I’ve run into an issue regarding the above mentioned setup. I want to move a production server from macOS to Ubuntu. The versions should be FileMaker Server 2024 (21.1.6) on Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS.
On the Claris website only outdated versions of Microsoft SQL Server up to 2019 are listed as supported:
Has anybody in the community made a connection to a recent version of MS SQL Server? On macOS with the ODBC drivers from Actual Technology everything is running smoothly connecting to MS SQL Server 2022 but staying on macOS is no option for this project.
Why not use JDBC instead for SQL Server? It’s free, a standard, and it’s fast.
I can even help you write the Java code, but ChatGPT can do that too.
Unlike FileMaker’s not-so-great JDBC driver, the Type IV JDBC driver for SQL Server is totally complete, tested, and used by millions. And, again, it’s free
Thank you for the proposal and I agree that JDBC would inable faster access but we need a visible representation for the connected tables or we would have to supply and populate a shadow system from scratch that is than completely updated at least every 30 minutes. A lot of effort for function that should work out of the box.
Maybe we will all the same follow that path but not happily…
… and a quick follow-up: Claris support stated that FileMaker ESS via ODBC is not supported with recent versions of Microsoft SQL Server anymore.
If you stay with depricated versions of MS SQL Server - 2019 and lower - it is OK but for newer incarnations you will have to find a new solution or switch your FMS platform to macOS since - while not supported by Claris - the Actual Technoloy drivers still connect and build the shadow system.
For the Linux/Ubuntu platform we will now start building a new system based on MBS SQL connections.
However, if you just need connectivity and data access, modification, query, etc., including metadata to create, modify, etc., tables on the fly, the totally free Type IV (best kind) SQL Server JDBC driver works on ALL platforms and can’t be crippled by CLARIS.
for better understanding/for a non-JAVA developer on mac OS:
install homebrew on my Mac
install some JRE or JDK to use the driver e.g. from Adoptium
download MS SQL Driver here:
???
for ODBC usage you either edit/create some init-file or set up a System DSN in an ODBC manager of your choice. Afterward you are able integrate that into FileMaker. But how would that look in case of this JDBC set up? How to establish a connection form within FM?
Not sure why you would need homebrew, but it’s a great package manager that is extremely useful on the Mac that I would recommend to anyone (there’s even an “Alfred” workflow for it).
Using JDBC is actually quite simple. Think of all the steps you go through in FileMaker to do something as simple as an INSERT FROM URL and getting all the URL Params correct. Or, FileMaker’s cumbersome JSON functions…
I use Amazon’s free JDK:
It all starts with a requirement.
Yes, it’s Java, but ChatGPT (or other) can write the boilerplate code for you. What I do is have a little REST service so that I can do my regular INSERT FROM URL calls from FileMaker. Once you have that little REST service running and see how useful it is, you can add more “functions” as needed. All for free (JDBC Driver, Java, REST Service software, etc.), no user limit, etc.
JDBC is a mature technology. A standard. I don’t think you can go wrong learning and using it.
I don’t currently have a SQL Server instance running, but I’ll be happy to assist if possible.
…only because it is mentioned as a requirement on the Adoptium website…
thank you for more insights on this, setting up a kind of REST endpoint somehow sounds promissing. I’ll raise it in our team and maybe will be able to set our JAVA developer on fire for the idea
