Filemaker and Intranet

[pmusaev]

Our company is currently undergoing it's first Intranet setup. Through the years we have developed a large collection of Filemaker databases that we use regularly. Instead of re-creating the databases in say... MySQL to use on the Intranet, I am wondering how I could implement our existing databases with our new Intranet setup. Any direction would be appreciated. Cheers!

[Garry Claridge]

I recommend that you look at using the FM WebCompanion and Custom Web Publishing (CWP) to build the applications.

You will need to be able to develop in HTML and CDML.

This will be a lot easier than rebuilding your databases in MySQL and PHP etc.

All the best.

Garry

[pmusaev]

Thanks for the advice Garry; what is CDML?

[Garry Claridge]

CDML is the set markup tags used to add FM data, and FM functionality, to HTML pages.

Garry

[Kundinger]

Hi 'pmusaev',

Below is a link to a FMForum 'thread' that discusses some of the questions you have...

<<< http://www.fmforums.com/threads/showflat.php?Number=87486 >>>

In this 'thread' are two posts that I submitted to better explain some of the issues about web publishing your data files and the options for doing so.

Hope this helps!

Bob Kundinger

[email protected]

[Unable]

You will also find several Sample Files (free) which demonstrate the use of CDML tags for a variety of purposes. Look in that forum for CDML and web. Help yourself.

[pmusaev]

thank ya all! i'll take a look at all these shortly, cheers!

[Mariano Peterson]

I'd strongly recommend learning PHP or Lasso instead of CDML (Claris Dynamic Markup Language). CDML is very limited and requires a lot of work to achieve the most basic goals. PHP and Lasso offer so much more functionality built in, and are so much more robust and secure. They are also not much harder to learn, and the time you spend learning them will pay off many fold in the long run.

I like PHP, Anatoli is a fan of Lasso. They're both good technologies. If you decide to go the PHP route, be sure to make use of the FX PHP class, freely available at www.iviking.org. This code object enables your PHP scripts to very easily interact with FileMaker.

Lasso may be easier to learn if you don't have any programming experience, because it really caters well to the FileMaker community. (That's not to say that its a simpler language or less capable... just that its naturally closer to the FileMaker way of thinking).

A big advantage of PHP is that if your intranet is built on PHP, then you can consolidate your code base by also using PHP to talk to FileMaker. This way your intranet developers won't have to learn Lasso, which is an uncommon language outside the FileMaker community. Also, if you are already familiar with any other c based programming languages such as JavaScript or C, then PHP probably will be much easier for you to learn than Lasso.

[Anatoli]

Hmm... Lasso and PHP have plenty of similarities. Looks very close to me. IMHO Lasso is more compact code. In both cases, Lasso and PHP can be used with almost any database and with combination of databases.