Discussion forum

[thierry.be]

Hi all,

I am experimenting a bit with CDML. Now I have created a website with fill in forms, and all that works fine.

Now I'd like to add a discussion forum to my website.

Has anyone done this with CDML, if so can I find templates/ examples on how to do this?

Hope someone can help me,

Thx anyway

Thierry

[Jeff Spall]

Hi, I have a very simple one that's really just a quick messageboard:

just create a thread, add a reply.

There's no login, but it does validate the username against a contact list db (not supplied) so you could make one that registered users. Without a login, this only allows an administrator to edit the messages.

Basically, when you start a new thread it creates a record in 'messageboard' and then replies are created in 'messages' and linked back through a portal.

Users can choose a one, three or five day life for the thread.

Here's the databases and the html pages, set to work from 'localhost' on port 591. you're welcome to them to maybe give you some ideas or a starting point.

to call the index page:

http://localhost:591/messageboardf/FMPro?-db=messageboard&-format=index.htm&-View

let me know if stuff isn't clear

regards, jeff

example.zip

[Jeff Spall]

Hi, I had problems getting the attachment to download from here, so if you have the same difficulty, try:

http://www.william-reed.net/fmstuff/example.zip

[thierry.be]

Hi Jef,

The second download works just fine.

I will give it a try and let you know how it works out.

Thanks for your help

[thierry.be]

Hi Jef,

I finally found some time to test your example, but unfortunality i do not get it to work. grrrrrr ;-)

As a already mentioned i am just starting to experiment with CDML so these are probably simple problems/questions:

1. It seems to work better when i use , like you say port 591, why is this, why can't I use other ports?

2. When I make the index page as the home page, and i click 'messages' I get the message message.html not found, but messages not found is in the right directory. (in the directory 'WEB'|)

3. When I make the message .html page as the home page and i click new topic the famous mac.wheel keeps on spinning.

I presume this has something to do with the fact that i have no contact database yet

4. If i create a contact database is the name relevant, are the field important, ... ?

Hope you can help me sort this out,

Thanks in advance,

Thierry

[Jeff Spall]

hi, sorry to be so long replying - easter got in the way!

1 You could run FileMaker on port 80, but only if there's no other web software running on that machine - i just happen to have that demo running on 591.

2: to get that index page working: Put the folder 'messageboardf' into the web folder of your FileMaker pro folder.

Open the two sample databases.

Call the index page as

http://localhost:591/messageboardf/FMPro?-db=messageboard&-format=index.htm&-View

You won't see any messages, because all the ones in the database are now too old, so change the date values in the 'enterdate' field in the 'messageboard' database to show some messages. When there's a valid date in that field the 'datetodie' flag goes to 'yes'

Question 3 - woops! I didn't change the url link that 'create a new topic' points to: look at the html and change 'www.william-reed.net' to 'localhost', sorry!

4 the contact database; If you look at the username fields in the two databases, they are set to use Filmaker field validation - they look for a value list in another database. I guess you can just take this off whilst you are testing and then put it back later. Just make a simple database that lists your users. Allowing peole to edit only their own records can be done, but it will get more complicated. if yo can get the basic one running, I can show you how to do that as stage two!

If you're still stuck, mail me the pages that you have and maybe we'll put them up on a server to see what's happening.

regards, jeff