Administrator’s Guide
Table Of Contents
- Preface Introducing FileMaker Pro 5.5 Unlimited
- Chapter 1 Installing the FileMaker Web Server Connector
- Chapter 2 Administering the Web Server Connector
- Chapter 3 Publishing your database on the Web
- Types of web publishing
- Using the FileMakerPro Web Companion
- Creating a custom home page
- Creating a custom home page for Instant Web Publishing
- Creating a custom web site using a database layout
- Web Companion support for Internet mediatypes
- Monitoring your site
- Exporting data to a static HTML page
- Testing your site without a networkconnection
- Opening password-protected databasesremotely
- Chapter 4 Custom web publishing using CDML
- About the CDML examples
- General steps for custom web publishing using CDML
- About CDML format files
- Generating FileMakerPro CGI requests using CDML
- Using the CDML Tool and templates
- Modified CDML tags
- About the CDML Reference database
- Creating error messages
- Using an encoding parameter with a CDML replacement tag
- Planning your web site
- Chapter 5 Using FileMakerPro XML to deliver your data
- About the XML examples
- General process for custom web publishing using XML
- Generating an XML document
- Using the FMPDSORESULT grammar
- Using the FileMakerPro Extended XMLgrammars
- About UTF-8 encoded data
- Generating FileMakerPro CGI requests for an XML document
- Using style sheets with your XMLdocument
- Comparing CSS, XSLT, and JavaScript
- Looking at the XML Inventory example
- Chapter 6 Using Java and JDBC to deliver your data
- About the JDBC examples
- About JDBC
- Using the FileMaker JDBC Driver
- SQL supported by the FileMaker JDBCDriver
- FileMakerPro support for Unicodecharacters
- About the FileMaker JDBC Driver interfaces and extensions
- Example 1: Looking at the FileMakerPro Explorer application
- Example 2: Creating the JBuilder Inventoryapplication
- Example 3: Creating the Visual Cafe Inventory application
- Using the FileMaker Java classes
- Appendix A Valid names used in CGI requests for FileMaker XML data
- Generating a –find, –findall, or –findany request
- Generating a –view request
- Generating a –new request
- Generating an –edit request
- Generating a –delete request
- Generating a –dbnames request
- Generating a –layoutnames request
- Generating a –scriptnames request
- Generating a –dbopen request
- Generating a –dbclose request
- Specifying parameters for the request
- –db (Database)
- –lay (Layout)
- –format (Format)
- –recid (Record ID)
- –modid (Modification ID)
- –lop (Logical operator)
- –op (Comparison operator)
- –max (Maximum records)
- –skip (Skip records)
- –sortfield (Sort field)
- –sortorder (Sort order)
- –script (Script)
- –script.prefind (Script before Find)
- –script.presort (Script before Sort)
- –styletype (Style type)
- –stylehref (Style href)
- –password (Database password)
- field name (Name of specific field)
- Appendix B FileMaker Pro values for error codes
- Appendix C Enabling the FileMaker Pro Web Companion in MacOS X
- Index
Chapter 1
Installing the FileMaker Web Server Connector
The built-in Web Companion in FileMaker Pro 5.5 Unlimited acts as
a CGI (Common Gateway Interface) application and as a web server
by handling browser interactions with FileMaker Pro databases and
serving by web pages and image files to the web browser.
You can extend this functionality by using the FileMaker Web Server
Connector included with FileMaker Pro 5.5 Unlimited. Use the Web
Server Connector with any of the following supported web servers:
1 Microsoft Internet Information Server 5.0
1 Apache 1.3.19 bundled with Mac OS X Server
1 Apache 1.3.19 bundled with Red Hat Linux 7.1 i386
About the Web Server Connector
The FileMaker Web Server Connector is a Java servlet that relays
FileMaker CGI requests for XML, CDML, and other dynamic content
from your web server to one or more computers running
FileMaker Pro Unlimited. This allows you to keep your database files
separate from your static HTML pages, images, and other non-
database files. It also prevents the web browser from making
unnecessary requests to FileMaker Pro Unlimited.
More importantly, the Web Server Connector allows you to use a
RAIC (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Computers) with multiple
copies of FileMaker Pro Unlimited so that more web users can access
your databases at a time.
With the Web Server Connector, you can:
1 take advantage of other plug-ins and features of your web server,
including Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protection and server-side
includes.
1 configure a RAIC to increase throughput and reliability.
1 store static elements such as image files on the web server, and
bypass the FileMaker Pro Web Companion for pages that do not
need to interact with the database.
Configuring a RAIC to use with the Web Server Connector
The Web Server Connector uses one or more RAIC machines, with
copies of FileMaker Pro Unlimited installed on each one. In addition,
you can use FileMaker Server or FileMaker Pro 5.5 in your
configuration as a backend database host using peer-to-peer
networking for better load balancing and fail-over protection. (For
information about these products, see www.filemaker.com.)
Note It is possible to run FileMaker Pro Unlimited on the same
machine as the Web Server Connector and the web server software,
but for performance reasons, it’s not recommended.
Here are some of the possible ways to configure your machines:
1 The Web Server Connector on the web server machine and
FileMaker Pro Unlimited hosting databases on another machine.
This is a strong configuration because you’re able to realize all the
server-derived benefits of the Web Server Connector using only two
machines.
1 The Web Server Connector on the web server machine and
FileMaker Pro Unlimited on multiple machines, with each machine
hosting different databases.
This configuration offers good throughput, as multiple hosts ease the
load that would otherwise be given to a single host. It can provide a
means for load balancing if the more active databases are divided
between the machines.