gdykema

Yes, there's a lot more documentation for PHP than CDML, also classes/tutorials, etc. I wouldn't say it's "super easy" to swap FMP out for a different database engine when using PHP, but you stand a lot better chance of being to reuse at least some of your PHP code vs. none of a CDML solution. If your code is very modular, you might be able to reuse almost all of it, although unfortunately none of the database-access libraries like PEAR, ADOdb or PHPLIB support FMP.

"Generally speaking I am doing almost all that in CDML/HTML/JavaScript and FM." Sure, it can be done that way. Now assume that the user has disabled JavaScript and that changing the database is not an option. Now what do you do? "So, where is the benefit for FileMaker to use CDML and php together?" I just answered that. If you don't need it for your applications, don't use it.

"Yes, and if what I read at viking is accurate, with FMPro PHP is read only. I gather that means that using FX.php one cannot get PHP data into FMPro." Nope, data both ways. Find, FindAll, New, Edit, View, Delete, everything you can do with CDML.

"Is there a limit in the amount of data I can insert in a URL?" Yes, but good luck figuring out what it is. I try to keep URL's under 256 characters to avoid trouble. The limit depends on the web browser being used and, in my experience, on whether you are using Web Server Connector. WSC gets very flaky with long URLs in my experience. "Alqemy does not provide information on submitting via the form method" You want to submit a POST HTTP request instead of a GET. Can you share the method you are currently using?

"What is the advantage of using CDML and then php?" You can reformat data, perform calculations, suppress redundant data, color alternating rows, merge in data from another (non-FMP) data source, make use of PHP session data, work around the flaky email functionality in Web Companion, implement file upload, etc. Even better, start with PHP in the first place and build a more secure and flexible system than you could with CDML. CDML has improved since 4.0 but is still quite limited compared to PHP/ASP/Lasso/CFM/Perl.

"Do I have to use XSL Transformations server side to output HTML files for compatibility purposes? " Well, you'll need to do something on the server in order to turn the XML into HTML if you need to support any besides the latest browsers. XSLT is one way, Perl or PHP scripting is another. We're using FX.php to get FMP data into PHP and it happens to use XML, although that fact is pretty much hidden from you. XML's not really ready for delivery to browsers yet--the browsers' fault, not XML's!

We've used FX.php (is that what you're referring to as "that new Viking solution"?) on a couple of applications now and are quite happy with it. All data comes from FMP and all web pages are generated by PHP. We've also got an approach that lets you add PHP incrementally to an existing CDML solution--process a page first with CDML and then with PHP.