I'm looking forward to migrate our FMS 7 (with files created with FM 7)... to FMS 9.

Question : is it okay to keep all the clients with FM 7 ?

Question 2 : after using for a while FMS 9, if we decide to return to FMS 7 ... everything would be okay with the files ?

Or does FMS 9 modify the files in a way ?

Thanks.

FileMaker 9 still uses the .fp7 file format, so the files would work with either. You would have to be pretty careful not to use any new functions or script steps that were not in FileMaker 7. Eventually, if you are doing development work on the files, this would become really annoying. But otherwise you should be OK.

"Or does FMS 9 modify the files in a way?"

I don't know that any of us could answer that definitively. But since the files will still work in both versions, I don't think it really matters.

I would be cautious installing Server 9. Be absolutely sure that the earlier version has been stopped. Many people had problems if a background process from an earlier version was still running. (This was more difficult on Macs I believe, where daemons are harder to kill.)

In addition, I would keep lots of backups as you go since FM9 performs a consistency check where FM7 and FM8 did not. You may come across corruption at some point.

Also if you are coding to FM7 standards, I HIGHLY recommend getting "The Everything Reference" guide that has a banner on this website. It will list all the functions and also WHICH VERSION is it is supported in.

http://www.lulu.com/content/1840967

Thanks for your replies.

I've installed FMS 9 on a new PC. And did a test run with our files : so far, the files are okay after the check process.

Furthermore, we would only make modifications (datas and structure) to the files with FM 7. So I guess, no risk to use some "exotic" FM 8 and FM 9 functions. ;-)

My main concern was : stability of FMS 9. I perused the forum... and some messages are a bit scary (or maybe I'm too paranoid).

This is why I wanted to be sure that a "return" to the good "old" Filemaker Server 7.03 would be possible in case the situation would get out of control. :

Actually, the main interest we have in FMS 9 is the ability to launch scripts (that's really a blessing, to schedule a lot of "dirty work" during the night).

We don't plan to take advantage of all the other novelties (PHP, etc.) of the version 9.

Actually, the main interest we have in FMS 9 is the ability to launch scripts (that's really a blessing, to schedule a lot of "dirty work" during the night).

We don't plan to take advantage of all the other novelties (PHP, etc.) of the version 9.

Keep in mind that this only will work for scripts steps that are "Web compatible"