MS Access / Filemaker 2

[Frink]

Hallo,

I am an MS Access application developer and am looking to develop a database application on a Mac.

Can somebody give me an overview of the main differences between Filemaker Pro and MS Access?
Other then the obvious MS Access doesn't run on a Mac.
In the only comparisons I have seen they've just said where Filemaker Pro is better than MS Access, it can all be good news... ...can it?

Are they similar? Are development times similar?

- Frink

 

[JeanW]

Access and Filemaker are different enough that you do have to change some of your thinking, and use different techniques. I stop here at FM 6 because for now my FM 7 is still in the box...

Platforms
=========
Of course Access is not available for the Macintosh except through Windows emulation software.So for cross-platform development I would recommend a product like Filemaker, which operates just as well on Windows-based platforms as on the Mac.

Web-database development
======================
Filemaker is definitely easier to get a basic web database set-up. However, Access uses some other technologies such as ASP to a greater extent. By the time you start making complex web databases where Access becomes a better choice than Filemaker, Access itself is outclassed by SQL
Server and other industrial-strength databases.
This may change with the better Data Access Pages in Access , but I doubt it.

In terms of bandwidth usage over a network, Filemaker is nice and lean, whereas Access is not ... (other Access developers know what I am talking about)

Relational design, ODBC and SQL
===========================
From a very early stage Access incorporated Relational design, two-way ODBC
connectivity and Structured Query Language statements in Queries. Access makes a great front-end client to other databases such as SQL Server.
On the other hand, Filemaker has added these features in the last few years.
In these areas Filemaker may never catch-up

Table/Form/Report/Layout design
==========================
The two products have different strengths and weaknesses. However, my impression is that Filemaker is a much more elegant database product, with a lot of sensible features. Microsoft could learn a lot from Filemaker.

The only areas in which Access seems to have a better design is with table linking and developing relationships. Filemaker would probably be quicker to develop an application that had only a couple of main tables.


Macros/Scripting/Visual Basic
==========================
Filemaker scripts seem to fall between Access Macros and VBA (Visual Basic
for Applications) in terms of power.

The Filemaker scripts are really easy to set-up - easier than Access macros.
However, they still fall short of a full programming language such as VBA.

Ease for novice
============
Databases always require a higher learning curve than word processors or
spreadsheets.
In terms of ease of use, in my mind I would use the following order:

- Filemaker
- Access
- FoxPro, Paradox
- SQL Server
- Oracle

At the top of this list the databases are easy to use. At the bottom the databases are powerful.

Developer
========
Here I believe Access has a slight edge for an Access expert. There is a developer edition of Office that features integration via programming, OLE,ADO and ODBC and other technologies with other Office products - Word,Excel, Outlook, FrontPage. If you do not already have Access installed (preferably the same version as you have) you can distribute run-time versions of Access. But the new version of FM Developer is really fantastic and easy in use.

Why Access ?
===========

Access is ubiquitous (what a word !!) as it is sold by Microsoft in the Professional version of their Office suite. I can buy Access at just about
any computer shop.

One thing to bear in mind:
It has taken you years to get to your level of expertise with Access and it would take you just as long (if not longer) to attain a similar level of expertise in FMP or visa versa. Your will be making the most use of your talents and skills if you developed the database in Filemaker (unless it uses ODBC).

With credit to Gregory Scott, I deal his opinion.

HTH

 

[Frink]

Hallo,

Thankyou for your response. I shall bear it in mind.
Can I set up relationships between fields in tables in Filemaker Pro (5.5 or 6) so that they enforce referential integrity as in MS Access?
ie. So you can't have a record in a 'child' table unless there is a record in a 'parent' table?
or you can restrict a field to a set of values by relating it to a table listing the allowed values?

- Frink

 

[JeanW]

You can do both :
or you make it in such way that records in the child file can only be made through the parent file or you can 'connect' well defined records from the parent to the child and vice versa through a relationship.

 

[djoc77]

I am not familar with Access enough other than to say that you really need to look at Filemaker 7.0. to do any real comparisons. Filemaker 7 does use a table structure similar to Acess. Multiple tables in a single file. It has vastly expanded its power and speed even to the point of terabytes in file size. I understand that in some situations it out performs SQL for speed of search. Look at the comparisons on the Filemaker site.

http://www.filemaker.com