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I have a Filemaker Pro 7 database (.fp7) and am looking for a way to read it from a C# application.

Seems as though I need to use and ODBC driver for this but I can't seem to create a connection to a filemaker file rather than a database.

Anybody had any luck with this?

Nick Reeve
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  • I've never heard of that format, nor an ODBC data connector for it. You can always read the file as binary, but that doesn't seem to help much. You would probably need to write your own (really hard) or pick a different DBMS. – BradleyDotNET Apr 16 '14 at 17:25
  • Also see this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4784686/work-with-filemaker-pro-fp7-files?rq=1 – BradleyDotNET Apr 16 '14 at 17:26
  • Is the filemaker file hosted on a filemaker server? Also, do you have the ODBC extended privilege set enabled for the user that you're trying to connect to the filemaker file with? – Chris Schmitz Apr 16 '14 at 22:36
  • It isn't on a server no. I just have the file – Nick Reeve Apr 17 '14 at 08:27

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You're going to need at least FileMaker client or server to make this happen unless you want to manually navigate the binary format that FileMaker stores its data in.

If you only have the file then this seems like it would be a one-time operation. Get the trial version of FileMaker, export the data to your preferred format, and read it from that.

If the file is being actively used then it's being used with either FileMaker Server or FileMaker Pro (or both) and, depending on the which one and which version, you have a number of options (ODBC, XML, HTTP) for communicating with the database live and retrieving current data.

Personally, if this the problem is what I think it is (you are creating a solution for a client who is actively changing the data in some way), the easiest route would be to place the ODBC driver on the server or single machine if it's running in FileMaker Pro and access through that, but you could also:

  • Use Custom Web Publishing and access it via HTTP using the XML interface
  • Use a FileMaker script to periodically export the data
  • Move the tables from FileMaker to MySQL or something similar and use shadow tables within FileMaker and access the data directly on the SQL server
Chuck
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