FileMaker XML & Perl

[cjaeger]

Not exactly an XSL file, here is a perl script that retrieves a tab delimited file from a web server running perl. this can be useful to get text files into FileMaker that are generated by a cgi guestbook or download counter, to access webserver statistics. you can also use it to update data in a bound solution without having to send & manually import the files without having to run FileMaker Web Companion on the server side.

The script takes the first row of data as field names. Simply throw it in a perl-enabled, password protected cgi-bin directory, add a data file ("data.txt") and access via FileMaker XML import, http://yourserver.com/perl_directory/fmpxml.cgi

This is pretty much work in progress, it will eventually be possible to write data as well as receive it, integrate password protection, find, sort, retrieve data selectively. However, practical use will be limited by FileMaker's inability to send https & POST requests, but it should be sufficient to update an address book etc. on your web site.

fmpxml.zip

[Fitch]

"...FileMaker's inability to send https & POST requests..."

...but which can be done with a plugin.

Nice job, Christian!

[cjaeger]

>...but which can be done with a plugin

I know. Some kind of plugin is needed to encode the url as well, unless you run full FileMaker Client. But still, being able to almost do http import just to notice you cannot use it because of those 3 vital elements missing ....

[cjaeger]

The good thing about this perl stuff is that once you get the XML right, you can convert any perl cgi into a Filemaker external (web) function. Just grab a couple of modules from CPAN, modify a free cgi so it outputs XML instead of HTML, and off you go.