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Maflynn · Nov 2, 2003, 10:54 AM

I'm a programmer who has used MS sql server for years. I'm interested in FileMaker for my mac, but I'm wondering what people here think of it.

I will be creating a General Ledger database (I'm a treasurer at my church) and most of the data entry will be via excel. Is there an interface that Filemaker pro can use to import a spreadsheet or will I be constrained to saving files as comma delimitted and importing those.

Is there any type of sql language for it. what about report generation, flexible?

I have the demo installed and I started making my way throuhg the user's guide. I'm mostly interested in its programability and any issues I may face as someone who's used to T-SQL.

Thanks
Mike

Angus_D · Nov 2, 2003, 11:16 AM

FM Pro is a bit limited and inflexible, not to mention it's getting a bit long in the tooth. I'd also suggest that you look at 4th Dimension, it seems to be a bit more of a developer tool. FM is brilliant if you're clueless about databases and want to create a simple solution quickly, but you might find yourself hitting brick walls quite quickly if you're coming from something towards the high end of the market.

I'm not really sure what you mean about "importing a spreadsheet", as csv/tab delimited is the standard for importing/exporting spreadsheet data... MS Excel's file format is closed, so there's no way other developers can just import it (although MS SQL or Access might be able to, of course, since they're Microsoft products and can share code with the rest of the Office suite).

HTH.

Jellytussle · Nov 2, 2003, 04:24 PM

FM Pro will allow direct imports from Excel files, and has done since about v5. You can embed AppleScript within FM scripts to do quite clever tricks with data in other apps. Version 7 looks pretty tidy, but i'm not sure when it's due to ship. From the version i saw, it can't be too far away. You will bump against its limitations when it comes to report generation, but you'll appreciate being about to get up and running in next to no time. There's probably a template out there really close to what you want.