Requirements¶
Some additional requirements have been added for Release 4. All the requirements for Release 3 applies to Release 4, except where specifically stated.
Summary¶
M-Files: Version 2018 or later; On premise or Cloud; 1 Named User dedicated to MFSQL Connector; M-Files desktop on server
SQL: MS SQL 2012 to 2019; (Express or Standard); M-Files Desktop on server.
Detail¶
M-Files Version
M-Files version 2018 and later
M-Files IML (Intelligent Metadata Layer) Core licence is required for the DB File Connector module
M-Files User
The connector requires a dedicated M-Files user with admin rights to the vault. During installation the M-Files user must have Server Admin rights
It is recommended to assign a named user license to the user
M-Files Database
Firebird and SQL vaults allowed
M-Files Installation
Target vault must be pre-existing
M-Files client must be installed on SQL Server
Powershell must be installed and enabled on the SQL and M-Files server. The vault settings and application installation can be updated manually if powershell is not enabled
M-Files desktop client must be installed on M-Files Server
Each Vault requires a dedicated database
In it recommended to use a database naming conversion to link the database with the vault
It is recommended to have separate installations for Development and Production
Powershell
The Advanced installer use powershell as part of the installation on both SQL and M-Files server
Use manual install if powershell is not available.
SQL Database
SQL Server 2012, Express, Standard or Enterprise and later
All features is not supported in Express such as using agents, performance limitation
SQL Server must be installed with Mixed Mode Authentication during the setup of the instance
M-Files to SQL connection
MFSQL Connector use a ODBC connection or a web service to connect from M-Files to the SQL database.
We recommend to use the web service where the M-Files and SQL Server are not in the same network.
Size allocation of database
Database is automatically created with default size and file locations. The size of the database is not expected to be large or requiring any special requirements except if the M-Files vault is excessively large and the application requires a significant number of Class Tables. A Log Table purging methodology should be implemented to prevent excessive growth of application logs. By default log tables are kept indefinitely.
SQL Server Configuration
Database mail is required for SQL error notifications
Optional. Error message is available from MFLog table also
DotNet Framework
.Net 4.6.1 or higher on both SQL Server and Web Server
Experience level of SQL Development
Moderate experience with using MS-SQL queries are required
Reserved words¶
MFSQL Connector has several reserved words to be aware of. The following should be not be used in M-Files as names
Process or Process ID
GUID
ID
Update or Update ID
LastModified
FileCount
State, State_ID or State ID
Rename the default for property 39 ‘State’ to something like ‘Workflow state’ if another property with the name ‘State’ is required; alternatively, rename the customer property to ‘StateID’
Class Table Names cannot be the same as any of the default list of tables created during installation (Such as MFProcess)
Reserved characters¶
MFSQL Connector will not perform properly when the following characters are used in M-Files in Metadata
comma in a class table name
hidden hex characters such as HEX 0x01 , 0x19 , 0x14 , 0x19
Assumptions and constraints¶
The Connector is intended to be used by an experienced consultant or developer with a good knowledge of M-Files configuration and T-SQL . It is not targeted to be end user application and assumes that the end user will interact with the data via another user interface.
M-Files permission settings does not constrain access to the data in SQL. The data in SQL relies on access control implemented in SQL.