My Solution too slow for network

[jdille]

I'm using Filmaker Pro 4.03 to develop an order/invoicing/inventory system. I have all the files setup and it seems to be working just fine however now that we have nearly 300 records in the order file the other filemaker apps that connect to the host are terribly slow to bring up and update records. This is what I have going on. Our sales people enter orders in the orders file. The entry fields here are actually fields created in the invoice file and layed out using a portal. You create a new order record and you get a new invoice. I also have seperate files for items received (stuff we have bought to resell) and a seperate inventory file. In the items received file and the invoices file I have a seperate summary field for each inventory item and these summary fields will then always reflect the total of the items sold on all invoices as well as all items received from all the records in that file. My inventory file is a simple calculation: summaryfield1 from the items received files minus the summeryfield1 from the invoices file. This works and I then put these numbers on the order sheet in the order file so the sales people always know what is in inventory every time they create a new record. Everything works fine and speedy on the host computer but the networked computers (10/100 BaseT) can literally take minutes to bring up a new record. You can see each inventory item being displayed as it is recalculated. What I assume is going on here is that each time a new record is created in the orders file the inventory goes back and recounts all the items on each invoice and has to re-add them each time. 300 records times 32 items is where we stand now and the records will probably triple within the next couple of months. How can I have my current inventory displayed on the order sheet other than the method I have described where it seems to have to recount all items in all records each time? All thoughts, ideas, suggestions are most welcome.

John

[email protected]

icq: 6702479

[DykstrL]

You really need to use FM Server for hosting your system. You don't mention how many concurrent users you have. The standard FileMaker version will be slow with more than 3 or 4 users - and get progressively slower as more users connect.

With FM Server you can also do additional things to speed things up like presorting the databases.

[jdille]

The DB is brand new and I've only tested it on 2 computers at this point. The host was a 350MHz iMac and the client was a 266MHz beige G3. We have 4 computers that would be constantly connected to the DB with occassional access by a fifth computer.

Is FileMaker Pro server 3.0 still available?

Also does anyone know which of these methods works faster? Putting summary fields in a file and then placing those fields in a different DB or would it be faster to have the other DB do the calculation itself using the Sum(field) calculation. Sum(inventory_received) - Sum(inventory_shipped) = current_inventory.

Thanks

John

[Moon]

May I suggest you script a calculation to put the summary data into the record being reviewed. Use a calculation to sum the data from the related records (only). Taking summary calculations out of the field definitions and putting them in scripts will save loads of computer time as the calcuations are performed ony when required/requested, and only on the records required.