Campus Productivity Kit query

[Michael Vallance]

Campus Productivity Kit query.

I have 20 students at my university using Campus Productivity Kit. It is terrific for organising information and projects.

Next I need to view and grade the students' work in Campus Productivity Kit. How can i view ALL students' work on my office Mac? Can I ask them to e-mail me a file or folder and then open in Filemaker Pro? Will it reveal all details in their Campus Productivity Kit such as names and Notes? What file or folder do they send me? If this works fine then i will buy Filemaker Pro. Please post any advice for this busy teacher. Cheers

Michael Vallance

[Ender]

Welcome Michael,

While you could build an import script to import data from each file, I don't think this is a good solution in the long run. Too much fiddling with files and synchronization.

A better way is to use FileMaker Server to host the files and have each user log into the hosted file to make changes to their own records. This way everything is centralized, and you can run your reports at any time to see their progress.

There are a few major considerations for such a deployment, however:

• Each workstation needs it's own licensed copy of FileMaker Pro

• You must have a dedicated machine with FileMaker Server to be the host

• The database solution must be designed properly for a multi-user environment, with access to records limited appropriately.

This is probably too much for a busy teacher. It's really something that a professional developer should set up (or perhaps an in-house guru, that can learn quickly).

[Michael Vallance]

Thank you for the informative response. I would have thought (hoping) FILEMAKER may have an option to import the students' Campus Productivity Kit files. Basically, I do not have funding nor resources for the server solution you mentioned. I have downloaded 30-day Filemaker trial and will see what CPK folders the students need to send me and try to create a database manually. Then I will see what happens when they send me an updated folder of CPK files and see how that imports to Filemaker. I'll keep track of this thread. Thank you.

[Michael Vallance]

In addition it appears I can create PDF files from CPK if I have Filemaker Pro. Well, I now have Filemaker Pro but I still get the message,

"To generate PDF s you must have the full version of Filemaker Pro. See the Help FAQ for more information."

When I click FAQ nothing happens. Oh dear.

Any idea what FAQ (frequently asked question) is being referred to here?

Thanks.

Michael

[Ender]

I assume the Help FAQ is something listed under the Help menu (I don't have the trial version). But I'd guess it means what it says, that you need the licensed version of FileMaker to save PDFs.