[olePigeon]

Howdy,

My stepmom owns a design firm for custom kitchens and cabinetry. Right now she's just using her trusty Rolodex and bookshelves of scrap binders for each client. She would like to digitize everything into an accessible database that she and her staff can access from home (but not published to the web.)

She has her client registry, sketches, contracts, and she uses a program called 20-20 for designing the kitchens and stuff. 20-20 is essentially the AutoCAD of kitchen design software.

I thought Filemaker would be perfect. There are tons of design consultants out there that can make a custom Filemaker database for pretty cheap, and Filemaker in itself is relatively cheap.

Basically, this is what she needs it to do, and I’m trying to find out if Filemaker would be the best option:

1. Centralized database on a Windows XP computer that she and her staff can access.
2. Database contains her client registry. Names, addresses, the usual info.
3. Associated with each client would be various lists of documents.
4. Those documents would be scanned PDFs of her contracts, a list of sketches scanned in or digital images her clients have brought in, and a list of 20-20 Design Files that she has drag-n-dropped to be associated with that client (cabinet options, kitchen layouts, etc.)
5. The list of documents would have to be clickable and open. For example, if the client wanted to go over the contract, she’d just bring up her Client Registry (Filemaker database), type in his or her name, then it’d pop up with all those associated documents. She’d just click on the contract PDF and it’d load Adobe Acobat.

Or, after viewing the contract, they can click on a JPEG the client brought in that she made in Photoshop. Or, if there’s a layout my stepmom has been working on, she can click on the 20-20 Design file and it’ll load directly into 20-20.

6. The database would have to hosted off a server computer running normal Windows XP.

I’m fairly certain Filemaker can do all of this, but I wanted to get some second opinions or other programs that might work better, or, just as good but cheaper than Filemaker for Windows.

[techtrucker]

Yes, FileMaker can do all of what you mentioned. There are a couple of different ways to handle the "external files"...You can use Container fields, but any changes made would not be reflected in the original files. The best thing is to have a list of documents that open in their respective app when clicked.

The only thing I can't tell you for certain is exactly how to launch the related applications in Windows, I've only worked with FileMaker on the Mac. I use the "Perform AppleScript" function to do what I need to do, I'm guessing you'd either have to find something under ScriptMaker that's Windows specific or use OLE.

You can download a demo and see if you can make it work, I think it's a 30 day demo.

If the office consists of 5 users or less you'd only need FileMaker Pro.

[techtrucker]

I emailed a colleague about this, and he mentioned that he uses the following product to make things easier, looks like it's $110 for up to 5 users:

Dacons launch.it 2 | Product Info

[olePigeon]

Hey, thanks Tech. That looks exactly like what she'd want. Click on the file and they'd open up in their respective applications.

I think this'll work out great. I'm gonna check out the templates they include with the program. I'm pretty sure it already has a basic Rolodex type template that I bet I could modify and put in some list fields. Maybe use that plugin you mentioned.

Thanks a bunch.

[techtrucker]

I think FM is a good fit for your needs. You may not even need the plugin, I am pretty sure there's a way to launch external apps under Windows. As mentioned I've only worked with FM on Macs.

FM comes with a rich set of templates, in fact there's several that are Contacts/Rolodex related that would get you jump started quickly.

[besson3c]

If you are looking for a free alternative, would MySQL be an okay fit, using one of the many GUI front ends to manage it? Seems like this would offer more flexibility in some ways.

[besson3c]

Make sure that with whatever solution she goes with that she has a solid backup solution in place!

[techtrucker]

It would be quite flexible, but at the same time would at times require one of us geeks!

FM does allow for pretty much idiot-proof administration.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by techtrucker 

It would be quite flexible, but at the same time would at times require one of us geeks!

FM does allow for pretty much idiot-proof administration.

So long as having the data confined to that machine is a reasonable solution...