Import data from web DB

[Tpaairman]

I have a new website that I'm setting up a shopping cart with. It's a MySQL DB. I have my FMP file on my local computer for handling several parts of the business. What I would like to do is have the FMP file import new sales orders from the shopping cart DB on the web server.

I'm pretty new to MySQL and web databasing, so I'm not sure how to proceed.

[Speekless]

You can export your database from phpmyadmin, then import the data into filemaker pro.

If I remember well FM can handle sql files, but you could always export to csv or some other format.

Or you could set up a "live" connection to your sql server but that's a whole other story...

[Tpaairman]

The live version sounds more like what I am trying for.

I guess another way to put this is, I'd like it work somewhat the way email does. With email I get a message on the server, and my mail program retreives it. In this case, it's a new record in the MySQL database, and FMP would retrive that record.

[Speekless]

Unfortunately I think your version of FileMaker doesn't support live interaction with MySQL databases. Another caveat is that the database needs to be accessible remotely, which is often a problem with hosting providers.

So I think your best bet would still be to export the data from the db. You could automate it by having a csv file with new records sent to you via e-mail every day, for example. You would still have to import manually, and changes on the fm database wouldn't be reflected on the mysql db.

Not really a nice alternative, but I'm afraid a live connection to your database isn't possible with your configuration.

[Jonathan Monroe]

You can import from MySQL using FM 6 or later by using the File->Import Records->ODBC Data Source menu.

With FM 9 or later you can use "External SQL Sources" (ESS) to have a "live data" link to your MySQL database.

Most ISP's provide some method for connecting to a hosted MySQL database - usually by connecting to it directly with an IP address, or with an SSH tunnel. Check with your ISP for details.

Jonathan Monroe

Actual Technologies - ODBC for Mac OS X

http://www.actualtechnologies.com

[Tpaairman]

HOLY CRAP - IT WORKS!!! Thank you. I got the ODBC driver from MySQL.com, and I found instructions on how to do this here.

In that article they said they had to purchase some ODBC driver for FMP, but the free one from MySQL.com works great.

Now I did have one problem to iron out. When I write info in FMP, it shows up on the website, but when new info or new records are created one the web side, they did not show up on FMP, until I close the FMP file and reopen it. You have to either go to the records menu and click on refresh window OR a script with the command to refresh window and the option of flush mySQL cache.

By the way - my system info at the bottom was wrong - I had not updated this in quite some time, and now I can't seem to do it except in each post.

Edited May 8, 2009 by Guest