I have tried out the Container Fields in V14.  Very nice.  The PDF & Image Documents are fluid.  I tried the External Storage.  While a bit confusing at first, I finally figured out the disk storage process.

What doesn't work well are the Word & Excel Files, stored on the Server.  I can see why the interactive display wouldn't work.  Still, we can't launch them either, just "export field contents".

We are looking at Emails & SQL files as well.  Was wondering if anybody has installed Word, Excel or Outlook on the Server & got better results?

We hope to get V14 live in September, and we are very interested in what we can do with the Container Fields.  Would be happy to just click & launch some of these file types.  Any help is appreciated.

What is your expectation when you click and launch the files? Is it for file sharing/collaborative work on the files? If so, that likely won't work the way you want. There are a lot of file sharing issues with Excel ( unrelated to FM ). I have yet to see a network shared file that survives more than a few months.

Well, that would be nice.  However, I was hoping more for just "launching" it, though I guess that isn't all that much better that having the user export & save it first.

Being able to view the file inside the Container, ala PDF would be quite helpful.  I'm not sure how FileMaker handles the details, if it uses an outside PDF Viewer or if it has its own code for viewing.  Just trying to find out if I am missing something on Containers.

Being able to edit within the Container would be great, but I didn't expect it.  The locking would work, as FileMaker does the locking, through record locking.  I assume that is way more advanced that were we are now though.

Ultimately, we would like to store the file in the Container.  The ability to click & launch the file and the ability to view the file within the Container, these would be the features that would help out for now.

Edited August 20, 201510 yr by NYPoke