You should probably also have a look at Hal Gumberts (of FileMaker fame) open-source Xanadu for Xojo
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5sFaBmLP3gc
http://www.campsoftware.com/products/xanadu-for-xojo.php
And while youre at it also look at Tim Dietrichs Aloe
Those two will make your transition MUCH easier.
Tim will be releasing an update to Aloe Express soon and Xanadu be updated to use Aloe Express very soon!*
Very soon, meaning before my XDC talk… Not sure I should have decided to refactor everything so close to XDC. 
Productivity increases 1000% when a deadline is close 
Thats why I used to start preparing my talks the evening before
I use both Xojo and FileMaker extensively, and there are pros & cons on both sides. I love the fact that multiple people can edit a running FileMaker database while it’s in use - changes update immediately across all logged in users. The database engine is rock solid (I haven’t had any database corruption in years).
FYI, you don’t have to switch layouts in FileMaker to access other data: there is an “ExecuteSQL” function which can be really handy, especially if you are SQL-experienced and know what you are doing.
Yep. FileMaker makes creating databases really fast and easy. Just add a field to a table and drag it to a layout and it’s ready for users to use. On top of that, as Michael said, you can even edit the tables / layouts as users are using it. It’s freaking cool… I should say that I have big issues with how FileMaker treats their ‘partners’ in the FBA along with the jacked up pricing since v12. I could go on and on… Anyway, I created Xanadu to leave FileMaker behind.
Xojo + Aloe + Xanadu is getting me closer to those FileMaker benefits. So far adding a field to a table, in MySQL, and then adding it to a form is super easy, but I can’t add the field to the form on the fly, yet… The coolest part about Xanadu is not having to add ANY code other than the form field. The setting and saving of the field is all automatic unless you need to massage the data which is also easy to do!
Tim recently added Templates to Aloe [ https://aloe.zone/resources/docs/classes.html ] which would add the ability to add fields to forms on the fly. 
I also do these kind of things with the tool I wrote for making my databases… in xojo.
just create the field in the tool, and it is available to the app.
you can subclass the default window and make the fields look better if you want, but the default behavior is enough to edit it.
[quote=383204:@Michael Diehr]I use both Xojo and FileMaker extensively, and there are pros & cons on both sides. I love the fact that multiple people can edit a running FileMaker database while it’s in use - changes update immediately across all logged in users. The database engine is rock solid (I haven’t had any database corruption in years).
FYI, you don’t have to switch layouts in FileMaker to access other data: there is an “ExecuteSQL” function which can be really handy, especially if you are SQL-experienced and know what you are doing.[/quote]
I use a ton of ExecuteSQL in Filemaker to get to various data. .
Also… since I can’t require the people who are going to buy my application, to buy Filemaker, I’m using the Runtime of Filemaker, which is quite limited, will be depreciated, doesn’t export to PDF… and to update the database, the database has to be exported, overwritten, and imported. 
. I can’t afford to use the web version of Filemaker, waaay out of my price range.
one important thing to also consider is the community. Just look how many response this thread has received and all filled with great information and neat perspectives from different walks of life.
If you speak with @Tim Dietrich , he to came from file maker and did an excellent write up on his decision to go with xojo or stay with FileMaker. I am very glad he decided to come over to Xojo… Especially with the creation of Aloe.
Welcome to Xojo…
I was actually thinking how nice the many replies have been here, and how much I appreciate it, and I am not even using Xojo yet! I will have to look for Tim’s write-up about going to Xojo, interesting! I’m not really familiar with Aloe yet but will look into it too.
Its interesting to read this as this was the exact same issue that brought me back to Xojo.
I think exporting to CSV would be fine… however, when uploading the spreadsheet to the Barn Hunt Association, it has to be in a very specific format and it also has to have specific headers… for now, with Filemaker, I’m just having people copy and paste the headers into their spreadsheet because I don’t want to go through the lengthy process that would be necessary just to make nice headers in a spreadsheet exported from Filemaker.
So Xojo doesn’t nativaly export PDFs? That’s kind annoying. On my Mac it’s not bad, since I can save to PDF, but for Windows users, it’d be nice to have an application that just saves to PDF without having to install a third party app to handle that.
There are a few custom PDF classes available for Xojo… the one I wrote is designed to follow the exact same syntax as Xojo uses for its Graphics objects … This means that mult-page PDF documents can be created and saved with no required user-intervention.
http://www.rdS.com/gpdf/
there is a link to the users guide… or full source code can be purchased for $64.50
For Windows 8.1: I forgot.
For Windows 10: you can do the same as with macOS.
csv: read/write: there are many examples that deals with that, not a hard task. Make a search on this forum (use: Comma Saved Value string for as search string).
well it can be… do you have data with embeded commas? or embedded quotes? or worse yet embedded end of line characters?
do you need to delimit by something other than a comma?
its not a matter of simply doing
txt.writeline a+","+b+","+cTadpole has facilities to read/write delimited files handling all these possible scenarios