Developer’s Guide

10-2 Developer’s Guide
General process for custom web
publishing using XML
Here’s a simple overview of the process for publishing your
FileMaker Pro database on the Internet or an intranet using XML:
1. You send a FileMaker Pro CGI request (such as to find records in
the database) to the Web Companion through an HTML form, an
HREF link, or a script on your web page. The request can also be
made by typing the URL in the web browser.
See “Generating FileMaker Pro CGI requests for an XML
document” on page 10-8 and appendix B, “Valid names used in CGI
requests for FileMaker Pro XML data.”
2. The Web Companion generates an XML document containing the
results of your request in XML format (for example, a found set of
records from the database and an XML-stylesheet processing
instruction) and returns it to your web browser.
See “Generating an XML document” next.
3. The web browser, with the help of an XML parser, applies any
instructions that you’ve specified via a stylesheet and displays the
data in HTML format.
See “Using style sheets with your XML document” on page 10-10.
Once the XML document is downloaded to your web browser, you
can use stylesheets (such as CSS or XSL) to apply text formatting
styles and object positioning, or scripting (such as JavaScript) to
manipulate the data however you want. See
“Comparing CSS,
XSLT, and JavaScript” on page 10-11.
Generating an XML document
When you specify an XML format parameter in your FileMaker Pro
CGI request, the Web Companion generates an XML document
containing data from your database that is formatted by one of two
types of XML grammars (or schemas).
One type (called FMPDSO) gives you more flexibility and control
over individual elements and is ideally suited for use with cascading
style sheets (CSS) or Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL). The
FMPDSO grammar can also be used with the Microsoft XML Data
Source Object (DSO) in Internet Explorer 4.0 to publish read-only
databases. (The Microsoft XML DSO lets you view but not update
data in XML format.)
The other type of grammar (called FileMaker Extended XML or
FMPXML) provides a broader, richer XML that defines
FileMaker Pro layouts, fields, and value list information. These
grammars can be combined with XSL documents or scripting (such
as JavaScript) to publish dynamic databases on the Web.
All XML data generated by the Web Companion is well-formed and
compliant with the XML 1.0 specification. The document type
definitions (DTDs) for the grammars are provided in HTML documents
for your convenience (included on the FileMaker Developer CD).
Developer Extras\FileMaker, Inc\External FileMaker
APIs\XML\Documentation
Two of the grammars generated by the Web Companion are used for
retrieving query results and a third is used for retrieving layout
information. Depending on what you specify in your FileMaker Pro
CGI request, the Web Companion will generate an XML document
using one of these grammars:
• the FMPDSORESULT grammar
• the FMPXMLRESULT grammar
• the FMPXMLLAYOUT grammar
Each XML document contains a default XML namespace
declaration for the grammar. (See
“About XML namespaces” next.)
You can also specify that the document contain an XML-stylesheet
processing instruction. (See
“Using style sheets with your
XML document” on page 10-10.)