Can Fmp 14 database work with local host off-line like Fmp 5 used to?

[randyinla]

Hi All, I'd like to use fmp 14 databases on my off-line computer only using local host and a browser.  Is this possible without using FMP 14 server?

 

Thanks!

[Wim Decorte]

Can you expand on this:

16 hours ago, randyinla said:

using local host and a browser

 

Do you mean using FM's Webdirect to allow other people access to your file?

[randyinla]

Thanks Wim, I am the only user.  I'd like my mac to be the server so I can work offline on my computer only.  I don't want to use a FM server, only my computer.  I used to be able to do this with FMP 5 and local host on my computer offline.  Does that Help?

[Wim Decorte]

Not really... if you have the file local and you are the only user, why not just open it in FileMaker Pro?  Why the reference to a browser?

 

[randyinla]

thanks Wim, I want to open in a browser because that's how i'm used to displaying FM dbs.  I want all the nice visuals i can do with html.  I was able to do it with FMP 5.5 simply by using localhost in the browser's URL.  I'm guessing that has changed.  I'm also used to writing code in PHP.  Do you recall being able to use local host with earlier versions of FMP?

[Wim Decorte]

I don't think that FM is the right platform for you... if you use FMP (which is a full-featured fat client and semi-host) only to make the FM file available through its APIs - but completely bypassing the features built into the client itself - then you'd be much better off dumping the data to MySQL and using your PHP skills to build all the front-ends you want.

If you are proficient in HTML5 and JavaScript you can use the new features in 19 to very effectively supplement any data visuals you want AND get all the benefits of the clients.  But if you are jumping from 5 to 14 (and not 19) for monetary reasons then that would just reinforce my recommendation: stop using FM.  FM14 is getting to be really old and you're bound to run into OS compatibility issues as time goes by.

 

 

[randyinla]

Thanks for all the good info, I will look into MySQL and php.  You've been great!

[comment]

On 12/27/2020 at 11:11 PM, randyinla said:

I want to open in a browser because that's how i'm used to displaying FM dbs.  I want all the nice visuals i can do with html. 

I suspect your memory deceives you. In order to open a Filemaker solution using local host and a browser you had to first open the file in the FMP application and enable it for Instant Web Publishing. In other words, you had to log into the same file TWICE. And there were no "nice visuals" - on the contrary, it was only an approximation of the native layouts using the HTML technology available at the time. I am not aware of anything you could do with the provided HTML other then let the browser render it.

The only advantage was the ability to test a file in a multi-user scenario.

In any case, Instant Web Publishing was removed in version 13.

 

[randyinla]

thanks for your reply, I did not know Instant Web Publishing was removed in version 13