A potential client is currently running VersaTrans FleetVision and VersaTrans RP. Those programs running on a PC using SQL Server Express and accessed on the client side by PCs.

The client likes the software overall, but wants some more options and the company is unresponsive to his requests for changes.

He wants to know if he can use Filemaker to integrate with the SQL tables to add data directly to the system, to create reports based on the SQL data, and to create his own FMP tables to capture new data.

The IT guy won't give me access until I'm under contract and I can't get under contract until I get a proposal and I can't give a proposal unless I know it can be done.

I've created mySQL dbs but I haven't integrated SQL with FM before. I'm in the process of learning about ESS: reading a couple white papers, watching the webinar, reading the posts in this forum, but I'd love a quick answer...Can this be done? And what are the additional costs above a regular FM deployment (ie ODBC driver license)? What are the issues I'm likely to encounter?

Thanks,

DJ

David. I will post it here instead of TechNet. I am not sure if the Express version will even be supported so I suggest that you download it and test that prior hand.

As long as the user account that is connecting to the SQL db has write permissions, they can modify the information directly. Keep in mind though that the ESS shadow table uses optimistic record locking so that your users will get a message that the record has changed if the ESS record has changed for any reason.

Other things to watch out for. It is generally a good idea to have presorted views and also limit the fields that you want through using multiple views. It is much less overhead and efficient.

Let me know if you have any further questions and I will see if I can answer them. :(