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Publishing FMP databases to the web
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#1
 
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Publishing FMP databases to the web -
03-28-2007
, 11:35 AM
#2
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I'm working on a FileMaker Pro database that I'll probably want to share with other people at some point. I've just looked through the FMP help files, and I can't for the life of me find the answer to this question: Is there any way to offer static FMP records on a web server that does not have FMP? All the help files about instant and custom web publishing seem to assume that you're sharing databases from your own computer that's running FMP. I want to know whether there's some way I can export my database records to a format that my ISP's web server can handle. There is an option to export the records to an HTML table, but that's all I see offhand. I could tweak the HTML to make the table less ugly, but I want separate web pages, each containing one record in a layout that approximates what I have in FMP, including the graphics (photos and scans) that I've added to each record. In checking the archives for this group, I found reference to a product called WebMerge from Fourth World. Would that (or a similar third-party product, if there are others) be the only option for what I want to do? There's no way of generating formatted HTML files from within FMP? Patty |
I use it to generate static web pages as HTML, then upload them to my server. See examples http://www.VirtualVermont.com/towns (not the index, but the individual town pages).
In its simplest form, you would use a basic HTML page saved in a global field, with your own tags as placeholders. Use Substitute to insert information where the placeholders are, and export that to a text file. FMP exports only to one file name; dynamic file names are possible using AppleScript or VBScript (I use Troi File plugin).
Matt
#3
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In article <1175132223.157838.114140 (AT) n76g2000hsh (DOT) googlegroups.com>, "chris" <pa28_181 (AT) paradise (DOT) net.nz> wrote: On Mar 28, 6:54 am, "BGPrspr" <sisg... (AT) aol (DOT) com> wrote: Currently I use 3.0 version, and would appreciate knowing where I can obtain a newer version of Filemaker Pro at a major discount. I live in southern California,US. Thanks. BGPrsprhttp://journals.aol.com/sisgail/MyLifesJourney/ If you did find somewhere that would give you an unusually big discount then it's probably pirated software. Yep, there's really only about five types of legal discount that I know of for most software: - Educational / Government organisations get a discount, but the license is not to be used for profit-making companies (ie. students can't buy it and then set-up their own business) - Developer "club" (usually has an expensive membership fee) - Multi-license pack (price per license is cheaper than buying multiple individual licenses) - Upgrades when owning the previous version (sometimes versions older than the immediately previous one count as well) - Old stock of previous versions being sold off Anything else is usually suspicious. Helpful Harry Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o) |
The last version I bought was from Page Computers (http://www.pagescomputers.com). I seem to recall purchasing from TigerDirect (http://www.tigerdirect.com) at some point as well.
EBay is a possibility, but be careful.
Matt
#4
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On 03/29/2007 00:12:52 Helpful Harry <helpful_harry (AT) nom (DOT) de.plume.com> wrote: In article <1175132223.157838.114140 (AT) n76g2000hsh (DOT) googlegroups.com>, "chris" <pa28_181 (AT) paradise (DOT) net.nz> wrote: On Mar 28, 6:54 am, "BGPrspr" <sisg... (AT) aol (DOT) com> wrote: Currently I use 3.0 version, and would appreciate knowing where I can obtain a newer version of Filemaker Pro at a major discount. I live in southern California,US. Thanks. BGPrsprhttp://journals.aol.com/sisgail/MyLifesJourney/ If you did find somewhere that would give you an unusually big discount then it's probably pirated software. Yep, there's really only about five types of legal discount that I know of for most software: - Educational / Government organisations get a discount, but the license is not to be used for profit-making companies (ie. students can't buy it and then set-up their own business) - Developer "club" (usually has an expensive membership fee) - Multi-license pack (price per license is cheaper than buying multiple individual licenses) - Upgrades when owning the previous version (sometimes versions older than the immediately previous one count as well) - Old stock of previous versions being sold off Anything else is usually suspicious. There are, however, places where legal, boxed versions are available for less than FileMaker sells it. |
If they're selling it for less than FileMaker does, then their making a
loss and that's an extremely unusual thing for any business to do.
Less than FileMaker's suggested retail price is a different thing and
is possible as one business tries to get more customers than another
.... but the price difference isn't usually that much. Is saving a
couple of dollars really worth the trouble of searching every store?
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The last version I bought was from Page Computers (http://www.pagescomputers.com). I seem to recall purchasing from TigerDirect (http://www.tigerdirect.com) at some point as well. EBay is a possibility, but be careful. |
similar, copies for sale on eBay will be second-hand older versions and
/ or illegal versions.
Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)
#5
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There's nothing native in FMP for generating HTML pages, but it can be done. It involves a bit of trial and error to get the HTML right. |
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I use it to generate static web pages as HTML, then upload them to my server. See examples http://www.VirtualVermont.com/towns (not the index, but the individual town pages). |
ZIP codes, photos, and links to more details, and somehow you were able
to generate a separate HTML page for each town from that information?
If so, that looks very similar to what I want to do.
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In its simplest form, you would use a basic HTML page saved in a global field, with your own tags as placeholders. Use Substitute to insert information where the placeholders are, and export that to a text file. FMP exports only to one file name; dynamic file names are possible using AppleScript or VBScript (I use Troi File plugin). |
command! As for your last comment, are you saying that unless you trick
it, FMP will call every generated HTML page the same thing? So in your
case, they would have all been called something like "town.html" if you
hadn't used Troi File to make it call the first record "addison.html,"
the second one "albany.html," and so on?
Patty
#6
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In article <329713.XRQNDTDE (AT) news (DOT) verizon.net>, Matt Wills <I'm (AT) witz (DOT) end wrote: There's nothing native in FMP for generating HTML pages, but it can be done. It involves a bit of trial and error to get the HTML right. I wouldn't mind that! I use it to generate static web pages as HTML, then upload them to my server. See examples http://www.VirtualVermont.com/towns (not the index, but the individual town pages). Ah, cool. So you had a FileMaker database containing the town names ZIP codes, photos, and links to more details, and somehow you were able to generate a separate HTML page for each town from that information? If so, that looks very similar to what I want to do. In its simplest form, you would use a basic HTML page saved in a global field, with your own tags as placeholders. Use Substitute to insert information where the placeholders are, and export that to a text file. FMP exports only to one file name; dynamic file names are possible using AppleScript or VBScript (I use Troi File plugin). Ooohkay, I gotta go study up on global fields, tags, and the Substitute command! |
Open it as text, and find the places where you would want FileMaker to insert data from records. In each such spot, put a placeholder such as [NAME], [ADDRESS], [CITY]. Store the page text in a global text field (gPageTemplate).
Your script would set a temporary global field with the adjusted (substituted) content of that global (replacing the placeholder tag with the contents of a field):
Set Field [ Data::gTemporary ;
Substitute ( Global::gPageTemplate ;
[ "[NAME]" ; Data::Name ] ;
[ "[ADDRESS]" ; Data::Address ] ;
[ "[CITY]" ; Data::City ] ;
[ "[STATE]" ; Data::State ] ;
[ "[ZIP]" ; Data::ZIP ] ;
[ "[PHONE]" ; Data::Phone ]
)
All in one shot, your placeholders have been supplanted by the actual data, and your field can be exported as an HTML page. My town pages are considerably more complicated, with a bunch of If-Then decisions determining what gets inserted, but then I've been working on it for quite some time, always tweaking something.
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As for your last comment, are you saying that unless you trick it, FMP will call every generated HTML page the same thing? So in your case, they would have all been called something like "town.html" if you hadn't used Troi File to make it call the first record "addison.html," the second one "albany.html," and so on? |
OTOH, I seem to recall some discussion here about dynamically naming export files using script variables, but since I have my solution working perfectly with Troi File, I am not going to stop using something I paid for just yet. I just haven't played with the technique. You might be able to find something in the archive at Nabble.com. It may be only PDFs that works with.
Before Troi, each file was exported to a single file name, and a dynamically generated AppleScript (again using a basic script with placeholders and the Substitute function) renamed the file. That in itself worked fine, but I had a use for other things Troi could do, so I went for it.
Matt
#7
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Create a web page the way you want it to look. Many word processors these days will do that. Open it as text, and find the places where you would want FileMaker to insert data from records. In each such spot, put a placeholder such as [NAME], [ADDRESS], [CITY]. Store the page text in a global text field (gPageTemplate). |
my FMP database. Then I created a global text field in my database,
called it gPageTemplate, and pasted the HTML text into it. So far,
so good?
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Your script would set a temporary global field with the adjusted (substituted) content of that global (replacing the placeholder tag with the contents of a field): Set Field [ Data::gTemporary ; |
try to specify the stuff to go after the bracket, I get an error about
the field not being found. So I created another global field called
"gTemporary," but when I try to add that to the Set Field command,
I don't get the syntax you show above; I get "Set Field ["gTemporary"]".
Also, when I tried to add the Substitute command to the script,
I got an error about a wrong operator. Sorry, but I'm feeling
my way here on scripts! Any idea what I did wrong?
Patty
(Matt or anyone, feel free to send me email if you think this
is getting boring to the other newsgroup readers!)
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