Quick Start

36 Getting Started Guide
ODBC support in FileMaker Pro
FileMaker Pro 5 also brings some hefty improvements to its ODBC
support.
You can use the ODBC support in FileMaker Pro to:
1 access FileMaker Pro data from ODBC-compliant applications to
create charts, construct ad-hoc queries, or build a front-end with
other applications, like Microsoft Visual Basic
1 construct SQL queries in FileMaker Pro (as in FileMaker Pro 4.1)
to import data from other ODBC data sources like Microsoft Access
or Oracle databases
FileMaker Pro shares data via ODBC with the Data Access
Companions. The companions respond to SQL queries sent from
other ODBC-compliant applications and interface between the
FileMaker Pro ODBC driver and your FileMaker Pro database. Use
the Local Data Access Companion to receive queries from an
ODBC-compliant application on the same computer. The Remote
Data Access Companion can receive requests from ODBC-
compliant applications over a TCP/IP network.
Microsoft Excel import and file conversion
Converting many versions of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets is now
easier than ever. FileMaker Pro can interpret column names as field
names and assign an appropriate data type (text, number, date, or
time) to fields, based on the data in the column. You can import and
convert recent versions on both platforms through Excel 98.
ActiveX Automation support (Windows)
FileMaker Pro 5 adds support for ActiveX Automation on Windows.
Using ActiveX Automation, you can automate a task that spans
applications — similar to the way Apple Events allows one
application to command another on the Mac OS. Typically, this is
accomplished by building a custom application in Visual Basic, and
using this application to command other applications.
With ActiveX Automation and Visual Basic you can create your own
application (with its own interface) and drive multiple applications
to accomplish a task. For example you could define a window in
Visual Basic that has one button that says, “get today’s sales data”.
The procedure for “get today’s sales data” would open a FileMaker
file and find all the sales for today; it would then export the data to a
file. It would then start up Microsoft Excel and graph the exported
data and have Microsoft Excel display the graph.
QuickTime
FileMaker Pro 5 supports Apple QuickTime 3.0 and QuickTime VR
3.0. You can insert any file type supported by QuickTime into a
container field. If your database contains QuickTime movies in
container fields and you publish the database on the Web using
FileMaker Pro Instant Web Publishing, you can also play the
QuickTime movies in a web browser.
Web publishing
Changes have been made to the Instant Web Publishing feature in
FileMaker Pro to enhance the appearance of published databases and
improve their security.
Web styles
FileMaker Pro Instant Web Publishing now includes web styles that
determine the appearance of your database in a web browser. For
example, you can choose the Lavender style to display titles and
buttons in a purple color scheme. You can also choose styles that are
specifically designed for searching or creating records. For example,
you can create a guest book using the Entry Only style. You can
choose a different style for each published database.
Most FileMaker Pro web styles render layouts. That is, they display
your layouts in a web browser almost as they appear in a FileMaker
Pro window. Web styles can render layouts in Form View, New
Record, and Edit Record pages. Most FileMaker Pro web styles use
cascading style sheets to render layouts.