Hi, gang. While I am familiar with and love the new FileMaker 7 and now 8,
for developing and managing databases, I am about to embark on developing my
first website, have little or no familiarity with other programming tools,
other than knowing some of their names, and wish to ask a couple of basic
questions about FileMaker and if it is the best working solution for what I
wish to accomplish.

The website I have in mind will be a small website, initially, for promoting
a small business, and it will offer some products for sale, and it will wish
to solicit email addresses from visitors wishing to receive follow-up
newsletters or the like. It will be be hosted (host not selected yet) and we
are running Windows XP Pro computers.

So,- and again, I know nothing about web development yet - if I assume that
somehow, I will end up with an embedded form on a web page where a user
inputs his email address and other info, WHERE DOES THIS INFO END UP?, WHAT
ARE MY CHOICES FOR THE MANAGMENT OF INFO GATHERED FROM A WEBSITE?

Since I love the power and easy managment of databases that FileMaker
allows, I think of it first. Is it, however, a good choice, or are there
easier choices, perhaps easier to implement too, for our first web site
build ?

Thanks for any input. Happy Holidays to all.

Hello rbnomer,

I would suggest you check out the following:
FXForge (http://www.fxforge.net/) for developing your solution in php.
Buddy Systems hosting (http://www.filemaker7hosting.com/) for hosting
on FMSA without having to purchase FMSA.
IWP if you are serving your solution locally.
If you are serving this solution locally, using a dynamic IP as a
static IP (https://www.dyndns.com/) or NO IP (https://www.noip.com) -
both have free versions.

With all of the above solutions, your infomation is stored in the
actual db.

php provides an interface for a custom web site while IWP provides the
interface for a, well, not so custom, but perfectly acceptable
solution. The main difference is that with IWP, you may link to the db
from an HTML web site but you can not imbed the actual db in the HTML
web site. It has to be served seperately. With php you are actually
building the web page and can incorporate it in any HTML site.

BTW, I have no vested interest in any of the above solutions but do
have access to discounts to them via my membership in FMPug
(fmpug.com). You might want to check this out during your exploration
process and b4 you purchase. There are also reviews of many FMP
products and services on the FMPug website.

John Reed
Data Control Specialists
FMPug Boston Chapter Coordinator
datacontrolspecialists.com
Skype: datacontrol

rbnomer wrote:

FileMaker 7 (or 8) will do exactly what you want, and fairly easily.

I would strongly recommend PHP for writing any custom pages for
Filemaker Pro; as someone else suggested, FXForge from FMWebSchool.com
is a great resource for writing PHP code for a website. The downside,
however, is that you don't learn what the PHP is actually doing. If
you'd like to get your hands a little dirtier, you can investigate "PHP
in 8 Hours," which FMWebSchool also sells.

Our company would be happy to host your database on FM Server Advanced
for you, and your webiste as well. If you'd like pricing, please email
or call for details.

Best regards,

Bob Patin
Longterm Solutions
bob (AT) NOSPAMlongtermsolutions (DOT) com
http://www.longtermsolutions.com