FileMaker® Pro Design & Scripting For Dummies®

Chapter 10. Share (Data) and Share Alike

In This Chapter

• Hosting your database for others to use

• Connecting to a hosted database

• Exporting data to nonFileMaker formats

• Importing data from nonFileMaker applications

• Using ODBC to share your data

• Getting a detailed report about your database

Ever notice how very little kids are so willing to share their food, even though you might not want what they have? (Soggy cookies come to mind.) But then as they get older, they figure out that if they share, they don't have as much for themselves — especially when it comes to candy. If you don't know what I mean, try to take candy away from a six-year-old. You might find yourself missing an arm!

The nice thing about sharing FileMaker data is that you can share it and still keep it at the same time. FileMaker makes it easy to share your data. And you'll find many cases when you'll want to do so. Here are a few examples:

• Multiple employees need to share a products catalog.

• Sales personnel need to share a customer database.

• Your Aunt Sophie wants to share her recipe database with you.

• A dentist's office needs to share patient information.

• The local high school needs to allow teachers to share student information.

There are tons of reasons for wanting to share data. This is one of the major reasons for even having a database to begin with — for sharing information!

In this chapter, I explain some of the ways you can share a FileMaker database: by enabling access to the database across a network, by exporting your ...