Investigating Filemaker

[pctechbiz]

Hi all,

I have been investigating whether I should purchase Filemaker Pro 6. I'm torn between upgarding to Access 2002 or invest in FMP 6.

I was pretty close to just getting FMP 6, when I started to notice the amount of workarounds necessary in order to get intermediate applications to function. This causes me some concern.

I have 22 years experience as a consultant, and I can be considered a subject matter expert in several key areas within corporate America. Many of the applications I feel need supporting would require a very good import facility to get data from various systems into an application (FMP 6)
for processing. Access would require extensive VB coding. I was hoping FMP 6 would be a good, if not better alternative

I also attempted to contact some of the FM Partners, in my area, in hopes of getting a better feel for the market, and if I could actually find some work as an FMP 6 developer.
I was surprised to find that people seemed threatened by my contact and asking advice. I got the feeling that there is a small market, with no room for additional developers.

I'm torn. I have downloaded the trial version and have found it to be relatively intuitive. I would hate to commit to a product that may not have a place for me to grow. I just can't afford to spend the money without doing the necessary due diligence.

Has anyone gone through this? Is there a market for FMP 6 (developers or users) here in the North East?

From a career sandpoint, which database would you chose and why?

Hey, thanks very much for considering my questions. Any advice, guidance or direction is greatly appreciated.

If you want to hype FMP 6, by all means, do so. Most people are locked into MS Access because it came pre-installed on their desktop. How do you get around this, if at all?

Again, thank you all. Sorry for the long message. I need an
education on more than just the product. I need to understand where it fits and why.

Cheers,
Greg

 

[StevenAvery]

Hi Greg,

Good questions, PCTechBiz, I have a similar situation.. my client is using Filemaker for
a rinky-dink PC bill of lading app (we have a
real accounting/inventory AS/400-RPG system too) and we are ready to build on that for a warehouse system in Joisey -- of course the administrator sees it in the eyes of how easy the rinky-dink system is .. hmmm.. not even
any popups, real number keys, nada...

So I would like to make the learning curve largely profitable..while doing the app... the client is great and reasonably savvy and flexible in general..

Filemaker seems a little relationally weak,
"portals" ... compared eg to Alpha 5 "sets",
which is a real visual relational linkage, or on a higher level Clarion 5.5 (template development)...

My sense is that both Access and Filemaker still lag a little in doing real relational work in terms of power and ease of use.. Access will make work because of the &quot;name&quot; <sigh> but Filemakers struggle for work, sometimes in their earlier Mac lineage....

You would know about Access, and I did once see a nice PIM done in Filemaker .. (maybe everything is easily doable once you learn all the tricks?) .. actually I would like to find that PIM again, it was free or cheap..

And what is this Filemaker nonsense of combining the data and the forms together in the .fp5 files
<sheesh> .. seems like kindergarten to me,
oh yeah.. does Access do similar ?

(on an enterprise level Magic or Borland
could come to play-- but the investment
would be greater and hard to justify in
this case.. )

So if we bother doing this in Filemaker
are we limiting the system to pigeon-hole
work-around enhancements and limited viability to use the skills (except in
real simple one user apps) ..

My sense is to override the Filemaker

(although I remember there was a great
Filemaker email forum with a gal from
newyawk, Inga ? who answered everybody)

And insist on Clarion (I can upgrade for
$150) or Alpha5 (similar$ upgrade)..

Alpha5 has a funny history, they went in silly directions for a year or two, but they seem quite focused now... always had a good product...

Granted Alpha5 might have similar problems
than Filemaker, but in some ways it seems
so much cleaner..

And I feel I might be able to drum up work easier with a clear conscience..
(the runtime situation is mediocre, I ferget how it is with Filemaker) ..

Thoughts ?

Steven Avery .. schmuel@bigfoot.com

 

[pctechbiz]

Hi Steven,

Yeah, I hear ya! Yes, I believe MS Access combines everything in an MDB file (like fp5).

I'm looking for ease of use, but flexibility. I have used MS Access projects to frontend SQL. I'm not a very good coder, so Access to ASP for web service is difficult for me.
I'm not sure how Alpha does it? Filemaker does have some pretty slick features for working with data. MS Access takes more work under the covers.

I would like to get the complete specs on each db, Access, FM and Alpha (or others). I would like to better understand record limits, file size limits, table limits, number or log files, number of simultaneous users, etc. FM allows 10 users to access the db on a networked system, right out of the box.

There are also issues regarding runtime. FM doesn't allow file sharing in runtime creations. Access & Alpha do. Access developer is $799, Alpha is $1500, FM is $499.

I'm still confused. I know many Access developers. I know several FM developers. I do not know a single Alpha developer. Many of the large companies I deal with use Access, SQL or Oracle. The smaller companies range from Excel to Access.

I guess Access is the most widely installed desktop database. I sold out in the 70's when I cut my hair. What happened to the days when Paradox, FoxPro, Access, Dbase and others were found in just about every office?
I think we have standardized ourselves right out of support and creativity, and into a group of follow-me-boys from IT.
If I use Oracle, my privates must be larger. If I use FM I must be gay. I don't think we looking to get the job done, as much as we want to look impressive. Heck, we were already impressive when we got the job done!

Ok, I going to step down from my soap box. Today will be another day without a solution. Maybe, I should just go study and learn the ways of Microsoft. Just join the establishment, run with the pack, conform, buckle under, etc.

I need a solution desgn tool that costs under $500, runtime add on for under $500, that works very well and can grow.
Anyone have any ideas?


G.

 

[BrerDOM]

There is a fairly recent white paper, &quot;Comparing and Conntrasting Database Software Tools - FileMaker 5.5 and Microsoft Access 2002&quot; by Wim Decorte, available at

http://www.connectingdata.com.

 

[Schlogg]

Boy!, I need to look at that paper!
Greg, I'm not in the US so my experience might be different. Access bods are common but VERY expensive. Good ones, even more so.
FMP bods are rarer but just as expensive. The biggest problem is that FMP is really easy to use.
One of the really nice things about Access is that you can separate data and code. This is really great and is the only feature in Access which is better than FMP.
IMHO Access is a helicopter and FMP is a waggon. 90% of applications need a waggon (or smaller); if you need a helicopter, use Access - and suffer accordingly. (It is a dog of a product.)
FMP's lack of file-sharing with the runtime version is a major problem.
If, like me, you are developing stuff for specific clients, sell them FMP and show them how easy it is to extend the work you've done. One of my clients employs me to do the tough stuff but they do ten time as much in trivia. Cheers,
Paul J.