We have many legacy tables that were setup before FM took all tables into a single file, and wondering if it makes sense to combine them. Business is finally beginning to look better (after many years), so we want to sharpen our office procedures. Examining our FM solutions is part of the procedure.

 

I don't recall which version that the all-in-one capability was added, and I remember seeing at the time discussions of the pros and cons. Aside from the aesthetic issue, and convenience of having a combined datafile, is there an advantage to combining tables? We would have Proposals, Addresses, Invoices, etc, all existing now as separate data files.

 

And secondly how would you actually go about combining? I thought about creating the fields and importing but that just seems dicey to me.

 

Maybe just leave well enough alone? 

 

We are running FM Pro Advanced 12 on Mac OS 10.8.5.

 

 

I don't recall which version that the all-in-one capability was added

 

I think that was back in FM Pro v.7.  The file format changed back then, but the database came with a builtin conversion tool that would run when you tried opening a .fp5 file type, and would convert it to a .fp7.  This filetype was used up until FM Pro v.11.   

 

The file format changed again with FM Pro v.12, last year, and the file extension is now .fmp12.  FM Pro 12 will not be able to open/convert a .fp5 file.  You might need to convert it twice (1st with FMP v.7-11, and then with FMP v.12)

 

In my experience the converter tools worked flawlessly, but you still had a solution that didn't take advantage of new features.  For example the multiple Table Occurrences within one file (as you mentioned) and the relationship graph.  There are a huge number of new features that you could take advantage of which I think are well worth the time and investment. It will take effort both to convert your databases and to familiarize yourself with all the new design tools.  It really depends on how important your database(s) are to you and how much time you spend in them.  If its only a rarely used or for an extremely simple purpose, then the oldies are fine.  

 

With regards to your multiple file question, there are times when it makes sense to keep databases separate. If they are logically distinct, and don't link to each other much, if you want to be able to replace them individually, or if you are a fan of the 'separation model.  However, pre-FM v.7 you had to have every table as a separate file, which is insane for large complex solutions. With the new format you'll find it much easier to make new tables, and you will tend to engineer more complexity into your solutions. 

 

To combine multiple tables in one file you are probably going to manually create a new table in your combined solution and then import the data from one of the converted flat files. 

how would you actually go about combining? I thought about creating the fields and importing but that just seems dicey to me.

 

When you import, you get the option to select a new table as the target table; that will import the data as well as recreate the fields of the source table.

Thanks, both of you, for the discussion, giving me enough background to do it. Or hurt myself :-)