Does 5.5pro serve well?

[LiveOak]

I'm not sure what you mean by "test portal". FM 5.5 comes in several versions. For serving more than a few client machines, use FileMaker Server 5.5. FileMaker Server 5.5 will host 125 files and 250 users.

For a initial capability serving under 10 users you can use a standard copy of FileMaker 5.5. Exact performance or suitability is a little hard to determine with no description of what you are trying to do.

-bd

[Personas Binar]

Thanks for the reply, sorry I wasn't too clear.

As a 'test portal' I mean taking some of the data we create everyday and putting into a proper set of 'bases and publishing to our intranet for other users to see/edit. I'm coming from a major daily newspaper production environment. We are currently opening up more ways for our clients to use the internet and FTP to deliver their files to us (ads).

However the paper workflow of eras past is still with us and can't keep up with the immediacy of the new digital clients. We are seeing too much duplication of effort due to lack of current infomation.

The 'test portal' hopefully will become the GUI for an order-based (read PAPER) production workflow, linking sales staff to production with us here at the Digital Ad Team as the central hub for info.

We're not looking to arm everyone with FM. We would like everyone to get at the data from our intranet. Initial databases will include a status of new digital advertisers, 'haven't heard from', 'spoken to/ waiting for file', 'testing', 'approved' .

As well we have a spreadsheet which we use to keep at list of approved advertisers and agencies (including FTP IDS and pswords) which we publish to the intranet once a month when we do our stats. This HTML page is a complete dog to load and is usually outdated within a couple of days. No one uses it because at over 2500 clients it's awful to find data quickly.

I want to make something better, properly searchable. We have data residing on Oracle 'bases on Unix boxes that I would love to get access to but that is for a little later, once I prove the portals worth to the powers that write cheques.

I've used FM in other organizations and really think I can create som that will add some more value to the initiatives that we've taken in getting advertiser's files sent digitally as oppeosed to sending film or disks.....sorry couriers.

If FM5.5 serves 10 ips that works in terms of testing, I suppose I'll get two, one to work with and one to serve up the test 'bases.

Thanks for any feedback

[Steven H. Blackwell]

First there is an excellent FSA member in Toronto who can help you with this solution.

Second, if you expect more than 10 hits in any 12 hour period or are using one of the CGI programs, you'll want to use FileMaker Pro 5.5 Unlimited. I believe that Canadians can order directly from the FMI store on the FMI web site.

If you plan to integrate this solution into your LAN for use by persons in the office, you'll probably want to use FileMaker Server 5.5 and FileMaker Pro 5.5. All these are available in volume license from FMI.

HTH

Old Advance Man

[Personas Binar]

If I'm using Server (to host intranet 'bases), do my clients require FM?

Can they run at the data through browsers?

Thanks so much for the info...you deserve everyone of your stars.

Cheers and Beers

Andrew

[Personas Binar]

I will most likely be given permission to purchase FM to build a test portal. My question is this: Will 5.5 Pro serve? How many will it serve? I just need a small serving ability for now to show it works, then I'll most likely get to scale up to encompass more of our environment.

Chers and thanks for any input.