FileMaker Pro 12: The Missing Manual

Chapter 18. Sharing Your Database

You’ve now got a solid foundation for building even the most complex database systems in FileMaker Pro. But you haven’t learned what happens when more than one person is using your database at the same time. Even in small companies, most FileMaker solutions are multiuser databases, used by lots of people, all at the same time. You can easily set up any FileMaker database for sharing; you simply turn on a checkbox or two. In this chapter, you’ll learn about those settings, plus some of the things you can expect from FileMaker when you’re sharing databases.

Before you dive in and start changing settings, consider where you’re going to keep the shared file and how other people’s computers connect to it. You can choose from three types of sharing: FileMaker Network, Internet Sharing, and FileMaker Server. Internet sharing comes in two versions: Instant Web Publishing and Custom Web Publishing.

• FileMaker Network. This type of file sharing is also called peer-to-peer—that is, you don’t use a server or any special software. You just use your ordinary computers to share files. Peer-to-peer sharing is limited to nine users at once. If more than nine people need to use the database at the same time, use FileMaker Server.

• FileMaker Server is the Big Daddy of FileMaker database sharing. FileMaker Server offers protection for your files in case of a crash, automated backups, and tremendous speed and stability boosts over peer-to-peer sharing. It also removes all ...