FM Software

[McGoo]

I work for a college in Manchester (UK) and we have set up the colleges database that stores all student records in FM 5 with FM Server 5. We have up to approximately 15 - 20 members of staff using the system at anyone time. Unfortunately with some of the complicated lookups etc it can often take the student file quite a long time to open, some of the staff only want to view the system quickly and are put of with the time it takes to load up.

I have decided to publish certain files and certain data on the intranet but I am concerned that with the amount of usage that the system will not work. Do I need another version of Filemaker???

I am also looking for guidance of the best way to publish the database using web companion as I have never done this sort of thing before, so any guidance would be greatly appreciated

[Geeksharka]

If Lookups seem to be an issue, I strongly recommend using related fields instead of Lookups. From the sound of it, (amount of data and users), speed should not be an issue at all. Maybe some (perhaps significant) restructuring of how data is indexed and shown in the system will do the trick.

[Garry Claridge]

You may also like to have the first layout very 'clean', i.e. not much in the way of calculated fields and lookups.

During the time the file takes to open, can you see which fields it is calculating and indexing?

To serve the database with Web-Companion you can use a Client version of FMP as the host. This is if the number of IP addresses accessing the database within a 12hour period is 10 or less. Else you will need FM Unlimited.

All the best.

Garry

[Keith M. Davie]

And you find much more control and versatility of solution with Custom Web Publishing when compared with Instant Web Publishing. You will need to allow sufficiant time for the learning curve. There are many design issues which will demand attention.

[McGoo]

The System is currently set up with a combination of lookup field and calculations. The structure may possibly be better but I don't believe that this is the issue. The screens that many of the teaching staff look at have some relatively complicated calculations that use other files for the data.

I am fairly certain that publishing the data on the colleges in house intranet is the solution. The problem is that I have only ever designed relatively basic web pages and have never published a database on the web and I am not sure wether I should use Web Companion to set it up my web page or some other software like Front page.

I really need to discover what the first two or three steps are and then I will be in a position to start building on this work. Any help in directing me would be greatly appreciated.

[Keith M. Davie]

"The problem is that I have only ever designed relatively basic web pages

and have never published a database on the web and I am not sure wether I

should use Web Companion to set it up my web page..."

Knowing html is very helpful for custom web publishing. Then you need to put cdml form actions and link actions into the html. And you similarly display results of those actions through cdml tags inserted into your success.htm's and error.htm's.

Web Companion will not "set up" your web page. WC is FileMaker's interface with cdml tags and it handles cgi internally and automatically.

The cdml reference database, available from the FMI website, is your firend. Download it and use it. Most things are fairly well explained. The cdml tool is pretty useless and can be very confusing. Text editors will sometimes change code which you have written, which is an arguement against using a text editor and for writing html/cdml from scratch. Also there are books, classes and tutorials available to help you learn. Visit my site.