Shared database

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Level 1

17 points

Shared database

Does anyone know of a small, sharable database for 6-10 users? We have enjoyed Bento 3, but you cannot exceed 5 users total, and we now have a 6th and 7th employee. We looked at Filemaker Pro, but that's way too expensive and intensive for our needs. We need to share a few simple databases, such as job tracking and an actor / actress database that has text plus headshots (we're a video company).

Bento requires each computer you want to access to be on, but we DO have a MacMini server running 24/7, so that would help in sharing the databases even if other computers were not on.

ANY advice is greatly appreciated. We really need a simple solution for our small business.

Thank you all!

Many, many Macs, doing all sorts of stuff, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 8, 2010 4:10 PM

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Answer 1

Jayatbpi Author

Level 1

17 points

Dec 9, 2010 1:58 PM in response to Jayatbpi

Does anyone have any advice at all?

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Answer 2

Dec 9, 2010 2:07 PM in response to Jayatbpi

Jayatbpi wrote:
We looked at Filemaker Pro, but that's way too expensive and intensive for our needs.

What configuration and numbers led you to that conclusion? There may be an arrangement that would make FileMaker a feasible choice.

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Answer 3

Jayatbpi Author

Level 1

17 points

Dec 9, 2010 4:08 PM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

Well what we saw is Bento for 5 users is $89, so that comes out to less than $18 per user. Filemaker Pro (not the advanced, just the base) runs $299 per seat. Bento does more than we need, so even though Filemaker offers so much more, I'm afraid we really wouldn't get much use out of anything beyond what we use Bento for. And at almost 17 times the price, we can't justify it. There's got to be some sort of simple, multi-user database for Mac. If anyone knows of it, it's probably someone on this community.

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Answer 4

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,031 points

Dec 9, 2010 5:15 PM in response to Jayatbpi

There's got to be some sort of simple, multi-user database for Mac.

Unfortunately, no, not that I have ever discovered. There are cheap - even free - databases, but with the exception of Bento, they are not easy to use. Then there are easy databases, but with the exception of Bento, they are not cheap. Bento's a nice middle-ground database, but as you point out, it has limitations.

Do you, or anyone in your organization, have any experience with any kind of programming or database query languages? If so, it might be an option to have someone learn SQL. It's not that tough to make a database in MySQL, but to build a nice user-friendly interface requires some programming in something like PHP. You could serve up the database from one of your Macs using [MAMP|http://www.mamp.info>, though it would be better running on a dedicated server, which would drive up the cost unless you have an old machine sitting around that could do the job.

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Answer 5

Dec 9, 2010 10:16 PM in response to Jayatbpi

Jayatbpi wrote:
Filemaker Pro (not the advanced, just the base) runs $299 per seat.

You may not need to install FileMaker Pro on every Mac. It has a Web interface that should support multiple users while running on your Mac mini. However, the FileMaker Web site seems to describe a limit in that mode to five simultaneous users, which isn't any better than what you have now unless your seven users can trade off using the Web interface so as to not exceed the limit of five users. On the other hand, FileMaker Pro Advanced supports "Runtime Maker", which allows you to "Create standalone runtime solutions that don’t require FileMaker Pro," although I'm not sure whether that would support the sharing of data that presumably you'd want. This Web page

http://www.filemaker.com/support/prepurchase.html

mentions "Workgroup database to support up to 999 people" with "FileMaker Pro used with FileMaker Server or FileMaker Server Advanced".

FileMaker Pro Server seems to cost $999, while FileMaker Pro costs $299. So the server approach would cost less than four copies of FileMaker Pro, PRESUMING that FileMake Pro Server supports users not running FileMaker Pro. That may not be the case. However, FileMaker Pro Server Advanced definitely supports "up to 100 concurrent web users." On the other hand, that product costs $2,999, or the equivalent of 10 FileMaker Pro licenses.

This may still be too pricey for you. My main point is that there are options beyond the simple one of buying FileMaker Pro for each user.

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