Vista x64 and Filemaker Pro ODBC

Hi all,

I know this post is going to go way over a lot of people's heads here,
because its aimed at people writing applications that connect to
filemaker, and has nothing to do with developing within filemaker
itself. But I wanted to put this out here in case anyone else bumps
into it. And it seemed like the best place.

I also have a few questions for my own information

1) Does Filemaker 9 run as a 64 bit app on Windows x64 platforms (XP
x64/ Vista x64/ 2003 Server x64)
2) Does Filemaker 9 ship with 64-bit ODBC drivers?
3) Are they still using DataDirects SequelLink?
4) Is it still version 5.4? (same as that shipped with FM8A)


Anyhow, I'm doing some in-house application development that queries
FM8SA via ODBC and I ran into a number of issues which, as I said, I
wanted to put out here to save someone else trouble down the road.

I don't know what ODBC drivers FM has shipped with each release of FM,
I know it applies to FM8, and I expect this is applicable for ODBC
connectivity going back to at least 5, and likely applies to FM8.5 &
FM9 as well, since I don't see anything indicating otherwise on the
website.

Anyhow, there are 2 issues when using ODBC to connect to Filemaker
from an application running on a 64-bit system. The first issue is
that x64 has two independant ODBC systems, one 64-bit native, and one
32-bit running on Microsofts WOW64 platform ("Windows on Windows").

So first up, installing the ODBC drivers - works from the Filemaker
media. no problem there, which is a nice start.

Next up, creating a User or System DSN. If you load up Administrator
Tools and go into the Data Sources (ODBC) tool, the drivers won't show
up. This is the '64 bit' panel.

To create a User or System DSN, you must run odbcad32.exe from the
SysWOW64 folder instead of the default system32 folder. (Yeah, its a
little perverse naming-wise -- SysWOW64 for 32 bit drivers -- system32
for 64-bit drivers -- go Microsoft!!)

The DataDirect installer actually helpfully even creates a shortcut to
the SysWOW64 location of odbcad32.exe in its program group in the
start menu. So use that one, not the one in Windows Administrator
Tools. (or launch it manually directly from the SysWOW64 folder).

That will let you create a working System or User DSN using the
DataDirect SequelLink drivers.

But we're not quite out of the woods yet.

Applications running 64-bit native can't see DSNs created in the WOW64
32-bit ODBC panel. (And presumably 32-bit apps can't see 64-bit DSNs
either.)

So when it comes to running an application, you must specifically
target the x86 platform. The default for Microsoft compiliers and IDEs
(e.g. Visual Studio 2005) is 'Any CPU' which builds executables
capable of running natively on both the regular 32 bit, and 64 bit
versions of Windows. Those won't work on the x64 platform because they
won't be able to see the 32 bit ODBC driver.

So, targeting only x86 prevents it from running x64 native, and forces
it onto the 32 bit WOW64 platform where it will run as a 32 bit
application, and can see the 32 bit ODBC drivers.

cheers,
Dave Barreto

Finally, while this note focusses on DSN connections, it also applies
to DSN-less connections. Because they don't use a DSN, you are spared
from having to deal with the two ODBC admin panels, but you still have
to force the application to compile targeting x86 in order for it to
see the ODBC drivers.

-cheers,
Dave

Re: Vista x64 and Filemaker Pro ODBC

On 2007-08-24 16:10:48 -0700, d-42 said:


> I know this post is going to go way over a lot of people's heads here,
> because its aimed at people writing applications that connect to
> filemaker, and has nothing to do with developing within filemaker
> itself. But I wanted to put this out here in case anyone else bumps
> into it. And it seemed like the best place.
>
> I also have a few questions for my own information
>
> 1) Does Filemaker 9 run as a 64 bit app on Windows x64 platforms (XP
> x64/ Vista x64/ 2003 Server x64)
> 2) Does Filemaker 9 ship with 64-bit ODBC drivers?
> 3) Are they still using DataDirects SequelLink?
> 4) Is it still version 5.4? (same as that shipped with FM8A)

I suspect the answers you want are here:

http://www.filemaker.com/support/technologies/odbc.html

with links to a 55 page ODBC/JDBC guide, and knowledgebase articles.

These are the supported drivers (I don't know which ones ship with)

Oracle
>>> • Windows - Oracle Database Client version 9.2.0.6.5
>>> • Windows - Oracle Database Client version 10.2.0.3.0
>>> • Mac - Actual Technologies, Oracle version 2.7
SQL Server
>>> • Windows - Microsoft SQL Server version 2000.85.1117.00
>>> • Windows - Microsoft SQL Native Client 2005.90.1399.00
>>> • Mac - Actual Technologies, SQL Server version 2.7
MySQL
>>> • Windows - MySQL Connector/ODBC version 3.51.14
>>> • Mac -Actual Technologies, Open Source Databases version 2.7


> Anyhow, I'm doing some in-house application development that queries
> FM8SA via ODBC and I ran into a number of issues which, as I said, I
> wanted to put out here to save someone else trouble down the road.

