Filemaker Pro

[Jerry Stoner]

Anyone familiar with this product? Ive got a potential customer but he seems stuck on using Filemaker Pro. Is it a decent program? Is it as good a solution as access for a small business (optomitrist) scenario? Any opinions greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jerry

 

[moss]

Well I have used it and I think it is better than Access.

 

[Jerry Stoner]

In what way

can you give me more details on why?

Anyone else?

 

[Rowena]

I, also, have used Filemaker, and I think it is a lot easier to figure out intuitively. Not so much fiddling with code.
Your mileage may vary.
Rowena

 

[Jerry Stoner]

Ok thats 2 for, any vets out there with an opinion?

One of my concerns is the mileage may vary statement. OK it may be easier to set up but is the functionality there to allow me to customize or is what you see what you get?

 

[Rowena]

I have Filemaker on my home machine, and I have been able to make it do pretty much what I want it to. I have not, however, tried to do anything as complicated as the Access database I am currently banging my head against. I have been told by friends of mine who should know that Filemaker is a true relational database, and I infer from that comment that it should be possible to do all sorts of nifty things with it. I say your mileage may vary because I, personally, have only done relatively simple things with it.
I was able to set up my home database (a glorified address book at this point) without resorting to a textbook, which I think is a plus. Access, on the other hand, was totally incomprehensible until I procured a textbook. But we use it at work, so I am doing my best to learn it!
Form and report design in Filemaker is fairly quick and easy, and once you've learned the controls, not that different from Access.
I hope this helped,
Rowena

 

[Jerry Stoner]

Thanks Rowena

ok just read a whitepaper
www.filemaker.co.uk/downloads/pdf/fm_access_comparison.pdf

comparing the two programs and it seems they both have there plusses and minuses but the one that scares me is that with Filemaker you have no VBA equivelant. What you see is indeed what you get. You can add scripts but they must be PURCHASED. You cant write your own functionality!

Is this correct?

 

[Pat Hartman]

Interesting article. Too bad that there are some outright errors in it. For example, the author makes a point that the compact/repair in Access ALWAYS overwrites the existing file and that FileMaker NEVER does so Filemaker is "better". The author compares the list of Access Macros (he never mentions the built-in functions) to the entire language supported by FileMaker and then says that anything else in Access needs to be done with VBA which he thinks is difficult. I'm not sure why he would think that the If-then-else construct in VBA is any more difficult than the one used by FileMaker. Once you get into scripting, you're in a programming language environment. I would prefer a full-featured language if I have to write code.

The author also assumes that when an Access db is migrated to an ODBC solution, that it needs to bear the entire cost of SQL server or whatever RDBMS backend is chosen. That is rarely the case. For all but the smallest of clients, there is almost certainly at least one other application that uses some RDBMS.

If your client needs the database to run on Macs, you may be stuck with FileMaker. That will also be the case if he intends for his staff to maintain the db that you develop and they are familiar with FileMaker but not with Access.

Letting the client read the article may help your case. But since it is somewhat biased toward FileMaker, it may not.

 

[Jerry Stoner]

Thanks Pat

Very well put. The article is very biased and unfortunatly I believe that will hurt my case with the client. Since I posted Ive found out why he wants to use Filemaker. He "knows" the program, wants to do the bulk of the work himself and wants me to "develop a scheduler" which he cant do then "integrate HIS app "seamlessly" with quickbooks! I think not. Dont need the work that bad. When it fails it would undoubtedly be my fault. So Im going to develop a small sample to show him what I can provide in Access. If he still wants to do it his way Ill have to decline and he is on his own.

 

[moss]

Re: In what way

can you give me more details on why?

Anyone else?

Moss here again, well u can open up any application and get data from it, wether its a word or some other data. u can open up a spread shead and pick a cell to get data from.
its brill.

Now Im trying to get data from a cell in excell to import it into a record and i havent go t a clue.. MS is poo