FileFlex HQ

"Extremely Fast...Speediest Database Access" -- Interactivity Magazine

"Component's FileFlex embedded relational database has given our multimedia developers the ability to embed standalone database functionality within their CD-ROM and kiosk development projects."
-- Joe Dunn, Macromedia's former vice president of product management

"FileFlex...extends the volume of information possible in cross-platform Director multimedia productions, while kicking access speed into overdrive and simplifying the creation of data."
-- Lingo User's Journal

Multi-user Version... No Runtimes... All New Engine... High-Performance Indexes and Relations... Native FoxPro/Access Compatible... Query Acceleration... Match Lists... Table Builders... and Much More!
FileFlex is the high-performance, cross-platform, relational database engine for Director projects. FileFlex is fully FoxPro and Access compatible and is available in single- and multi-user versions. FileFlex and FoxPro/Access can directly exchange files without conversion, although neither are required at runtime. FileFlex requires no special drivers and only a small amount of RAM--allowing you to add relational database capabilities to their projects at virtually no cost in system resources. FileFlex also includes dynamic, on-the-fly office-quality encryption and full-text search and retrieval capabilities.

FileFlex 3 is Here!
New features include a multi-user edition with high-performance record locking, no runtimes, high-performance engine, match lists, table builders, Rushmore-like query acceleration, and much more. See the Release Notes for more details.

Functional comparison between FileFlex, V12, and DataGrip
The following chart is a functional comparison between FileFlex and other Director Xtras, based on publicly available information:

Feature	FileFlex 3	V12-DBE 2.0	DataGrip
Single-user version	yes	yes	yes
Multi-user version	yes	no	limited
Runtime included with purchase price	yes	yes	yes
Cross platform	yes	yes	no
Use FoxPro or Access to directly open and maintain database, indexes, and queries	yes, natively	no	Access only
Industry standard file format	yes	no	yes
Interoperable with FoxPro and Access in multi-user environment	yes, natively	no	partially, Access only
Fully relational	yes, natively	through Lingo scripting	as far as Access allows
Full text search	yes	yes	no
Uses Rushmore-like query acceleration technology	yes	no	no
Built-in office quality encryption	yes	no	no
Requires you to distribute and customers to install add'l separate Microsoft files	no	no	yes
List, column, and table functions	yes	no	no
Price (single-user)	$295	$349	$349
Price (multi-user)	$495	N/A	N/A

FileFlex is cross-platform
Director users don't have to rewrite FileFlex Lingo source code, it's the same on both Macintosh and Windows! You can use the same data files on Macintosh and Windows!

Extremely high-performance
FileFlex uses high-performance data management algorithms to retrieve data in any size database. Properly used, FileFlex can retrieve any record in a database containing in excess of a billion records in well under a second on even the slowest machines.

Optimized for the host environments
FileFlex has been optimized with 32-bit native versions for Windows 95/98, Windows NT, and the PowerPC processor on Mac OS.

FileFlex is Year 2000 Ready
FileFlex has been designed so that its internal date formats take into account four-digit dates. As a result, all date storage in FileFlex is fully ready for the Year 2000.

Add database features to your projects
Director gives you complete interface flexibility. And now with FileFlex, you've got all the speed, power, and capability of a relational database as well. FileFlex works behind the scenes, completely hidden from the user.

Fully-relational database
FileFlex now supports real, hard-core relations (i.e., one-to-one, many-to-one relations, one-to-many and many-to-many relations) just like FoxPro and Access. You can perform complex relational queries across files and tables and move through the database in a virtual, combined-file, relational order. Not only can you perform a combined, relational query, but you can also specify the sort order that defines how FileFlex will traverse the data.One of the principle differentiating features of FoxPro has been its incredibly fast and powerful Rushmore relational query acceleration technology. We've implemented a similar technology within FileFlex.

Elegant integration into your environment
Grab a single record or any desired group of records. You can drop retrieved data into your application's native fields or global variables. FileFlex gives you transparent, totally non-instrusive access to thousands or millions of records.

Easier update management
Because your data is stored externally from your project, updating users with new versions of your project is much easier.

Simple and complex searches are possible
Use logical expressions to find information in a database file. A logical expression can consist of constants, field names, and functions joined together by operators.

Standard files supported, FoxPro/Access compatible
FileFlex supports the use and updating of ragingly fast index files. FileFlex can directly read FoxPro data files and can dynamically reindex as data changes. FileFlex can directly exchange files without any conversion required. FileFlex data files can be used as "external tables" from within Access and can be updated and managed along with other Access tables.

Advanced features
FileFlex introduces dynamic, on-the-fly office-quality encryption/decryption and simple full-text search and retrieval. FileFlex is a very tight code library. It is distributed as a loadable code module (a DLL under Windows and a shared library on the Macintosh). As a result, there's no need for interapplication communications and you don't have to worry about special installations for alternate applications. FileFlex also does not require any special drivers. Once you install the one code module, FileFlex is available.

Pricing
FileFlex 3 single-user version is available for $295 and includes a license to distribute the engine to an unlimited number of users. FileFlex 3 multi-user version is $495 and also includes an unlimited user runtime license. Upgrades from FileFlex 2 and earlier to FileFlex 3 single-user version are $99. Upgrades from FileFlex 3 single-user version to FileFlex 3 multi-user version are $249.

Compatibility
FileFlex 3 is compatible with Windows 95/98, Windows NT. And MacOS for the PowerPC processor. FileFlex 3 is compatible in Director 5,6,7 and 8. Due to the high-performance technology in FileFlex, a Windows 3.1 or Macintosh 68K version was not possible.