Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of rvfowler2
rvfowler2Flag for United States of America

asked on

FM - Issue with Using ODBC

Using ODBC was such a pain, I bailed on it 6 months ago.  Trying again, however, when I follow the directions, it tells me to "Choose File menu > Sharing > ODBC/JDBC, and click "on" then "Select the filename(s) to share from the list of open files."  However, no file names appear.  See attached.  (Note:  Yes, I do have Advanced Server and ODBC is turned on in it.)  Not sure why using ODBC with FM has been so difficult.  10 years ago, I used ODBC with MS Access and it was as easy as using Word or Excel.
SOLUTION
Avatar of Dave Baldwin
Dave Baldwin
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of rvfowler2

ASKER

I went to your link and the last in the list is what I wanted to do - use Filemaker as a data source (for Word).  However, when I clicked on that link, it just brought me to the same Help page I've been using.  In following the directions, I still end up with no db files showing.  If there is some ODBC driver I need to install on my local machine, what is it and where is it.  The Help page says nothing of downloading a driver to my local machine.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
If you click on the link in blue, it says that if you have Filemaker on your local machine, the driver should have installed with it.  If Filemaker is running on a remote machine, only FileMaker Server Advanced will work with the remote connection.

To share your FileMaker database file as a data source over a network, use FileMaker Server Advanced.
First, I'm wanting at this point to do something very simple by creating ODBC merge fields in Word that link back to Filemaker.  

Second, I do have Filemaker Server Advanced, but of course am managing it from my local machine.  My local machine has Windows 7, which it says should have the drivers already downloaded.  However, I think my question is even before this point.  In Filemaker, I can't even see my own databases listed (shown in the jpg file I attached earlier).
I don't see a jpeg attached anywhere..??
Sorry, my bad.  Didn't attach for some reason.
-ODBC-Capture.jpg
Just appreciated that someone finally stated the obvious that the way Filemaker works with ODBC is very un-user friendly.