MIT Libraries Guidelines on Staff Use of FileMaker for Applications
Audience
These guidelines are written for department heads and other members of the Libraries' staff, to help them determine whether FileMaker is the appropriate choice for a database application you are considering buying or building.
Background
Desktop computer applications like FileMaker, Microsoft Access, or Microsoft Excel make it relatively easy to build small-scale systems; on the other hand, these applications have technical limitations that may make them inappropriate for certain types of projects.
- Security is of particular concern at MIT, and may become an issue when non-technical staff is responsible for database design – an inexperienced person may unintentionally build security risks into an application.
- Integration is another consideration: FileMaker provides limited ability to integrate with other applications (for example, it is difficult to create automated access to FileMaker data from other systems.)
- Reliability is a third issue. Database theory uses certain characteristics to describe how reliable a database application is. Because FileMaker is not fully compliant with these characteristics, such events as a hard drive crash or a power outage may result in corrupted files or lost data.
- Finally, scalability can become a problem if the original design does not take into account the level of complexity or usage to which an application is put.For more information on these issues, see
http://www.filemaker.com/downloads/documentation/fm8_security.pdf
http://www.filemaker.com/downloads/documentation/fm8_odbc_jdbc_developer.pdf
http://databases.about.com/od/specificproducts/a/acid.htm
http://filemaker.com/downloads/pdf/fms_best_practices.pdf
Guidelines
To help you decide whether FileMaker is an appropriate choice for your project, consider the following:
- Will your database be used by two or more departments, units, or functional areas?
- Might there ever be 50 or more people using the system at any one time?
- Will the system be very complex now or in the future (eg, more than 20 tables or 100 fields)?
- Are there up-front development costs? If so, would the cost be more than $30K?
- The time of the developer is often a hidden cost. Considering the amount of time s/he plans to spend on building the tool, and her/his approximate hourly rate, will the cost of the developer’s time exceed $30K?
- Will this database be used to store sensitive information? If so, will the application distribute this information via the Web or email? (For a definition of sensitive data, see http://istwiki.mit.edu/istwiki/ItagSensitiveData.)
- Is there anything preventing you from using the current recommended FileMaker version and server/client configuration? (http://itinfo.mit.edu/product.php?name=filemaker)
- Will the database need to integrate with other applications?
- Will the data collected need to be accessed by other non-FileMaker systems – for example, SFX/MetaLib, Barton, or the MIT Data Warehouse – using standard network protocols (as opposed to a batch import)?
- Will this be a System of Record for any Libraries enterprise data?
If you answered “no” to all of these questions, FileMaker is an appropriate choice for your project. STS recommends that any database intended to be accessed by more than one person be housed on one of our servers for greater stability and security. While STS is not able to provide full support for local database applications, we will be responsible for backups and for ensuring your database is up and running during the hours we are staffed.
If you answered “yes” to one or more of these questions, or if your database would be used to store Sensitive or Extremely Sensitive information (definitions at http://istwiki.mit.edu/istwiki/ItagSensitiveData,) please come talk to Nina Davis-Millis at STS before you proceed. We will review your plans in more detail and think through the issues. If FileMaker is not an appropriate choice for your project, STS will refer you to IS&T’s Departmental Consulting and Application Development group (DCAD) for help in exploring other alternatives (see http://web.mit.edu/ist/dcad/