Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Appendix B. File Conversion
FileMaker Pro 13 creates files with the .fmp12 file format, which was introduced with
FileMaker Pro 12. FileMaker Pro 13 can open databases created with FileMaker Pro 12, but
if you have a database that was created using any previous version of FileMaker Pro, then
you'll need to convert the file before you can open it with any edition of FileMaker 13.
FileMaker 13 does the converting: Both FileMaker Pro 13 and FileMaker Pro Advanced 13
can convert files created with versions 7 through 11.
NOTE
If you have databases created with FileMaker Pro 1 or 2, you'll need to dig out a copy of FileMaker
Pro 6 and convert them to that format first, then convert them to .fp7 using FileMaker Pro 11. Then
you can convert your databases to fmp12 format.
Compatibility
Before FileMaker Pro 12, it was perfectly fine to have some users running FileMaker Pro 10
while others used FileMaker Pro 11 to connect to the FileMaker Server 11. So long as the file
formats matched, you could get away without upgrading everyone's software at once. But
because of the file format change, you need to upgrade your database
and
everyone's
FileMaker Pro software at the same time. And if your FileMaker solution contains more than
one database (some organizations have dozens of files working together), you must convert
them all, since FileMaker Server 13 can share only files that have the .fmp12 format.
After they're converted, the .fmp12 files are compatible only with FileMaker Pro 12 and 13
products. However, when you convert a file, the original remains intact, and you get a new
copy of the file in the new format. So you still have a copy of your file in its original format,
as well as the converted file. This arrangement can be useful when you're testing the conver-
ted file or if you need to use the old file with an older version of FileMaker.
NOTE
Although FileMaker Pro 12 can open files created with FileMaker Pro 13, FileMaker Pro 12 will not
recognize some of the features introduced with FileMaker Pro 13, like popovers and slide controls.
