Filemaker --> SQL server driven website

[liltbrockie]

Hi guys, just wanted to run a set up by you to see if it could work.

We have an office running FM server and about 20 users.. we also have a website, SQL server driven.

What I wish to do is create a live link between the two systems. The website is hosted externally so a VPN would have to be created between the 2 locations.

The purpose of the live link would be 2 fold... The fist purpose is for filemaker to host a catalogue of about 10,000 products. The 2nd purpose would be for the website to write any incoming orders directly to a table in filemaker..

So my first question is would this set up work in theory and practise! And 2nd.. am I right in saying I would have to upgrade to FM server advanced for the ODBC support?

Cheers for your replies,

Matt

[Genx]

Okay... you have a few options:

1) ESS - External SQL Sources

FileMaker can (as of version 9?) utilize SQL data via ODBC within itself. Meaning that if you needed the orders in SQL to be in FileMaker so you could manipulate the data etc. - you could do that via an ODBC link to the SQL backend. You could then view / find / add / delete from that SQL table the same way that you would with a normal FileMaker table.

2) FileMaker PHP API

A method of communication with FileMaker via PHP. You can inject data directly into FileMaker from a PHP based programming class that any decent PHP developer should be able to use.

3) ODBC

Probably likely to get you a slightly faster result than the API but with the added cost. If the API is utilized properly the interface is cleaner and performance differences aren't noticeable with the added benefit of only relying on Server.

[liltbrockie]

Isn't option 1 and 3 the same thing?

[Genx]

No - ODBC to FileMaker.

1 = SQL driven website. Pull of data into FileMaker via ESS.

2 = FileMaker Driven website, data manipulated via XML / PHP API

3 = FileMaker Driven website, data manipulated in FileMaker via ODBC (no SQL server).