ASP link with Fm Database

[Henry]

Hi there, i just want to ask if i have created a fm system which have database, member.fp5 and related.fp5. Now i want to link this 2 files to a website which created using ASP. So that i using the web to let user join as a member and key in their data and do something else, then i can use the system to check or regenerate the record. I know how to use ASP to link o other database link Access, but i don't know how to link with FM database.

Regards,

Henry

[Garry Claridge]

You can try ODBC.

Good Luck.

Garry

[BuddySystems]

You can pass information to one or more http redirect pages that then pass information via -add or -edit commands to the filemaker datbases and then are redirected again to another ASP page....

[Henry]

Hi Garry, i'm not sure how to use set the ODBC driver in FileMaker. Can you tell me how to set the ODBC in FM and also how to let them link.

Thank you

Regards,

Henry

[Garry Claridge]

Sorry Henry, I don't use the ODBC driver. (Well I tried it a couple of years ago, it worked OK in a limited testing environment.)

There is an ODBC Forum here you should find some infromation there.

Good Luck.

Garry

p.s. The online Help may have some worthwhile information.

p.p.s. There is also a whole Chapter on it in the manual.

[Anatoli]

Garry Claridge said:

You can try ODBC.

Good Luck.

Garry

You will need much more than luck with FM and ODBC.

Sorry it cannot be more positive.

Kick the ASP and do things the FM way -- Custom Web Publishing with simple CDML language. Sample from CDML database:

Return field data using an HTML file

First Name: [FMP-Field: First Name]

<!-- After processing it could look like:

First Name: John

[Leb i Sol]

read through this :

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?SQID=608940&SPID=295&page=2

although the news are pretty "sad" as Anatoli suggested.....

I love ASP but when it came to FM on the web I gave in and picked up CDML approach...

Good Luck!

[Anatoli]

RE: I love ASP

IMHO it is good technology, but did you tried Lasso 6 (?) and now is Lasso 7 just around corner...

Ready for FM 7 (or X) with Unicode support and with other goodies.

[Anatoli]

The link doesn't work

[Garry Claridge]

You may find that "ASP .NET" is a bit more network friendly, than ASP, and it will allow you to use CDML in a link. PHP, and others, can do this.

I've had no success with ASP for this type of action (CDML in Links).

Good Luck.

Garry

[Leb i Sol]

the link does work!

(thier site might not be Up 99.99% the time LOL)

I never had the opportunity to work with Lasso...although I read 'its' tags...looks a lot like CDML so I would think of it as "improved CDML"?!right?

[Anatoli]

The link definitely doesn't work and the site is up.

It always switch to http://www.tek-tips.com/index.cfm

CDML is Lasso 1.3. Lasso 6 and v7 was just announced.

Lasso is CDML + 700+ another commands. It is multithreaded, fast and you can even write your own tags. I am doing some my tags to more follow FM syntax like this example:

<?LassoScript

define_tag:'Right_',

// do the FileMaker function Right ( text , number )

// author: Lasso Talk

// usage: [Right_: text, number] or [Right_: '00000000001234', 6]

// returns: 001234

-required='inStr',

-required='nchars';

return:#inStr->(substring:#inStr->size - #nchars+1,#nchars);

/define_tag;

?>

[Leb i Sol]

that is weird. where the link should go u would find the posts summed to:

===============================================

http://www.fmcdn.com/downloadForm.cfm

just a side note:

built in ODBC in FM is reeeeeealy *bliiip* "not so good" especially for the web stuff. I have heard that people like fmconnector...I have not tested it though.

anyhow, give it a try and see how it goes...I know that the developer(s) will get back to you on [email protected]

ok in that case (old post):

I have managed to connect to FM6 Pro using ASP(win2000pro) and Dreamwaver.If you are intersted please follow this link:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/dreamweaver/ts/documents/filemakerdw.htm

or if you just need a connection string:

------------------------------------------------

AllAsText=0;ApplicationUsingThreads=1;Driver=FileMaker Pro;FetchChunkSize=100;

FileOpenCache=0;IntlSort=0; MaxTextlength=255;ServerAddress=127.0.0.1;

TranslationOption=0;UseRemoteConnection=1

------------------------------------------------

FM needs remote connection anabled...

