Filemaker/Ipad help needed
October 25, 2010 11:13 AM   Subscribe

Is any hiver aware of an Ipad app that will allow me to view a relational database created in Filemaker pro 6? Not having any luck so I hand this over to the geniuses
posted by citybuddha to Technology (4 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Filemaker makes an iPad app, but you'll need to upgrade your desktop version. Filemaker 6 is eight years old and was written for OS 8/9 (!) so you're not going to have much luck there. The iPad app will support anything from Filemaker 7 through 11, which is pretty decent all things considered.
posted by bcwinters at 11:39 AM on October 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


Doesn't Filemaker have the ability to serve its database templates as HTML pages? I recall setting this up for a customer, and I don't see why the iPad's Safari should have any trouble reading them.
posted by 1adam12 at 12:05 PM on October 25, 2010


Web sharing in FM7 or later, but I am not sure if FM6 had this. It's dead easy with the later versions.
posted by fourcheesemac at 12:51 PM on October 25, 2010


If it's at all possible, consider migrating your solution away from FMP6 to FMP11 (or at least FMP9, but really, FMP11 is a pretty solid release). I know, first hand, that this migration is a lot of work, but it is very well worth the effort.

FMGo, as mentioned above, is the obvious choice for accessing your FMP files on an iPad. FMGo requires the .fp7 file format (FMP7 through FMP11). FMGo has limitations, mostly resulting from the iOS platform. It works best when used with a very a directed workflow for your users, with scripts and buttons that restrict their actions to only the one or two choices you want for them at any given point in their task. There are several nice, free tools out there to help you with some of the hiccups of developing for the FMGo platform -- I think the one from Richard Carlton Consulting is especially helpful, but YMMV.

Alternatively, you can host your database in FMP6 using FMP web publishing and you will have some access via the web browser, but FMP6 web publishing is not very secure, does not use industry standards (CDML), and the scripting environment is hardly ideal. Plus, while FMP6 is "relational", it isn't nearly as relational as FMP7 (or later).

Bottom line: FMGo, despite its limitations, is really the correct way to go here. Yes, that may mean a painful migration from FMP6 to something later, but as painful as that is -- and I'm a FileMaker developer, so I know how painful that is -- it's really the right choice.
posted by mosk at 10:32 AM on October 26, 2010


« Older Snap, snap, shoot!   |   Mac Powerbook Needs to be Reconfigured Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.