if I want to "connect" to a FM database, I double-click its icon and that's it! I'm connected to it, there's only one instance and I'm still myself, the regular user!!!

If I wanted to use mySQL on a UNIX machine, I would have downloaded the UNIX version!!!

This problem may be related to the fact that OS X is based on UNIX; it may also be related to my ignorance of UNIX and to the very limited time I had last week to install mySQL.

I see you're on Windows. Therefore you may not have this problem at all.

Anyway, I'm on vacation. I'll log on to some mySQL forum and try to find out if my perception is correct or not. Sigh...

Thanks for your comments!

[Genx]

Well, no, on windows you have exatly the same interface to MySQL -- a terminal, you login as root and can through that execute SQL commands - but no one really does.

As I mentioned earlier, PHP MyAdmin is free, and given that its run on PHP it is cross platform.

[Jalz]

Thanks all for your comments,

Ive downloaded phpMyAdmin and indeed it is very useful as Ive created a database, tables and inserted some data all through a GUI interface. As a test I've actually copied some of the code it creates when inserting records and used it in the execute SQL command in FileMaker with very minor tweaks and boy it works! Still experimenting though...