Developer’s Guide

Table Of Contents
Publishing your database on the Web
6-5
Web users must append the 591 port number to the end of the IP
address with a colon when they enter the URL to your published
database, for example, http://17.17.17.17:591.
10. Click OK to close the Web Companion Configuration dialog box.
11. Click OK again to close the Application Preferences dialog box.
Sharing the database via the Web
Each database that you’re publishing on the Web must be open and
shared via the Web Companion.
To share a database on the Web:
1. In FileMaker Pro, choose File menu > Open and open the database.
2. Choose File menu > Sharing.
3. Select the Web Companion checkbox.
If the Web Companion option is unavailable (dimmed), you need to
enable the Web Companion. See “Enabling the Web Companion” on
page 6-3.
4. Click OK to close the File Sharing dialog box.
Displaying a custom home page
You can set the Web Companion to open a custom home page by
default rather than the built-in home page (the FileMaker Pro Instant
Web Portal) — whether you’re using Instant Web Publishing or
custom web publishing with CDML or XML.
When web users enter the IP address of the host computer in their
web browsers, the Web Companion will serve either the built-in
home page used for Instant Web Publishing, any web page named
“default.htm,” “default.html,” “index.htm,” or “index.html” that is
located in the root level of the Web folder or in a site folder within
it, or the custom home page you specify in the Web Companion
Configuration dialog box (which must be located in the root level of
the Web folder).
If you’re hosting multiple sites each with its own home page, you can
have each home page named “default.htm” or “index.htm” inside
each site folder within the Web folder, and the Web Companion will
display them when web users enter the name of the site folder after
the IP address.
http://17.17.17.17/guest_book
If you want, create a link to the IP address of the site folder—
otherwise, let users know so they can type it in their web browsers.
Note You can enter “localhost” instead of the IP address when
FileMaker Pro and all the files are on your computer. See “Testing
your site without a network connection” on page 6-13.
http://localhost
http://localhost/guest_book