JDBC FileMaker

margit

I am evaluating Aware IM at the moment and I still have a lot to learn.
I would like to use an existing database that was created in FileMaker Pro.
It seems that I have to install the JDBC driver. When I looked for it on the web, I saw that there are different versions. Would anyone know which one is suitable for FileMaker Pro?

I would be grateful for your help as I am very keen to move on with Aware IM.

Many thanks,

Margit

aware_support

As far as I understand FileMaker Pro includes the JDBC driver - please check out http://www.filemaker.com/help/15-Using%20ODBC.html

Once you have a jar file containing their driver you need to do the following (this is explained in the Defining Database Environment section of the User Guide (page 242):

Modify the setEnv.bat file located in the BIN directory of your Aware IM installation to include the full path to this JAR file
Consult FileMaker JDBC documentation and find out:
a) The fully qualified name of their JDBC driver
b) The JDBC URL string
Start Aware IM and create a business object that will correspond to a particular table in the FileMaker database:
a) Select "Database: external" from the Persistence drop down and click on the Settings button
b) Click Add to add a new database environment
c) Select "Custom" as the database engine
d) Specify the fully qualified name and the URL string as defined in item 2
e) Click OK and go back to the first dialog
f) Specify the name of the table in the FM database
g) Click on the Discover Attributes button. The list of attributes should be displayed. Select a primary key if required.
h) Click OK

margit

Thank you for your reply. However, your instructions are not very clear.
When you say "once you have a jar file containing their driver", do you mean I have to install it first or just put that file somewhere without installing? The jar file is called sljcinstaller.jar.

I did install the file into the AwareIM jdk bin folder because FileMaker Pro instructions specify that the driver has to be installed into a folder which contains java.exe. Now if I am to specify a full path to this file in setEnv.bat, I am unable to do so because the sljcinstaller.jar is now installed and there is no file called sljcinstaller.jar in the bin folder.

Now I have a problem uninstalling it - I can't find anywhere how to uninstall it.

Regards,

Margit

margit

Sorry, I have now found the sljc.jar in the driver folder in the JDK/bin folder of AwareIM. The question now is whether I installed it into the correct folder.

aware_support

It absolutely does not matter in which folder the jar file is located as long as you specify the correct path to this file in the setEnv.bat. The fact that FileMaker says that the file has to be in the same folder as java.exe probably means that FileMaker has special software to deal with this file.

The jar file is just a file - it does not need any special installation or un-installation. It can be located anywhere. All you need to make sure is that the correct path to this file is specified in the setEnv.bat

I am a little surprised about you saying that there is some FileMaker file in the Aware IM folder. Aware IM does NOT include any FileMaker files in its distribution. Please make sure that you have the correct file from FileMaker, leave it where it is (don't move it anywhere) and point to this file in the setEnv.bat

margit

Thank you, but I think there is a little bit of misunderstanding:
the file I found for the JDBC is called sljcinstaller.jar which comes with the FileMaker CD - however, this is not the driver file. The sljcinstaller.jar is used for installing the driver - the installation then results in the driver file called sljc.jar. However, the installation results in more files than just sljc.jar.

So I am having a little difficulty following your instructions. I take it that the path I have to specify in setEnv.bat would be to the sljc.jar and not to sljcinstaller.jar. Finding out about the fully qualified name for this driver and the URL is not an easy matter at all. There is no straighforward instruction for that as it all depends in which environment this driver finds itself.

So I really would appreciate your help as I would end up spending a great deal of time just on trying to get this right.

Thank you.

aware_support

OK you are right about the installation - the actual driver is probably in sljc.jar

The JDBC URL and fully qualified name for the driver are described in this document:
http://www.filemaker.com/downloads/documentation/fm8_odbc_jdbc_developer.pdf

The string for the fully qualified class name is:
com.ddtek.jdbc.sequelink.SequeLinkDriver

The URL string is:
jdbc:sequelink://machineName; user=some user;password=some password

where machine name is probably localhost if you are running FM on your local machine; user and password are FileMaker account credentials (they may be optional - check the above document)

So you need to specify the path to the sljc.jar in the setEnv.bat and then specify the above strings in Aware IM when connecting to FileMaker

margit

Thank you very much. Yes, this is described in the document, but it was rather confusing as the document describes installation procedures specifically for FileMaker to ensure that all would work within FileMaker. I needed to make sure that these procedures do not apply to AwareIM.

Thanks again.

margit

OK, I have installed the driver. Naturally I ran into problems. When I thought that I had finally sorted them out, I ran into another problem. When I click on Discover Attributes the error message is:
AwareIM server encountered the following error: [DataDirect][SequeLink JDBC Driver] TCP/IP error connection refused.

Can you, please, advise.

Thanks.

aware_support

This error usually indicates TCP/IP communication problem with the specified host and/or port. You need to find out the following:

1) What is the machine name (host) that FileMaker is running on? If it is localhost then this is unlikely to be the problem and most probably the problem is with the port (see below). If it is not localhost then check that you specified the machine name correctly in the URL

2) Connection to the specified port is refused. Did you specify any port in the URL string? If you did, check that FileMaker is indeed listening on this port. If you didn't specify the port this usually means that the default port is used. Check the documentation to find out the default FileMaker port. Then make sure that this port is not blocked by firewalls and that FileMaker is indeed listening on this port (maybe it needs to be configured to listen on this port first).

You can easily find out which applications is listening on which ports by doing a port scan or by running a good program called ActivePorts that you can download from the Internet for free.

Just read FM documentation and it looks like FileMaker should be listening on port 2399. Please check if this is the case by running port scan or Active Ports. Please also check that this port is not blocked by firewalls.

margit

Thank you.

The problem was that within FileMaker sharing for ODCB/JDCB was not enabled. It is now sorted.

michaelappdev

Has anyone had any luck using the newer versions of Aware IM (4.8-) with FileMaker?

aware_support

It shouldn't be any different from previous versions (we think)