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Accessing external data sources
F
ILEMAKER PRO HELP 553
• FileMaker does not recommend using an asterisk (*) as a wild card character in network file
paths as it slows FileMaker network traffic. When possible, replace an asterisk with the
appropriate IP address.
• Variables are not supported in FileMaker data source references.
• Data source references are only to other FileMaker files or to ODBC DSNs. References to
other files such as graphics are file paths.
Related topics
Sharing and hosting files
Working with shared files as a client
Creating accounts that authenticate via an external server
Editing ODBC data sources
An ODBC data source lets a FileMaker file access data from external ODBC tables. You can view
and update ODBC tables interactively in the relationships graph in much the same way you view
and update FileMaker tables.
FileMaker can connect to many relational database management systems (RDBMSs) that provide
ODBC APIs for external use. See
Configuring an ODBC client driver for a list of the data sources
that are supported.
Important To work with ODBC data sources, you must:
• connect to the external data source via an ODBC driver and set up DSNs. See Configuring
an ODBC client driver.
• add an external ODBC data source. See Connecting to data sources.
After you have linked the ODBC data source to a FileMaker Pro file, you can set and edit options.
To edit an ODBC data source:
1. Choose File menu > Manage > External Data Sources.
The Manage External Data Sources dialog box appears.
2. Select the ODBC data source in the list and click Edit.
The Edit Data Source dialog box appears.
3. You can change the name of the data source, specify a different DSN, set authentication
options to log in to a named ODBC data source, or set view options.
4. For Authentication, the default option is Prompt user for user name and password.
Users must enter a user name and password the first time they access the table.
If you don’t want any user of this FileMaker file to be prompted, select Specify user name and
password (applies to all users) and enter a user name and password. You can also create a
calculation to determine user access to the external table. You cannot use variables or fields in
these calculations. See
Specify Calculation dialog box for more information on setting up
calculations.
If you work with shared database files that access ODBC data from Microsoft SQL Server and
you want to enable ODBC data source single sign-on, select Use Windows Authentication
(Single Sign-on) and enter the SPN (Service Principal Name). See
Enabling ODBC data
source single sign-on (Windows only).
Note FileMaker encrypts passwords. However, encryption on external data sources depends on
whether encryption is supported by the ODBC driver.