Grant Hutchinson
Migrating 30 year old FileMaker data to something accessible is not for the weak.
Feb 20 at 1:15amIvory for iOS
Show threadEric A. MeyerFeb 20
@splorp 🫡🫡🫡
Show threadGrant HutchinsonFeb 20
@Meyerweb Thank you, kind sir.
Show threadChris Mackay 🇨🇦Feb 20
@splorp Oh, god. The last FMP database I built was for a website (running on StarNine’s venerable WebSTAR under Mac OS 9) at the Centre for Learning Technologies at Mount Allison University in 1998. Around the time I met @harold.
Show threadGrant HutchinsonFeb 20
@tantramar @harold If I had built this database, it wouldn’t be nearly as big of a challenge. This is a mostly German language database of #AppleNewton resources created by Apple GmbH in 1995. Password protected, of course.
Show threadChris Mackay 🇨🇦Feb 20
@splorp @harold Oof. Here’s hoping they used vintage, ca. 1995 password strength. 😬🤦‍♂️
Show threadGrant HutchinsonFeb 20

@tantramar @harold So, I have the guest password … which works when I open the original FileMaker 2 file in FileMaker Pro 3 and 6 under Mac OS 9. However, I don’t have the admin password, which means I can’t remove the guest password.

Trying to access the same database with FileMaker Pro 11 or 12 under High Sierra causes those apps to crash when entering the password.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Show threadChris Mackay 🇨🇦Feb 20
@splorp Oh, man. I don’t envy you this task. (Wild guess that you’ve likely thought of, but I don’t suppose there’s any chance the admin password is stored as plaintext in a resource fork that you could find poking around in ResEdit?)
Show threadGrant HutchinsonFeb 20
@tantramar That is a thought. I’ll try that tomorrow.
Show threadBrendan@TapForms 🇨🇦Feb 20
@splorp I know a great database app you could migrate to 😉
Show threadGrant HutchinsonFeb 20
@tapforms And I will … once I get the data out of this silly thing.
Show threadGrant HutchinsonFeb 21
@tapforms And … I did it! Except for the screenshots associated with specific records that were stored in container fields which don’t get exported. Stupid FileMaker.
Show threadBrendan@TapForms 🇨🇦Feb 21
@splorp sweet!
Show threadsleepy62🍁🛠️ 🖥️ 🔬 🌞Feb 22

@splorp @tapforms

You should be able able to export the container files but you will need to script it.

Show threadGrant HutchinsonFeb 22
@sleepy62 Yes, I found a script to do it … but I may just handle it manually because it’s only five dozen or so records.