At 2008-12-13 15:53 -0800 Steve B. Gerow wrote:
FileMaker can connect to any ODBC datasource for which there is a driver availiable. You can import data from the ODBC data source into FileMaker but cannot modify* the data in the source itself with ODBC
Steve - having just implemented a solution which uses FMP front-ends on users' own machines to connect via ODBC to a central MySQL server, I feel the need to question what you _seem_ to be saying. Forgive me if I am not understanding you correctly.
It's correct that FMP cannot alter the _structure_ of a SQL served database accessed through ODBC, but the FMP users can certainly modify the _data_ held therein, and my solution depends upon it.
The average end-user will not want to tinker with the database structure, so it's not an issue in my situation.
There are some slight differences between handling tables accessed through ODBC and native FMP tables, but for the most part (once set up using MySQL Admin or phpMyAdmin) they can be treated just like native FMP tables. You can add FMP-native calculated and summary fields to ODBC-based tables.
It seems much easier to find hosting services for MySQL than for FMP; I'd expect this FMP9 feature to be a popular reason for upgrading to 9.
Incidentally, I find that the Actual ODBC Mac drivers for MS Access only allow _import_ of Access data, which sounds a bit like what you seem to be saying about the SQL ODBC drivers. Of course, that makes sense anyway as there is no MS Access engine on the Mac so if the data file is held on the Mac, it _has_ to be read-only.
regards Rowland -- | Wilma & Rowland Carson http://home.clara.net/rowil/ | <[email protected]> ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...
