I've been handed an interesting question in that an Apple centric user would be keen to run databases on Filemaker Pro and we already have several running on MS SQL.
FM Pro is visually stunning and as a front end to work with customers would look good, but I'm more SQL at heart.
Does anybody use both?
Can you easily run tasks between SQL and FM Pro to update data to FM Pro (say overnight)?
Has anybody made the change from SQL to FM Pro for any purpose and found it to be ok?
Thanks in advance
To expand on user4166144's answer a bit, you can add MS SQL as an external data source to FileMaker using ODBC. (See "Using FileMaker Pro, I want to create a live connection to a MS SQL Server, Oracle or MySQL data source.")
This will let you base layouts on an MS SQL table just as though it was a native FileMaker table. That is, the data will be "live", with no need for over-night copying about.
There are some limitations to ODBC connections, which will probably be irrelevant in your case. Mostly, ODBC data sources in FileMaker don't get all the FileMaker goodies in Manage Database. Tables from ODBC sources are "shadow tables". For example, if you delete a field ("column") in FileMaker, it doesn't get deleted in the SQL database. However, creating, editing, and deleting records all work as normal. You can even add tables from ODBC sources to the relationship graph, which is the primary way that you get data from multiple tables in FileMaker.
FileMaker is a little hard to wrap your head around coming from an SQL background. It's meant for rapid application development, and as such it has certain paradigms in mind. Here are a few things to know that I hope will help:
Every user interface ("Layout") in FileMaker is based on a table occurrence. The body of a layout represents a single record in that table occurrence. Every script, calculation and related piece of data is calculated from the perspective of that single record in that single table occurrence. That is, a layout is a "cursor".
There is no (sane) FileMaker way to do the equivalent of an SQL "OR" when it comes to the Relationship Graph.
FileMaker 12 has two features with very similar names. It has a calculation function "ExecuteSQL", which allows you to run SELECT statements on table occurrences in FileMaker; that includes ODBC sources. It also has a script step called "Execute SQL", which is handy for running arbitrary SQL against an ODBC data source. This latter is probably going to be very useful for you.
It's somewhat hard to get the results of SQL queries onto FileMaker layouts in any kind of elegant way. Generally, you need to write the results to a global field, a global variable, or a regular field. If you want to display tabular data from an SQL query in a decent kind of way, you will need to generate HTML and spit it into data url in a Web Viewer element on a layout (i.e., prefix the HTML with "data:text/html,")
FileMaker, since version 9, includes the ability to connect to a number of SQL databases without resorting to using SQL, including MySQL, SQL Server, and Oracle. This requires installation of the SQL database ODBC driver to connect to a SQL database. SQL databases can be used as data sources in FileMaker’s relationship graph, thus allowing the developer to create new layouts based on the SQL database; create, edit, and delete SQL records via FileMaker layouts and functions; and reference SQL fields in FileMaker calculations and script steps. It is a cross platform relational database application.
Versions from FileMaker Pro 5.5 onwards also have an ODBC interface.
FileMaker 12 introduced a new function, ExecuteSQL, which allows the user to perform an SQL query against the FileMaker database to retrieve data, but not for modification or deletion, or schema changes.
Related
Basically I need something to generate SQL Server change scripts for data differences only, based on the data differences between two tables with the same schema.
We will have a table with approx 250,000-330,000 rows and 10-12 columns, and two instances of the table:
The Master table, populated with records from the production system.
the Sandpit table, also populated from the production system - but in which the user can add / remove rows and edit cell contents.
Once the user is happy with their edits they need to generate a change script which makes the necessary changes to an instance of the Master table in a variety of servers (test, pre-prod, prod), so it needs to be reliable. It's safe to assume that all versions of the master data will be the same when the script is eventually run.
They also need to be able to re-run the change script for self-testing (restoring the master back to it's original state would be a separate process, out of scope for this question).
Design of the table schema is not yet done, and can be tailored to suit this purpose.
SQL Server 2008 Standard edition, upgrade likely (but still standard edition).
