Setting up Server side ODBC Data Sources

[nick_wales]

Hi

I've been doing a lot of work recently with FileMaker and ODBC, and one of the issues I've encountered is that when you have server hosted FM file that requires an ODBC data source, even when you install that data source on the server, the client machines using the file don't seem to be able to read the data from the ODBC source.

This basically means that installing the ODBC data source on the server is pretty much useless, and you have to install the same data source on every client machine that wants to use the file, in order that they can connect to the remote SQL table and view the data.

Does anyone now of a way around this? Are there any special configuration settings that I need to add in the hosted file in order to point it to the ODBC data source that I've installed on the server?

The other problem I have is because the server only has FMS running on it and not FMP, although I can see my data source is set up I can't really test it properly.

If anyone could offer any pointers it would be greatly appreciated.

I'm running an X Serve with FMS 9 and the client machines are Macs too.

Thanks

Nick

[Jonathan Monroe]

The "External SQL Sources" (ESS) feature will use the ODBC driver on the machine where the FM database is hosted.

If the FM database is hosted on FM Server, then ESS will use the driver installed on the server. In that case, there is no need to install the driver or configure the DSN on the client machines.

This only applies to ESS. If you are using "Import Records" / "Execute SQL" scripts to access your SQL database, then you would need to configure the DSN on each client, since these script steps will always look for the DSN on the machine where it is running.

Jonathan Monroe

Actual Technologies - ODBC for Mac OS X

www.actualtechnologies.com