Upgrading from v5 to v7 queries

[eSBee]

Hello all

 

I'm a newbie with FileMaker and have been given the task of upgrading the current environment of a host PC (Win 2000) and 3 clients (2 XPs and 1 Win 2000), all running version 5. I have read some of the documentation from the FM website but have a few queries.

 

1) Do I need to stop the hosting of files before I start the conversion? Would there be any advantage to doing this?

 

2) Are they any changes to script syntax that I should be looking out for? BTW, where can I get a book on FileMaker ScriptMaker?

 

3) Current version using a plug-in called Local Data Access Companion, can anyone tell me what this does and where I can find it for version 7?

 

A different issue: at the moment our date format within different files is not consistent. Some of the date fields use US format and some UK format, is there a quick method to make these consistent to UK format?

 

Many thanks in advance.

[CobaltSky]

Hello eSBee,

Some (somewhat belated) answers to your questions:

 

1. Yes. Files cannot be converted between versions while they are being hosted. I would suggest that you work on copies of the files, keeping the originals for reference purposes.

 

2. Yes there are many changes to scripting syntac in FileMaker 7 - and you should look out for them all!. There is a good set of basic descriptions of the bulk of changes among the TechBrief documents available from FMI. AFAIK there is no book that deals exclusively with FileMaker scripting, but you will find reasonable treatment of the subject in the FileMaker Professional Training Foundation Series II (available direct from FMI) and also in in Special Edition - Using FileMaker 7 (from Que publishing).

 

3. The 'Local Data Access Companion' is plug-in shipped as standard with earlier versions of FileMaker and is used to enable client access (ie hosting a database) from within the client (rather than server) versions of FileMaker Pro. The functionality it provides is built into FileMaker 7 and the plug-in is not required.

 

4. If you save a clone of each of the files on a computer that has the system (date time etc) settings that you want to use, the clones will adopt those settings as their defaults. If you then re-import your data into the clones you will have a file set which has consistent formats throughout.

[FileMakin' Tom]

Hey Ray . . .

 

Whhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaatttttt? LOL

 

Tom

[ATI]

Do you seriously think that it is not needed? If at all there is any plug in for Local Data Access, where can i get it?

[CobaltSky]

I don't think that Tom meant to imply that the Local Data Access Companion is not needed for FileMaker 6 and earlier, nor that it is needed for FileMaker 7 (or 8). But then I don't really know *what* he meant, so perhaps your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps Tom will clarify...

 

In the meantime however, if you're looking for a Local Data Access Companion plug-in for FileMaker 6, you won't have far to go because a copy shipped free with every copy of FileMaker. If you want the plug-in for more recent versions of FileMaker, then your search will be in vain. As stated above, the functionality of the plug-in has been built-in in FileMaker 7 (and remains so in version 8), so the plug-in is not required.