MattCoyne

Thanks Jeff, much appreciated It's a shame that the chances are this will be my one and only FIlemaker job. I will probably be able to maintain and enhance this one though as they are a long term client. I'll do some digging into the archives and try and put some good practices into action. Thanks again Matt

Hi Keith You hit the nail on the head. The client has a lot of internal filemaker stuff going on, running everything from their casting database to payroll etc. All built by one guy. The system they are putting in place now was to be used internally and externally via the web. Our problem was that the filemaker developer had never worked on anything web related and I had never worked on anything filemaker/cdml related. So together we made a 'great' team. Essentially he went off and made the database and I came in and tried to make it work on the web using cdml... A recipe for chaos, and we're still learning. I'm sure we will get there in the end!! Any pointers to good references for good practices to follow when designing filemaker for the web? cheers Matt

That is my plan, yes The images are PICTS through someone else importing, I wasn't on the scene when this was done. As far as I know the images are embedded, I have been told they were imported into FMU using Insert Picture on the container field. Thanks for your help Matt

Sorry, that's not it. The image size specified is the actual pixel size of the image imported into the container field. I've been doing some digging. It turns out the images imported were in PICT (.PCT) file format. No problem for using internally (that I know of), but I found this in the FIlemaker Help I can only assume that Filemaker creates a nasty low quality jpeg when doing this. I cannot find a way to set this either. Therefore I guess my options are to re-import 2700 images as JPG format, or use the method described above by referencing an external file.... i wonder which i will choose? cheers Matt

Hi Jeff Thanks for that. I have not been doing this long and as such did not realise the implications of using this method. So using your method should speed up the pages, I had noticed the pages sometimes were quite slow. Does this explain the quality of the images though. And why the sudden change after importing a new set of images. I am all for doing things a better way, but I would like to know why I am having these problems anyway... Any takers cheers Matt

Hi I apologise if this has been covered before, but I could not find anything in my searches of these forums. Part of my Filemaker online project displays an image referenced from a container field in the relevant database. The CDML used goes like this... <img src="[FMP-Image: ARTISTEPICTURE]" width="142" height="213" border="0"> All was good until the new images were imported into the container field for almost all records. When viewing the web pages after the import the image was displaying as a very low quality JPG. Comparing a record with a new image next to a record using an old image showed the difference in quality. Has anyone come across this and if so, have any pointers as to what has occured and how to solve the problem? I should point out that I am not a Filemaker developer, but a web designer learning CDML. I am in touch with the 'Filemaker Guy' who created and maintains the databases I am working with so can pass on any questions that I cannot answer related to the databases themselves. TIA Matt

This is my Applescript... on idle with timeout of 360 seconds tell application "FileMaker Pro" activate if (database "ARTDIARY.fp5" exists) is not true or (database "ARTBOOKS.fp5" exists) is not true or (database "Web Security.fp5" exists) is not true then activate open file "Users:admin:Documents:FMCheck:Opener.fp5" end if end tell tell application "FileMaker Pro" activate end tell end timeout end idle The method of describing the path is 'oldskool' OS 9 but seems to work. I have had this running on OS 10.2 with FMU 6 for a few months now with no issues... Hope it helps Matt

Wow, didn't know I was still tracking this thread!! Can you tell us what your setup is, what isn't working, and what errors (if any) that you are getting? The server referenced in the last post would have been Filemaker Server. The 'Opener' database is used to automate opening the required database/s from the Filemaker server using the in built Filemaker 'Scriptmaker' as Applescript on it's own would not be able to find the databases in order to open them... Without having tried it, I would not expect OS X server to have any issues with this approach. But you can tell me different...

Thanks for the info, much appreciated

Hi all Thanks for your replies, much appreciated I also sent the request to the FMWebTalk list. One reply from Marisa Smith went like this... It looks like a winner to me, but what is the verdict from the Applescripters here...??

Hi All FMU on OS X tends to crash (apparently this is well known, I've only just found out!!) Apart from using OS 9 can I use an applescript to check whether FMU has indeed crashed and then open FMU with some predetermined Databases? I do not know applescript so would appreciate some help/pointers I anticipate using the script with cronniX to run the script at pre-set intervals. anyone? TIA Matt

Following on from garrycl's response, if the format file can produce a string delimited by commas (or any other delimeter) then you can use this code... myArray =myDelimetedString.split(","); Where myArray is a new Array created by the split function, and myDelimetedString is the Comma delimeted string you have passed to Flash by the format file. Change the comma in 'split(",")' to whatever your delimeter is. You could do this with as many delimeted strings as needed then you have a series of Arrays that can be used and abused in Flash. HTH

Hi all I have taken a quick look at Wellspring Data's 'Filespring Pipeline' (http://wellspringdata.com/filespring.html) to enable the use of existing CDML files on my Apache server. They state that no additional coding is necessary to use your existing files in this manner as the technology simple forwards the request to Web Companion. I have carried out the 'simple' installation instructions without luck and as I am not a total apache techie, do not know where to turn. If anyone has had experience in using FSP then please post a reply... I'd appreciate the help!! I'm using OS X 10.2.6, standard Apache install with the OS, PHP 4.3.0 and FMU 6. The problem I have is that when trying to access the first format file Apache throws up a 500 Internal Server Error. ...anyone? TIA

