milanm

Hi, i am writing an article on this – How to connect FileMaker Pro with WordPress. I described my real life experience and step by step instructions. Well the first part is ready, second part will come next week. You can read it here:https://www.milanm.com/?p=491.
This is about installing the ODBC driver and using FM Pro with MySQL in general, next will be about WordPress in particular.

It is not that easy, but i agree, would be cool.
A good php/sql programmer could use Custom Web Publishing feature with PHP API to integrate FileMaker Pro into a php/sql based website, but this is far from WYSIWYG. Other way is integrating your WordPress Sql tables with FileMaker via the ODBC driver. This is easier, but again requires some knowledge of how to handle a database table with php/sql.
I am working on this issue regularily, as i also love WordPress and FileMaker Pro and my entire office runs on these 2 platforms. Unfortunately, i have no time to publish my progress regularily, but if you follow these guidelines – ODBC, CWI, PHP API, and study the tutorials about them, you will come up with a solution on how to integrate FM Pro with your WP website.

Hi kevinkeadle,
I needed a form that will import client data into the SQL database directly, field per field, so i could export them to an office database or an excel file and give them to the sales department for further use.
My experience with WordPress form plug-inns (i went over at least 20 of them) is not excelent, i could not find one that is making a simple SQL table with field names in the rows and corresponding data in the columns with Unique ID refering to each client and not each form (if this makes any sence to you.
I had to make a little script inside my office database (which is FileMaker Pro) to sort out the data from the SQL tables modified from the WP forms and this way it worked for me. It is a script that is taking an ID of a form as Unique Identifier and then makes variables for each client description inside the form – title, name, surname, phone, message etc. then it places these variables correctly inside my office database table and that way the guys have they leads without having to write them down from emails.
So, if you dont have to use WP forms for lead generation, dont use them they are not the best solution (i had to because the web girl made such a beautyfull website and putted load of work into it and i just assumed that there has to be a desired form plug-in arround – i was wrong).
On the other hand, the wordpress comunnity is ever-developing, maybe someone came up with something new and suitable.

I am dealing with the same problem at the moment. There is a variety of form plug-ins out there most of them just sending e-mails. However i am testing the following: https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/mm-forms-community/
I will let you know if it worked. If you would like to test it please let me know if it worked for you.

I am having the same problem, i need to create a contact form that will store user data in the database, not just send it via email. Is this possible with WordPress?

I have to disagree on the term “negligible” performance optimization because this (making the data load into a sql table in a usual and logical way – a column for each value and a row for each closely related set of values)would make it much easier to manage larger sets of data, for example company questionnaire. In this way, the plug-in is only usable for small sets of data that have to be controlled and managed personally using the dashboard.
For example, my intention was to load data generated by the web forms directly and automatically from the website sql table into the FileMaker Pro database table so the people in the office (working with FileMaker Pro) can use it as they come – strait away, like they use the data from the user login form. With this system this is not possible as there is no Unique Identifier for the data, they appear all around. What we have to do then is employ somebody to export the data into an Excel sheet (or some other format allowed) and then import it back in a proper order.This is also not perfect as the data appears again in this sheet “all around”. So, basically this simple CF code will really complicate the day in the office for any company that would receive more then 30-50 enquiries.
With all this in mind, from the point of view of a database administrator, the plug-in is not functional as it is. Is there an alternative for professional use with WordPress?

Hi, the plug-in is a generally good idea but in my case it is storing the data in a very inconvenient way. Instead of making a table with a UI and further placing the data for each client in one raw which would be expected, it is making a general column called, for example “field-name” and making a separate raw for each piece of client data (name, surname, email). As i am a database administrator working with a web developer that decided to use this plug-in we are both puzzled.
Would it be possible to make the data load into an SQL table ( wp_CF7DBPlugin_SUBMITS) similar to the table that is presented on the actual plug-in page, so that i have the table with data in order strait away instead of exporting it to Excel and then loading it back into SQL table to be used. Basicaly i would like the plug-in to create the table with separate column for each desired value, like the user login table is created in word press or most of the other tables in use.
Hope this made sense, please help, this is really cracking my head.
Thank you, Milan