ODBC and JDBC Guide

Chapter 3
Installing FileMaker ODBC client drivers
These instructions help you install the ODBC client driver needed to access FileMaker as a data source from
third-party and custom applications via ODBC (Open Database Connectivity). The ODBC client driver is
available through a separate installation on your FileMaker installation disk or electronic download in the
xDBC folder.
The latest versions of the client drivers are also available from this URL:
www.filemaker.com/support/technologies
If you’ll be hosting a FileMaker database file using FileMaker Server Advanced, make the client drivers
available to remote users.
After installing the client driver you need, you can configure the driver to access a FileMaker data source
and construct SQL (Structured Query Language) queries to interact with the data.
Hardware and software requirements
To install and use the ODBC client drivers, you need the following minimum equipment and software:
ODBC client driver requirements (Windows)
1 Pentium III 700MHz or higher
1 256 MB RAM minimum, 2 GB RAM recommended, for Windows XP; 1 GB RAM minimum for
Windows Vista and Windows 7
1 Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.8 SP1
1 Windows MDAC 6.0 for Vista
ODBC client driver requirements (Mac OS)
1 Apple G4 or G5; or Mac OS computer with an Intel processor
1 1 GB RAM minimum; 2 GB RAM recommended
1 Mac OS X version 10.5.7 or 10.6 (the software may also work with later versions certified by FileMaker)
Networking requirements
If you’ll be accessing a FileMaker data source hosted on another computer, you’ll need network access via
TCP/IP.
ODBC client driver installation (Windows)
Note You need MDAC 2.8 SP1 (available from www.microsoft.com) to install the ODBC client driver on
a 32-bit Windows operating system.