Mac Forum / Applications / Excel / November 2007

Doug

I was digging around in my old emails and somone from actual
technologies sent me the following, which I recall was v helpful:

"Thank you for contacting us.  Our drivers let you use FileMaker (or
Excel) as a front end to other databases via ODBC.  We don't offer a
product for using FMP as a data source, mainly because FileMaker Inc
makes their own driver available for free.

Even though the FileMaker ODBC driver isn't our product, we do have a
set of instructions we give to people who ask us about it:

1.  Download the "FileMaker 7 ODBC/JDBC update (Mac)" from the
FileMaker website:

http://www.filemaker.com/odbc

2.  FMP 7 only (FMP 8 already has this installed):  Follow the
instructions in the included document "FM xDBC Update Read Me
(English).pdf".  To summarize, you'll copy the xDBC.fmplugin file and
the xDBC Support folder (located in the "xDBC Plug-in" folder) into
the following folder:

/Applications/FileMaker Pro 7/Extensions/

3.  Copy the SequeLink.bundle file (located in the "ODBC Client
Driver" folder) to the following folder:  /Library/ODBC

4.  Then you'll use the ODBC Administrator to add the driver.  Press
the Drivers tab, then press the Add button.  Specify "SequeLink" for
the driver name, and the following path for the Driver file name
(you'll need to manually enter the path to the driver, since the ODBC
Administrator won't allow you to browse inside a bundle):

/Library/ODBC/SequeLink.bundle/Contents/MacOS/ivslk18.dylib

5.  Using the ODBC Administrator, you'll need to manually enter the
DSN parameter values, since the driver doesn't include a DSN setup
assistant.  Press the User DSN tab and then press the Add button, and
enter the following Keyword / Value pairs:

Host  (IP address of the server - example: 192.168.0.100)
Port  2399
ServerDataSource  (name of FMP database without the extension -
example: Inventory)
LoginID  (optional)
Password  (optional)

6.  You will need to enable ODBC sharing within FileMaker:
a.  Start FileMaker and open the database you specified for
"ServerDataSource" in step 4
b.  Select the menu FileMaker Pro ->  Sharing -> ODBC/JDBC...
c.  On the FileMaker ODBC/JDBC Settings dialog, turn the ODBC/JDBC
Sharing ON
d.  Select your database from the "Currently open files" list
e.  Select "All Users" in the "ODBC/JDBC access to file" area
f.  Press OK
g.  Restart FileMaker

7.  You will also need the iODBC frameworks.  These are available from
www.iodbc.org, or, since you've installed the Actual Technologies ODBC
drivers, then you already have them.

8. You should then be able to query your FMP database from Excel by
selecting Data->Get External Data->New Database Query "

This is the best advice anyone sent me.  I remember I had problems
with getting the odbc administrator to connect to the FM database and
it was a combination of login & passwd requirements (needed to be
defined in the DSN) and detail related to User vs System DSN
definition.  I could only get it to work if teh DSN was defined under
'System'

Good luck

James