Help

Publishing databases on the web
F
ILEMAKER PRO HELP 541
Publishing databases on the web
You can display your databases on the web in a variety of ways. This makes your data:
• available to many people who are using a compatible web browser anywhere in the world.
(You can, however, restrict access to files.)
• accessible from many locations—for example, while traveling or working remotely.
There are three ways to publish your data.
• FileMaker WebDirect: If you have FileMaker Server, you can use FileMaker WebDirect to
quickly and easily publish layouts from your database on the web. You don’t need to install
additional software—anyone with compatible web browser software and access to the
Internet or an intranet can connect to your FileMaker
WebDirect solution to view, edit, sort,
or search records, if you give them access privileges. With FileMaker
WebDirect, data in the
web browser updates automatically as FileMaker
Server pushes data to the web browser.
You can use additional software to perform additional tasks (for example, to configure a
firewall to secure your network). See
Publishing databases with FileMaker WebDirect.
• Static publishing: If your data rarely changes, or if you don’t want users to have a live
connection to your database, you can use static publishing. With static publishing, you
export FileMaker Pro data to create a web page that you can further customize with HTML.
The web page doesn’t change when information in your database changes, and users don’t
connect to your database. See
Publishing data on static webpages.
• Custom Web Publishing: If you have FileMaker Server, you can use the Custom Web
Publishing technologies for more control over the appearance and functionality of your
published database.
With XML and PHP, you can:
• integrate your database with another website
• determine how users interact with data
• control how data displays in web browsers
See F
ILEMAKER SERVER CUSTOM WEB PUBLISHING WITH XML and FILEMAKER SERVER CUSTOM
W
EB PUBLISHING WITH PHP.
Publishing databases with FileMaker WebDirect
With FileMaker Pro, you can design layouts to share with users in FileMaker WebDirect, allowing
them to find, browse, and modify data in a web browser.
• Use FileMaker WebDirect to quickly and easily publish the layouts you design in
FileMaker
Pro as web pages. Create layouts for FileMaker Pro users and web users with
the same design tools.
• Automate simple tasks such as finding records, or automate more complex tasks using
script steps that are compatible with FileMaker
WebDirect. See Creating scripts to automate
tasks.
• Use accounts and privilege sets to control the security of your solution. See Protecting
databases.
FileMaker WebDirect is available to databases hosted by FileMaker Server, which includes all the
software you need to publish layouts from your database as web pages within a local network or
intranet. With an Internet connection (typically provided through an Internet Service Provider) and
an IP address, you can publish to Internet users on the World Wide Web.