Sync Data or Connect Live

[Matt Klein]

Hi All!

 

I see a lot talk on the internet and forums about syncing data between an FM Go app and a FM Server.   I understand why this would be necessary, or at least preferred, when you have users that take the FM Go app on the road.   Accessing the data via the FM Server while on a Cellular network would not be efficient at all.   So, it makes sense to have the records on the iOS device and then sync changes back to the server when back on the local WiFi network.

 

I don't see a lot of talk about accessing the data via the FM Server while on the local WiFi network though.   I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience based words of wisdom regarding this.   Assuming that the FM Go app will only be used on the local WiFi network,  does anyone feel strongly against accessing the live data via the FM Server and forgoing the Syncing of data?

 

What about accessing the live data via the FM Server when on an external WiFi network?

 

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[jbante]

Using FileMaker Go as a live client of a FileMaker Server accessed over a Wi-Fi LAN that you control is no problem at all.

 

Connecting to FileMaker Server via an external Wi-Fi network presents more security concerns, but nothing we can't deal with. Turn SSL on, at the very least. It also may not be robust to count on this; locally accessible Wi-Fi hotspots are less predictably reliable than a network you control. I think of external Wi-Fi networks as the opportunity to sync solutions rather than open a connection to an application running on the server.

 

For what it's worth, I have seen applications using cellular data connections to FileMaker Server be successful. At DevCon 2013, The Scarpetta Group hosted "The Game," which connected to a hosted application over whatever network players had, which was often cellular data. However, we knew that The Game was not particularly data-intensive, we took special care to make it something that would perform reasonably well over poor connections, and we knew that it would only be accessed in an area with high population density, and therefore good quality cellular data service.

[Matt Klein]

Thank you very much for you response!

 

Sounds like you have quite a bit of experience with Go.   Have you tested the UI in a hosted file and a file that is local on the iOS device for performance?  Is there any performance gain by having the UI in a local file on the iOS device?

[jbante]

Do you mean to ask if I've tested the performance of an application using a data separation file architecture, comparing a hosted UI file with a local UI file? I don't generally work with applications using a hosted data/local UI model due to deployment complexity; so no, I have not tested that comparison. If you're willing to deal with the complexity of deploying files to run locally on each device and keeping those files up to date, you may as well cut out the network altogether and build an all-local app with sync.

[Brooks]

I have extensive experience with both. The performance gains having a data separation model in a hosted environment is negligible at best and not worth the complexity. If you’re going hosted, stick with a single file solution.  

[Matt Klein]

Thanks for the feedback guys.   I appreciate it!