==============================================================

INSERT,DELETE and UPDATE worked as long as u do Not need to do some recordset filtering...ones u try to use dynamic SQL querries it all falls apart. ODBC starts to time-out or no filtering happens (eg. WHERE UserID=1 AND JobID=69....never runs?!)

all the best!

[Mariano Peterson]

Yeeowzers! Don't use ODBC with FileMaker - its just *too* slow. The best way to connect FMP and ASP is by using ASP to send HTTP requests to FMP web companion, get XML back, and then do what ever you want with the returned data.

Web Companion accepts HTTP requests using FileMaker's cgi specs. A standard request might be:

http://server.com/FMPro?-db=mydb.fp5&-lay=my_web&-format=&-fmp_xml&my_field=my_value&-find

This tells the Web Companion to perform a find in mydb.fp5 for records where my_field = my_value. It also tells FileMaker to respond with the fields that are on the "my_web" layout, and to format the results using the "fmp_xml" xml grammar. (Alternatively you could specify a CDML page to format the output). Also, in the example I told FileMaker to "find" - but there are other commands you can use such as "new", "delete", "findall", etc.

So - you send the web companion directions using HTTP and receive an XML document in return. That's the basic idea of getting ASP and FileMaker to interact.

More specifically, to send HTTP requests and obtain the XML result in ASP (JScript or VBScript or whatever you're using) you'll need to use the MSXML object provided by MDAC (microsoft data access components). I believe MDAC is installed automatically with ASP/IIS, but I'm not sure. You can always download it for free at microsoft.com. Here's an example (in JScript) of how to send the http and create an XML DOM object from the result:

// create and send xml http request to Filemaker

var my_http_request = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");

my_http_request.open("GET", url, false);

my_http_request.send();

.

// create an xmlDOM object to store return data

var my_xml_dom = Server.CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument");

my_xml_dom.loadXML(my_http_request.responseText);

Then you can walk the DOM and handle the data appropriately:

var root = my_xml_dom.documentElement;

var nodeList = root.childNodes;

.

// loop through the nodes in the DOM

for (var i = 0; i < nodeList.length; i++) {

// get the current node's nodeName

var nodeName = nodeList.item(i).nodeName;

.

// loop through this node's child nodes

var childNodes = nodeList.item(i).childNodes;

for (var j = 0; j < childNodes.length; j++) {

.

// loop through this node's attributes

var attributeList = childNodes.item(j).attributes;

for (var k = 0; k < attributeList.length; k++) {

.

// get the current attribute name

var attribute = attributeList.item(k).nodeName;

}

}

}

I suggest you walk the dom once and write the nodes and attributes to an object. Then, you can reference the object when you need data for input fields or populating lists, etc - instead of having to walk the tree over and over

BTW, this method is actually relatively fast. (Much, much faster than using ODBC to create ADODB record sets).

Alternatively, you can use PHP, and use Chris Hansen's FX object class (free!) to handle all the http and xml. His object class is quite easy to use and abstracts the whole xml dom, so you just set and get properties from the object you instantiate from the FX class. You can download the FX class at www.iviking.org.

Hope this helps!

(btw, sorry for the ugly code sample. I couldn't get the UBB for code to work - it would just blank everything out between the code tags - anybody else had this problem? is there a fix? here's another try: Did the code show up?)

[Leb i Sol]

IMHO

...this is no longler ASP but rather XML driven site...if u 'send HTTP requests' as shown above then might as well use CDML + XML and not be depended on Micro$oft. I would rather pick up and learn PHP !

Good Luck!