Instant Web Publishing Guide

Chapter 4 | Designing a database for Instant Web Publishing 29
1 Pop-up menus and pop-up lists display as HTML pop-up menus. Web users can’t edit value
lists by using an Edit item, or enter values that aren’t in a value list by using an Other item.
1 If your layout contains a portal, related records also display in a web browser within a portal,
provided that the related file or table is also shared with Instant Web Publishing. When you
submit a record containing a portal you might be notified that another user has modified one of
the records since you loaded the page. If this occurs, refresh your page and submit the data
again. If this is a likely scenario, consider using portals as “read only” forms. Alternatively, you
can edit related record data in portals by using the Go To Related Record script step and editing
them directly.
1 Web users can create and edit portal records, including filtered portal records. To delete a portal
record, you must provide a scripted button that selects the appropriate portal record, then
deletes it. Web users cannot create or change portal filters.
1 When a published database file contains references to a protected related file that it is not
authorized to access, web users cannot authorize access to the protected file in Instant Web
Publishing. Consequently, when web users open the published database file, the file does not
contain any data from the protected file. To prevent this, be sure to use FileMaker Pro to
authorize all files that reference protected files. For more information on authorizing access to
protected files in a multi-file solution, see FileMaker Pro Help.
General database design considerations
Keep the following points in mind:
1 If you are designing a database that will be accessed by both Instant Web Publishing and
FileMaker
Pro network clients, it’s best to design with web clients in mind to ensure compatibility
across both technologies.
1 Communication from a client to the FileMaker host goes through intermediary technologies with
Instant Web Publishing. When you request data with Instant Web Publishing, you are sending
the request from a web browser to a virtual FileMaker environment, which processes your
request, then requests and retrieves the results from FileMaker
Pro. These results are then
passed back to the browser. This interaction is usually undetectable to web users, but
occasionally you must take action to make sure the results are the same regardless of how
clients access your database. Because web users don’t have a direct connection to the host,
they aren’t notified immediately when data changes. For example, you may need to update your
scripts to include the Commit Records/Requests script step to refresh the browser window. For
more information, see
“Script steps tips and considerations” on page 34 and “Creating a script
to log out of a database and close the session” on page 36.
1 Each database must be assigned a unique filename, when you host them with Instant Web
Publishing. If you have two hosted databases with the same name, only one appears in the
Database Homepage in Instant Web Publishing.
1 When defining account names and passwords, avoid characters that may be interpreted
incorrectly on the web. You may want to limit account names and passwords to alphabetic and
numeric characters only.