I joined the “Problem Solvers Circle” a few years ago and I believe I’m still under a site license associated with that program.
I have several files hosted on FMS. I’d like to allow access to a few other people. If I understand the Claris license correctly, all of my employees and/or consultants can use my site license to access any of my files.
However, I want to give access to a few people that are not employees.
What are my options?
I am basing my opinion on the following Site License Agreement.
Section 1.b indicates what is an authorized user. In short, employees and contractors who work on-site. It could be argued that contractors who mainly work off-site are not authorized users.
Section 1.f indicates who can access data stored in the database server by using a client. It states that those who are not authorized users, as defined in 1.b, can access the data via WebDirect or FileMaker Go. It implies that only authorized users may access the data via FileMaker Pro.
Section 1.g adds that anyone may access data stored in the server by using the data API. The only limit to the data API is the annual amount of outbound data transfer, a number that can be increased via purchases.
I opine, based on the above, that non-authorized people can access the data on your server ONLY IF they use WebDirect, FileMaker Go or the data API.
bdbd's response above is clearly written and easy to follow. It looks like things have changed again, though. The link in bdbd's response now appears to bring up a new version of the Site License Agreement (dated 052126). I am not sure what this new version says about access via the data API, but the new version appears to impose a severe restriction on the number of non-Authorized Users who can access via FileMaker Go and WebDirect (10% of the licence count). This is a significant change that appears to destroy the economics of my business use case. Was this change communicated to any SLA holders? I hold an SLA predicated on the same understanding as bdbd of the previous version of the SLA; I did not receive any communication about this change. Hopefully I am not interpreting this new SLA correctly.