why use a front end to SQL
Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2004 5:17 pm
I read about a catholic group that migrated from filemaker database to MS SQL Server and then back to filemaker because they couldn't print reports. Here is the story I got off someones web page. I guess they used Filemaker as a frontend to query the tables to get the data then trigger some reporting scripts.
Three years ago, a major Catholic Archdiocese made the decision to move their FileMaker applications to a new system that ran on Microsoft SQL Server. Soon after they completed the transition, however, they discovered that end users could not access data that was "back ended" in SQL. Consequently, they had no way to run reports — i.e., the new system was, for them, virtually a locked box. So, the Archdiocese decided to see if there was a way for them to continue using their SQL Server system but go back to using FileMaker to extract data in a form they could use for their reports. In addition, it was absolutely necessary to ensure that the solution they used would accurately mirror in FileMaker the data that was in the SQL system and vice versa.
Why wouldn't they be able to print their reports in SQL? What does it mean backended in SQL? does that mean that if they have variable queries they are trying to get from SQL that the reports would have to be programmed into the web interface and that can't be done so they need Filemaker for that? I assume these people were accessing the database through a web interface.
thanks,
Three years ago, a major Catholic Archdiocese made the decision to move their FileMaker applications to a new system that ran on Microsoft SQL Server. Soon after they completed the transition, however, they discovered that end users could not access data that was "back ended" in SQL. Consequently, they had no way to run reports — i.e., the new system was, for them, virtually a locked box. So, the Archdiocese decided to see if there was a way for them to continue using their SQL Server system but go back to using FileMaker to extract data in a form they could use for their reports. In addition, it was absolutely necessary to ensure that the solution they used would accurately mirror in FileMaker the data that was in the SQL system and vice versa.
Why wouldn't they be able to print their reports in SQL? What does it mean backended in SQL? does that mean that if they have variable queries they are trying to get from SQL that the reports would have to be programmed into the web interface and that can't be done so they need Filemaker for that? I assume these people were accessing the database through a web interface.
thanks,