I understand RedGate is pretty much the industry standard / leading choice for generating SQL change scripts but their website focuses a lot on managing schema changes so not sure if it's appropriate to use here. I'm familiar with using SQL Server myself but it's been a few years - not sure if the inbuilt functionality is up to it or not (both being technically capable + user friendly enough). The end user will be a competent SQL user but comes from the business side not IT (not SQL Admin grade).
You should be able to do this from Visual Studio using SSDT (SQL Server Data Tools). You need to do a data comparison between the source and target tables, which will then generate a change script.
We have a peculiar challenge with overly-strict use restrictions, and I'm trying to find a way to accomplish it.
We have data in two locations, on different platforms. We are extracting data from application tables, and we aren't allowed to create our own views/procs/etc.
Is there a way to run a query into a remote Oracle DB from within an SQL Server query?
To further complicate issues, we have to make it run through a Crystal Reports database command.
We have ODBC connections defined at the BOXI platform (using Oracle ODBC for the Oracle connection).
I am hoping to use the SQL WITH clause to build in-memory views (for lack of a better term) to:
Initially extract some circuit IDs from the local SQL Server system,
Extract ticket numbers based on those circuit IDs, from the remote Oracle system,
Extract the core of our data from the SQL Server system, joined with the ticket data and return that to Crystal as a result dataset.
If we had our own space, this would be trivial.
BOXI doesn't let us do multiple-server universes.
You would need to some way to write and store connection strings, but it doesn't sound like you're able to do this.
If you can't make ANY changes to either source system, you might try creating an MS Access DB and using linked tables to bring in all the information you need and have your Crystal Report run from that. You would then only need to make sure that the machine you're running this on has the ODBC drivers to be able to connect, which are simple enough to configure.
I've recently been upgraded to Office 2007. I have several Access databases (that I've kept in the Access 2000 format for several reasons) that are linked to SQL Server 2000 databases. I have dozens of queries in these databases that I use often. I create new queries daily, sorting, summarizing and generally analyzing the data.
Since the upgrade, some queries take an extremely long time to complete (minutes rather than seconds), and one new one I've tried to run doesn't complete at all, I have to end task on Access. It's a rather simple query, it joins 3 tables, and sorts on one of the fields. I do this ALL THE TIME, and now it appears I can't.
I've searched for discussions of similar problems, but haven't seen specific recommendations.
Any ideas?
I would suggest deleting all your ODBC linked tables and recreating them from scratch as a starting point.
If your queries do not need to make any changes to the data you may find converting them to SQL Pass through queries will speed them up considerable. Note these queries are not parsed through the Jet DB Engine but sent directly to the server and bypass any linked tables.
You will have to use MS SQL syntax and lose the QBE grid though and the result will be read only.
If you need to update data then maybe stored procedures are the way to go.
When I converted to SQL Server backend, I used SQL Server Migration Assistant. I recommend it highly. It's very good at what it does.
Having said that, I assume you're using linked tables in your FE. I convert slow-moving queries by copying the SQL from Access, then pasting it into a "new query" window on SQL Server Management Studio. Then, working through all the syntax changes one at a time, I convert the query to T-SQL and save it as a view with the same name as the query in Access.
I have a little routine that then renames the Access query to "Local_" and then creates a linked table entry to the view on SQL Server. You'll find that a query that used to run for minutes will run for seconds this way. You can, of course, do this manually.
SQL Server Migration Assistant, by the way, will convert many queries (it doesn't try to convert action queries, only select queries...) with little or no intervention.
I would use Access Data Projects with SQL Server 2000. It works great when your SQL backend is that old.
I'm working on a legacy project, written for the most part in Delphi 5 before it was upgraded to Delphi 2007. A lot has changed after this upgrade, except the database that's underneath. It still uses MS-Access for data storage.
Now we want to support SQL Server as an alternate database. Still just for single-user situations, although multi-user support will be a feature for the future. And although there won't be many migration problems (see below) when it needs to use a different database, keeping two database structures synchronized is a bit of a problem.
