linking FM to web images

[pwhite1]

I have a FM Pro 5.5 web database running on a PC and hundreds of images on a website (created in dreamweaver) on OS X running Apache. Both computers are broadcasting on an internal network. I want to be able to link the web image filename to the data in FM and display that data next to the image in a webpage.

I'm right on the edge of my comfort zone here. From various discussions, I think I need to link like this:

FM Pro <->ODBC<->MySQL<->PHP<->Dreamweaver

Is this correct? I have already enabled MySQL and PHP on my Mac.

Any comments appreciated.

[cjaeger]

since this is a web database, you can link to any image anywhere on the web with a simple

<img src="http://ipaddress/path_to/image.gif"> tag.

no need for mysql or php ifyou know the image path....

[Garry Claridge]

You can access the FM database via WebCompanion (ODBC may not be needed).

How are you reading the "web image filename"? Are you using php for this?

You can access the FM database with a URL (or Form). The URL could look something like this:

http://myaddress/FMPro?-db=mydb.fp5&-Lay=mylayout&-format=mypage.html&imagename=xxxxx&-find

Hope this helps. All the best.

Garry

[pwhite1]

Thanks Garry, That works brilliantly!

Do you know a quick way to attach the URL (in Dreamweaver, sorry if I'm getting away from the point) with the inserted filename rather than manually inserting each one? (i.e. replacing xxxxx with P2240329.jpg for example). I suspect some sort of script is needed (I am a newbie when it comes to scripting)

[Garry Claridge]

Where are the filenames stored?

Some sort of scripting will be needed to place the name into the <img> tags and into the FM URL's.

All the best.

Garry

[pwhite1]

The filenames are on the webpage, directly under the images. They were created with the built-in applescript 'build web page'. I tried to modify the applescript last night (with no luck so far) so that all future pages would contain the correct link right from the start.

Thanks again,

Paul

[Garry Claridge]

Are the images stored in folders on the OS X computer?

Does the Applescript read the filenames and create web-pages with those images included?

Do you you then wish to place data from FM next to each of the images?

The Applescript could access the database with the "URL Scripting" addition.

Alternatively, you could have FM serve the pages. It could construct the image URLs.

All the best.

Garry

[StephenKnight]

Try FMImage pro a@

http://www.fmwebschool.com/fmimage.htm

In Kindness

Stephen K Knight

[jims]

We have done this with tens of thousands of images. A word of caution.

If you expect your image library to grow, it really makes sense to have a filename scheme that is intelligent, and can work with the databases. Think this through before you get too far.

We have an image naming scheme that is based on the year taken and sequential roll number and frame number. The naming scheme was started in 1967 but lent itself to database manipulation very well. When we started posting on the web, in 1995, we originally posted only links to the images because we knew many visitors were on slow modems and the bandwidth for displaying images was limited. We added the ability to view thumbnails, medium res or high res versions (all names can be calculated with filemaker!)

Example: 02-201-02.tn.jpg is an image that was shot in 2002 (we actually have made it Y2K compatible underlying all of this - that was a drawback of the original scheme), the 201st roll of film and the 2nd frame of the roll. tn indicates the thumbnail (hr for high res, )

We also then put the images in separate directories by year. That way the directories do not get too large over time.

I have filemaker calculate the path to the image file and then using CDML, display not only the image information, but the image itself.

You can see it at:

http://vmsfmp2.fnal.gov/v1/VMSSearch_Online.htm

(I will note we are having some difficulties keeping the frames database online since we upgraded to FMUnlimited v6. V4 worked nearly flawlessly for many years.)

Jim

[taishi01]

Can't figure out how to view thumbails online with FMP 6 with a custom form. I can view the pictures horizontally, but if I wanted them 3 colums and 5 rows, I can't get it to do it. I'm using CDML to create the HTML pages.

[Garry Claridge]

So you can see the images, is it just the multi-column, multi-row, table that you need to dynamically generate?

All the best.

Garry

[hjenkins]

That's exactly what I'm struggling with now! I can gather images vertically I just need to display in multi-row and column over the web via IWP. Can this be done?

The way I'm thinking of this at the moment is to have a set of say 50 fields called image01, image02 etc. Image01 would be the result of container field image in record 1 and image02 would be the result of image in record 2 and so on,it's hardly dynamic and not the way I really want to go ahead. Is there a better way?

[Steve T.]

Hi, folks! Just following up w/this post. I was able to help taishi01 at another website (ahem.. not as good as FMFORUMS, though). He was able to set up a 3 column table and put an inline action in each column to show 5 photos. As of today he had not finished, but I told him to put "1", "2", or "3" in a field called "column" and have each inline search for the appropriate column value.

He had to create a spash/intro page to redirect to his main page, however, so that the Web Companion could be queried first.

I think there are better ways to do this, but this solution allowed him to stay w/CDML only.

--ST

[hjenkins]

Managed to do this successfully by setting a repeating field with 100 repetitions and then every time the contact sheet layout is selected it sets the repeating fields to the current found set. then I have 100 fields called image01, image02...which are calculated fields with getrepetition01, 02 etc. It works but it limits the contact sheet to 100 images, which is fine, but it takes ages to write.....