I had posted the question to "Steve K." on the FileMaker forum (FMI support person) five days ago about whether FDS 19 still supports the three concurrent connections.
Surprisingly to me, he didn't know and needed to send an email to his community support person. However, I've received no response yet to this seemingly simple EULA question. I followed up once where Steve confirmed he hadn't heard back.
5 days.
I also tried to call sales yesterday, but nobody answered.
So, just wondering if I can possibly figure this EULA question another way -- that is, if anyone is actually using concurrent connections (say for a client to check out something you did -- non production of course).
Sales had assured me that concurrent connections were exactly for this client-testing purpose when I last had FDS.
My question, again, was whether FDS is now more restrictive or if the three now-gone concurrent connections is just a typo in the EULA -- and that the three testing concurrent connections are still supported (and expected).
Didn't think this answer would be so difficult to come by.
I’ve pasted the license info from the Claris Store website below.
I don’t believe this is a concurrent license, it is for 3-users. However, as is usually the case with Claris, the assumption is that only users from the company that purchased the software would access the software and the (generic) licensing documentation reflects this. FileMaker licensing never really covers developers contracting (or supplying a product) to one or more clients. Of everything FileMaker/Claris over the years, licensing is perhaps their weakest link, which is probably why it has been changed so frequently.
I don’t believe you’ll find the answer within published material. Confirmation from Claris themselves is your best bet and you’ve taken the safest route already. If this was easily answered, you’d have your answer already.
This special, test-only license for the Claris FileMaker Platform includes full product functionality and features. The FileMaker 19 Developer Subscription License allows up to three (3) licenses of Claris FileMaker Server ("FileMaker Server"), three (3) simultaneous web-based client connections for Custom Web Publishing, and three (3) user licenses to access Claris FileMaker Pro ("FileMaker Pro"), Claris FileMaker Go, and Claris FileMaker WebDirect. The software provided under this license may not be used in a production environment. FileMaker Pro can be used either online (connected to FileMaker Server) or offline, however FileMaker Pro may only be used for testing purposes. FileMaker Pro received under this license may not connect to any other FileMaker Server with any other license key. Claris FileMaker Data API is included and comes with 2 GB outbound data transfer per user, per month — for a total of 72 GB per year. The FileMaker Server license may only be used for development and testing purposes. It is not eligible to convert to FileMaker Cloud for AWS via Bring Your Own License.
This is a test server. The test is certainly time limit and should end in a deployment where Claris will be happy to sell you a license.
Technically I don’t expect the server to care much. You can connect with three users, each with several devices. The number of connections may not be limited.
As far as I know it is a license thing. So try with connections and I hope you build a successful solution!
I think there is a misunderstanding here. One can assume that clients have or will have FileMaker server licenses when you develop a solution for them. If that is the case, each license comes with the privilege to deploy three servers (dev, test, prod). In this scenario, your clients can test without you needing to obtain a server of your own.
@anon45965781, thank you for pushing this. I'm in a similar boat and want to know the answer too: I have several servers with concurrent FMS licenses, where I have anonymous [Guest] users logging in via WebDirect.
I'd like to be able to test this out, and having 3 concurrent connections would be sufficient, but if this feature is missing from FDS in 19, that would be a problem.
FDS used to have only FMS for testing purposes. It did not have anything else than FMS (no FMP). Its FMS had 3 concurrent web direct connections available. (Although i recall it was only 1 cc connection). Then FMI changed how licensing works and nowadays the standard user license is not technically limiting number of concurrent connections. It’s limited in license terms. Legacy concurrent connections license is available and FMS with cc license will allow only concurrent connections depending on license cc count (minimum of 5).
I believe the purpose of FDS license is to allow developers to have their own individual test/dev server when developing FM apps. The FMS is then exactly same as normal licensed FMS. It’s not a license for developing solutions for clients without a valid FMP license even if FDS includes FMP as well. It just works exactly like the standard user license server. That’s why it has also 3*24GB/year of FM Data Api credits.
I'm only using the older concurrent licenses with my FMS 18 servers, so I'm not sure how it works with the new "normal" licenses.
Specifically, with the normal (standard per user) license of FMS19, can you have [Guest] WebDirect connections at all? If so, is there a limit on # of concurrent connections? Is the limit 1, or is it some other number (such as the # of users?)