Thanks for your posts they have been enlightening I tried this... perform login on first page on format page, set 2 hidden form values (start/finish dates) via javascript automagically submit form via javascript format file displays the correct calendar info I also tried the following... set values for 2 tokens (start/finish date) on the login page using javascript user submits the form and perform the login passing the tokens with the form perform an inline on the next page using the tokens passed. refresh browser using meta tag format file displays the correct calendar info They both work but can anyone tell me if one method more advisable? Thanks again Matt

Thanks for your replies people, much appreciated... GMT meant I was in the land of nod while you were all working I'll try the 2 approaches today and let you know how I get on. Thanks again Matt

Thanks again for the quick reply I am assuming my general approach is ok as no-one has picked up on that so far... 1. login (-find) 2. set date (-edit) 3. refresh page (-find) An idea then could be to use a hidden form value. Change the value dynamically via javascript, then submit the form (via javascript?) My Javascript knowledge is OK, but for some reason I cannot think of the way to submit the form using javascript rather than by the user clicking a submit button!! Can I do it automatically? Sorry, I am thinking out loud, I should look into it myself... l8r ... Matt

Thanks for the info Fenton I am calling a -find from the first page and then using the -recid to edit with the Inline. I have also simply placed string values as the dates (ie 01/06/2003 and 30/06/2003) in the Inline and that works (so for the month of June... I'm fine!) I'm not totally understanding Anatoli's comment but I am guessing that he is saying that Inlines and Javascript do not mix. Therefore I guess I need another approach. Can I set a token via Javascript and the use an inline? I'm struggling here... TIA Matt

I do have the CDMLRD thanks and yes it is very useful. I appreciate your advice, the book I am referencing advises the same thing, 'web' layouts and I am in the process of moving over to them. At this point I am still stuck with the bigger picture which is either about my approach to the login/show calendar events and/or the use of Javascript with Inline Actions. I would post the URL but I'm on dynamic IP so there wouldn't be much point as it may have changed by the time you read this (2hr cutoff/reconnect/newIP/aarrgghh!) Has anyone got a clue? Do you need more info? TIA Matt

Anatoli , thanks for the quick reply. Having read a load of posts on this forum I am honoured to have your attention!! Maybe I am going about this the wrong way then. Let me explain what I am trying to achieve. User enters section of site on a login page User enters 'username', 'password' and clicks login User is validated and is shown calendar for current month with various events particular to that user The filemaker db's that are used have been created by a filemaker developer already and I am following his lead - at the moment. He has a layout that displays the users bookings that month based on a User ID and Start/End Date for the month. I am using this layout to do the same on the web page. ie User logs in, I do a find for that username/password combo. The next bit is where I may be wrong in my approach. I need to set the start/end dates of the month before returning the months events to be sure the layout is set to the current month and I return the current values for that month. Sooo... when user clicks login, format file returns correct User ID and I use this page as an intermediate 'logging you in...' screen where I place an Inline that sets the start/end date of the current User ID... the page is set to refresh on 1/2 seconds to the next format file which does a find on the same layout with the same User ID with the start/end dates set correctly and thus displaying the correct month. It seems a long winded way of doing things , but it is how my mind is working at the minute!! I cannot do a login (-find) and an -edit at the same time so I thought the intermediate file would be a good stepping stone to perform the -edit. I need to set the current month's start/end date at login as the user can flick between months while within the calendar section. Therefore when logging out the start/end days may be different from the current month's when logging in next time. Does this make sense? Do you need to see the html page? Any help gratefully received! TIA Matt

Hi First post so please be kind... (!) I am currently hammering through Filemaker Pro 6 Web Development in conjunction with a live project (I am a fool to myself). My background is the web side rather than Filemaker and I am using my experience with Javascript & HTML to beef up what I can achieve with CDML. I may be going about this completely the wrong way, so please step in at any time... I need to set a 'month start date' and 'month finish date' for a calendar using a calculated result (from a javascript) and an inline... phew! This is what I have placed in the body of the html file: <script language="JavaScript"> document.write("[FMP-InlineAction: -db=DBNAME, -lay=LAYOUTNAME, -RecID={CurrentRecID}, MONTH START DATE="+stDate+", MONTH FINISH DATE="+fnDate+", -edit][/FMP-InlineAction]"); </script> Should this work? I am getting no response at the filemaker end, ie the record is not being updated. When I do a simple javascript alert of the same string the alert box is blank indicating a blank string. Also the html source looks like this when viewed <script language="JavaScript"> document.write(""); </script> btw, the variables stDate and fnDate have been tested separately and do exist And I know that spaces are not supposed to be used in CDML (or any web stuff really) but I'm working with a filemaker developers db's. Therefore not much control. Anyway using this method without Javascript (ie hard coded values) works. Has anyone any ideas as to what I am doing wrong? Can this be done? Is there another way of doing it? TIA Matt