If I would create an SQL script to generate the SQL Server database then I would need a second script to keep the Access database up-to-date too. They don't speak the same dialect. (At least, not for our purposes.) So I need a way to maintain the database structure in a simple way, making sure it can generate both a valid SQL Server database as an Access database. I could write my own tool where I store the database structure inside an XML file, which combined with some smart code and ADOX would generate both database types.
But isn't there already a good tool that can do this?
Note: the application also uses ADO and all queries are just simple select statements. Although it has 50+ tables, there's one root "Document" table and the user selects one of the "documents" in this table. It then collects all records from all tables that are related to this document record and stores them in an in-memory structure. When the user saves the data, it just writes the document record and all changed data back to the database again. Basically, this read/write mechanism of documents is the only database interaction in the whole application. So using a different database is not a big problem.
We will drop the MS-Access database in the future but for now we have 4000 customers using this application. We first need to make sure the whole thing works with SQL Server and we need to continue to maintain the current code. As a result, we will have to support both databases for at least a year.
Take a look at the DB Explorer, there is a trial download too.
OR
Use migration wizard from MS Access to SQL Server
After development in Access (schema changes), use the wizard again.
Use a tool to compare SQL Server schemata.
Are there any good database schema comparison tools out there that support Sybase SQL Anywhere version 10? I've seen a litany of them for SQL Server, a few for MySQL and Oracle, but nothing that supports SQL Anywhere correctly.
I tried using DB Solo, but it turned all my non-unique indexes into unique ones, and I didn't see any options to change that.
If you are willing to download SQL Anywhere Version 11, and Compare It!, check out the comparison technique shown here:
http://sqlanywhere.blogspot.com/2008/08/comparing-database-schemas.html
You don't have to upgrade your SQL Anywhere Version 10 database.
The new kid on the block is Qwerybuilder. It supports SQL Server, Sybase ASE, Sybase SQL Anywhere and Oracle. I've used it successfully with SQL Anywhere to track schema changes.
Two I've come across that support SQL Anywhere:
Upscene Database Workbench - http://www.upscene.com/products.dbw.sqlanywhere.php
Aquafold - http://www.aquafold.com/index-sybaseany.html
Each one appears has a schema comparison tool, however I have not used either to compare schemas.
SQLDelta is awesome. It is for SQL Server. I've used it with SQL 2000 and 2005. It will compare stored procedures, tables, views, permissions, indexes, etc. It can also compare data between tables I believe. You can sync the changes or generate SQL Scripts for later use. I use it often to script out db changes in development to production.
Ah...missed the Sybase remark. Not sure if SQLDelta can talk to it..but I'd probably give it a shot since Sybase is similar.
Try erwin (CA AllFusion ERwin Data Modeler). It supports quite a lot of different DBs, including SQL Anywhere, and is quite good in reverse/forward engineering and schema comparison. However, you may find it a bit too complex to use for the comparison...
I use SQL Data Compare from Red Gate along with SQL Compare the data compare allows you to Compare the contents of two databases and Automatically synchronize your data.
SQL compare allows you to do the same but with the database tables. Nice GUI on each and very easy setup. they also work on a remote database.
There not cheap but each has a 30 trail so you can get a feel if you like it or not.
Sybase PowerDesigner can also Compare or Merge your Database Schema.
It can also Load the Schema from various Databases by ODBC if you have Schema generation Scripts you can also load them into a Model.
Its an expensive tool but great to document and develop you schema changes IMHO.
Breck Carter's idea is a good one. For quick scans, I have an old product that is called DBDelta. I have it installed on an old Windows 2000 machine because the install I have will not work on an XP machine. It's a very small app that compares two SQL Anywhere databases across an ODBC connection.
I've done some searches to try and find a later copy, but have not been able to. The developer was Charles Butcher. I think he supported it for a while and then stopped back in 2002 or so.
I'll continue to look for a link. If I find something I will post it here.
QweryBuilder 5.5.0 will allow you to compare all procedures, functions, views, tables and triggers in one shot. This release is scheduled for mid May, 2010.
It hasn't been finalized yet but we are also looking at adding an option to turn the diff results into a script that can be executed on a target database.