The 32/64 bit conundrum is indeed good information to be aware of.
--
Lynn Allen
--
www.semiotics.com
562.938.7890
Member Filemaker Business Alliance
Long Beach, CA

Re: Vista x64 and Filemaker Pro ODBC

On Aug 24, 9:24 pm, Lynn Allen wrote:
> On 2007-08-24 16:10:48 -0700, d-42 said:
>
> > I know this post is going to go way over a lot of people's heads here,
> > because its aimed at people writing applications that connect to
> > filemaker, and has nothing to do with developing within filemaker
> > itself. But I wanted to put this out here in case anyone else bumps
> > into it. And it seemed like the best place.
>
> > I also have a few questions for my own information
>
> > 1) Does Filemaker 9 run as a 64 bit app on Windows x64 platforms (XP
> > x64/ Vista x64/ 2003 Server x64)
> > 2) Does Filemaker 9 ship with 64-bit ODBC drivers?
> > 3) Are they still using DataDirects SequelLink?
> > 4) Is it still version 5.4? (same as that shipped with FM8A)
>
> I suspect the answers you want are here:
>
> http://www.filemaker.com/support/technologies/odbc.html
> with links to a 55 page ODBC/JDBC guide, and knowledgebase articles.

Thanks.

I didn't see any direct answers to the critical x64 support questions.
But according the guide for FM9 it looks like it ships with DataDirect
SequelLink 5.5, a 0.1 version upgrade from what shipped with FM8.
Based on that I'd anticipate it being little more than a maintenance
release, and wouldn't expect a big feature like x64 native support to
have been added.

-regards,
Dave

Re: Vista x64 and Filemaker Pro ODBC

In article <1188028212.044169.24860@x35g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
d-42 wrote:

> On Aug 24, 9:24 pm, Lynn Allen wrote:
> > On 2007-08-24 16:10:48 -0700, d-42 said:
> >
> > > I know this post is going to go way over a lot of people's heads here,
> > > because its aimed at people writing applications that connect to
> > > filemaker, and has nothing to do with developing within filemaker
> > > itself. But I wanted to put this out here in case anyone else bumps
> > > into it. And it seemed like the best place.
> >
> > > I also have a few questions for my own information
> >
> > > 1) Does Filemaker 9 run as a 64 bit app on Windows x64 platforms (XP
> > > x64/ Vista x64/ 2003 Server x64)
> > > 2) Does Filemaker 9 ship with 64-bit ODBC drivers?
> > > 3) Are they still using DataDirects SequelLink?
> > > 4) Is it still version 5.4? (same as that shipped with FM8A)
> >
> > I suspect the answers you want are here:
> >
> > http://www.filemaker.com/support/technologies/odbc.html
> > with links to a 55 page ODBC/JDBC guide, and knowledgebase articles.
>
> Thanks.
>
> I didn't see any direct answers to the critical x64 support questions.
> But according the guide for FM9 it looks like it ships with DataDirect
> SequelLink 5.5, a 0.1 version upgrade from what shipped with FM8.
> Based on that I'd anticipate it being little more than a maintenance
> release, and wouldn't expect a big feature like x64 native support to
> have been added.
>
> -regards,
> Dave

At the FileMaker Developer Conference in early August, FileMaker
executives and engineers touted the FM9 family as being the biggest
advance in years. I think they were talking mainly about the greatly
improved integration with external databases, enhanced PHP support, etc.

I can't answer your questions directly as I am not expert in these
areas, but the FileMaker people must have given a lot of attention to
these matters.

I suggest you contact FileMaker. If you can't find answers on their web
site, maybe you should try to contact them directly.

You might consider joining FileMaker Technet, which for $99 per year
gives regular access to technical support and discussion groups. More
details on the FM website.

--
For email, change to
Bill Collins

Re: Vista x64 and Filemaker Pro ODBC

On Aug 25, 4:13 am, Bill wrote:
> In article <1188028212.044169.24...@x35g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
>
>
>
> d-42 wrote:
> > On Aug 24, 9:24 pm, Lynn Allen wrote:
> > > On 2007-08-24 16:10:48 -0700, d-42 said:
>
> > > > I know this post is going to go way over a lot of people's heads here,
> > > > because its aimed at people writing applications that connect to
> > > > filemaker, and has nothing to do with developing within filemaker
> > > > itself. But I wanted to put this out here in case anyone else bumps
> > > > into it. And it seemed like the best place.
>
> > > > I also have a few questions for my own information
>
> > > > 1) Does Filemaker 9 run as a 64 bit app on Windows x64 platforms (XP
> > > > x64/ Vista x64/ 2003 Server x64)
> > > > 2) Does Filemaker 9 ship with 64-bit ODBC drivers?
> > > > 3) Are they still using DataDirects SequelLink?
> > > > 4) Is it still version 5.4? (same as that shipped with FM8A)
>
> > > I suspect the answers you want are here:
>
> > >http://www.filemaker.com/support/technologies/odbc.html
> > > with links to a 55 page ODBC/JDBC guide, and knowledgebase articles.
>
> > Thanks.
>
> > I didn't see any direct answers to the critical x64 support questions.
> > But according the guide for FM9 it looks like it ships with DataDirect
> > SequelLink 5.5, a 0.1 version upgrade from what shipped with FM8.
> > Based on that I'd anticipate it being little more than a maintenance
> > release, and wouldn't expect a big feature like x64 native support to
> > have been added.

> At the FileMaker Developer Conference in early August, FileMaker
> executives and engineers touted the FM9 family as being the biggest
> advance in years. I think they were talking mainly about the greatly
> improved integration with external databases, enhanced PHP support, etc.
>

Sorry for the delayed response.

I wasn't disparaging FM9 when I spoke about a maintenance release.

I was observing that the 3rd party ODBC drivers that ship with FM9
have undergone 0.1 version upgrade, and are likely merely a
maintenance release update.

-cheers,
Dave