Is there a way to setup a FileMaker development environment so that instead of editing on a live application, you're editing a local application? I've been getting a little more serious about FM lately, so I want to avoid any potential "oops" moments as well as prevent users from seeing half-finished features.

In the web application world, I've done this by building something locally and then rsync'ing it with the live server. A little legwork is sometimes required to move parts of the live database to the development environment (the full database is often prohibitively large), but I've found this process to be worth it overall. When editing FM applications, I feel like I'm always tip-toeing around a room trying not to break anything, which sometimes limits me.

Thoughts?

If you are concerned about breaking stuff then you should seriously investigate the separation model that way you can tinker with the UI without disrupting data. If you set up a sand box to play in you must carefully plan how your going to bring the files from a development state to live state that takes into account the changes to the structures (ui elements, tables, scripts etc) file AND properly migrates the data.

I think FM has a free download of server that is ideal for just such a development environment.

the more traditional way to do this is to have a development version of the database you are working with.

We typically use the last live version of a database.

In you rfile you will need a script that imports data from the last live version into the current development version.

Work with the development file offiline

When you are done with a features, Turn off services on the server.

Import the data from the live version.

Replace the live version with the new file on the server.

Turn services back on.

The main gotcha is that any new users added since the last iteration will need to be re added, and passwords will be set back to the last version. But this is a non issue if you use external authentication.