Developer’s Guide

6-18 Developer’s Guide
Opening password-protected
databases remotely
You can open and close FileMaker Pro databases from your web
browser or other client application by making a –dbopen or –dbclose
request to FileMaker Pro.
Note You can also open and close FileMaker Pro databases remotely
by using the DbOpen and DbClose pseudo procedures with the
FileMaker JDBC Driver. See “Using DbOpen and DbClose pseudo
procedures” on page 9-5 for information.
The databases must be located in the Web folder and the Web
Companion Configuration dialog box must have Remote
Administration enabled. In addition, you should require a remote
administration password to ensure that once databases are opened,
they cannot be closed by an unauthorized user.
The Web Companion uses HTTP basic authentication to enforce web
security. When a –dbopen request is made to FileMaker Pro, the
browser or client application displays the basic user name/password
dialog box where you type
admin for the user name and the remote
administration password that you specified in the Web Companion
Configuration dialog box.
For databases that also have an access privileges password, you must
use the –password parameter with the –dbopen request. After you
enter the admin user name and remote administration password, the
Web Companion checks the –password parameter in the request.
Tip For better security, place your databases in subfolders within the
Web folder. This way, unauthorized users will not know the rest of
the path even if they gain access to the Web folder.
Opening and closing databases using XML
Here is an example of making a –dbopen request using an XML
document:
FMPro?–db=secretfolder/employees.fp5&–format=–fmp_xml&
–password= dbpassword&–dbopen
Here is an example of making a –dbclose request using an XML
document:
FMPro?–db=secretfolder/employees.fp5&–format=–fmp_xml&–dbclose
For more information, see “Generating FileMaker Pro CGI requests
for an XML document” on page 7-8 and appendix B, “Valid names
used in CGI requests for FileMaker Pro XML data.”
Opening and closing databases using CDML
To open or close databases remotely using a –dbopen request or
–dbclose request (CDML variable tags), you must also specify a
–format parameter.
If desired, use the [FMP-CurrentError] and [FMP-CurrentDatabase]
tags in the format file to display the results of the request (the
“current database” was successfully opened or the “current
database” could not be opened because of “error #”).
Here is an example of making a –dbopen request:
FMPro?–db=secretfolder/employees.fp5&–format=dbopen.htm&
–password=dbpassword&–dbopen
Here is an example of making a –dbclose request:
FMPro?–db=secretfolder/employees.fp5&–format=dbclose.htm&
–dbclose
For more information, see “Generating FileMaker Pro CGI requests
using CDML” on page 8-3.