Administrator’s Guide

Table Of Contents
Appendix C
Enabling the FileMaker Pro Web Companion in Mac OS X
FileMaker Pro Unlimited uses the FileMaker Pro Web Companion
plug-in to serve databases over the Web.
To enable the Web Companion in Mac OS X:
1. Choose the FileMaker Pro application menu > Preferences >
Application.
2. In the Application Preferences dialog, click the Plug-Ins tab.
3. Select the Web Companion checkbox.
After you enable the Web Companion, you must specify which port,
or virtual connection, the Web Companion will use to publish data.
The first time you enable the Web Companion (or if you have
previously enabled the Web Companion and are reinstalling
FileMaker Pro), FileMaker Pro requests permission to make a one-
time change to your computer’s setting to facilitate web publishing
on ports below 1024.
The standard port for web publishing is port number 80 (ports are
numbered between 1 and 65535), and most web servers and browsers
use this port as the default. Port 80 is also the default port for the
FileMaker Pro Web Companion. For security reasons, Mac OS X
restricts access to ports below 1024. To configure the FileMaker Pro
Web Companion to use ports below 1024 while maintaining the Mac
OS X access restrictions on these ports, it is necessary to make a one-
time change to the file permissions of the Web Companion Enabler
to give it the authority to open privileged ports (ports 1-1023). To
make this change, you will need an administrator password, such as
the password created when you first set up Mac OS X.
Note If you use a port other than port number 80 for FileMaker Pro
web publishing, your users will need to append a colon (“:”) and the
number of the port to their URLs to access your web hosted
databases. For more information, see “Accessing databases that are
published to the Web” on page C-3, and the FileMaker Pro Help
topic, “Specifying a port number for web publishing.”
4. If have an administrator password and want to configure the Web
Companion to use standard settings for web publishing
(recommended), click Continue.