[FX.php List] PHP direct access of FileMaker data

[Paul Novitski]

At 11/15/2007 01:24 AM, Steve Winter wrote:
>What exactly are you trying to achieve...??


My client (3000 miles away) is using an inventory management program 
in-house.  Each time they modify their catalog inventory they will 
upload the new dataset to their web host so it will be reflected in 
their website.  I'm writing the PHP software that converts their data 
to MySQL and drives the website.

The inventory application's native db format is FileMaker 8.  The 
export function built into the inventory application can output XML, 
CSV, and other formats which are easy for me to read in PHP, but when 
it does so it gloms various tables together in a pre-packaged join 
query that doesn't suit my purposes.  The program is not built to 
export individual FM tables cleanly.

What I really want is to be able to read each of the raw component FM 
tables with PHP to convert them to MySQL.

The client doesn't have FileMaker Server and doesn't want to buy it 
or learn to run it.  They're not technically minded and the most I 
can ask of them is to learn to use an FTP program to upload the 
FileMaker tables to the server.  I don't want to ask them (or anyone) 
to run a conversion utility on a couple of dozen files every time 
they update their inventory.

So why is FileMaker such a mystery?  Why hasn't anyone written a PHP 
class to access it?  Doesn't FileMaker Inc. provide APIs?  As a 
programmer it's hard for me to take it seriously when someone says, 
"it's not possible."  'Difficult' and 'expensive' I can understand, 
but 'impossible' doesn't seem credible.

Thanks,
Paul