Developer’s Guide

Custom web publishing using CDML 9-15
1 which format file will be displayed as a result of each request
You’ll also need to create pages to display error messages and other
types of feedback.
As you add CDML tags to a format file, you’ll need to know in
advance what the names are of the database, the layout you want to
use, and the next format file in the sequence. A flowchart can be
useful to map out the page links and interactions with each database.
Three examples are included with FileMaker Developer to give you
ideas on how to organize a site. You can also use them as templates
and modify them for your own sites.
Looking at the three CDML examples
The FileMaker Developer CD includes three CDML examples that
demonstrate ways to publish your databases on the Web using
CDML. These examples are located in the CDML folder:
FileMaker Developer 5 > External FileMaker APIs > CDML > CDML
Examples
To examine the three CDML examples:
1. Copy the CDML Examples folder and its contents into the root
level of the Web folder, located inside the FileMaker Pro 5
application folder. The contents include one default.htm file, an
Images folder, and the Employee Database, Guest Book, and
Shopping Cart folders.
2. In FileMaker Pro, open each database file inside the three example
folders and make sure that each one is shared via the Web
Companion. See “Enabling the Web Companion” on page 6-3 and
“Sharing the database via the Web” on page 6-5 for information.)
3. In your web browser, type http://localhost or your
computer’s IP address followed by
/CDML Examples/ and press
Enter.
http://localhost/CDML Examples/
The Web Companion displays the default.htm file located inside the
CDML Examples folder.
For information on setting up your computer as a localhost, see
“Testing your site without a network connection” on page 6-13.
4. Click the links on the Web Companion Demonstration page to go
to each of the three examples.
5. As you explore each example site, view the HTML source on each
page to see how CDML is used.
Be sure to examine the FileMaker Pro CGI commands in the HREF
links or HTML forms. (See “Generating FileMaker Pro CGI requests
using CDML” on page 9-3.)
Note To see the CDML replacement tags, open the example files
directly in the browser (without using the web site example links).
Click a link to go to the default.htm file for each CDML example