In the past few years I have made a fair number of solutions for the schools that I work in. Many of them are now wanting to put their stuff on the web... but I don't know how to do that. A colleague of mine talks about PHP and MySQL .... can I convert my solutions to that or do I have to start all over once I learn that? Or is there a better solution?

Any suggestions or advice on books, sites, programs, whatever to help me go to the next level would be great.

thanks.

Susan

You can leverage your existing databases by building dynamic web pages that pull data from FileMaker using PHP, Lasso, ASP, or a myriad of other "middleware" applications. Middleware is used to describe technologies (typically web scripting languages) that build web pages on the fly, based on code that you've written and data from a data source (typically a database, but this could be an email server, file system, etc).

Many people feel Lasso is easier to learn than PHP. PHP is free, although Lasso is not very expensive for the service it provides (roughly $1000).

There is an excellent book on web development for FileMaker databases - I've put a link below. Don't let the "Advanced" title intimidate you - the book does a great job of covering the basics and then quickly building its way up to more advanced (and useful) topics. Also, this book covers both Lasso and PHP.

Be ware that while this book teaches the reader how to use Lasso or PHP with FileMaker, it only introduces the languages and doesn't teach the intricacies of Lasso or PHP. You'll need a separate book to learn either PHP or Lasso. I do highly recommend reading a few books specific to the language, so that you are comfortable working within that coding environment.

It is probably best to start with the book below on FileMaker web development, and then make the decision whether to move towards PHP or Lasso (or another middleware).

Hope this helps and good luck!

Advanced FileMaker Pro 6 Web Development

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1556228600/qid=1076363560/sr=5-1/ref=cm_lm_asin/002-7020799-0193647?v=glance

You can also use Custom Web Publishing (CWP). This is "built-in" to FM, and uses CDML tags to "talk" to the databases from within web-pages.

All the best.

Garry

p.s. Some very good examples exist in the "Samples" forum.

Hi, Susan! As you can see, there's lots of options with various levels of skill/effort involved. Try to pick the right solution for you and your schools. In my university department, we mostly use just plain old CDML but we will eventually work more w/more advanced scripting such as PHP when we have time to learn or if something urgent arises that requires more secure/sophisticated stuff (which we've had to do a little of already).

IMO, CDML is relatively easy but limited compared to (I hear) it's big brother, Lasso, or the (C-based?) PHP scripting language. If you're a coder/programmer already, you'd probably prefer PHP. CDML is Lasso-lite and I believe will let you keep your tags/solutions completely intact should you outgrow CDML. I haven't yet checked out the samples Garry is referring to in the Samples forum, but there's also several posts that have the basics for newcomers. I think I could make a basic, no frills submit/search CDML/FM site in less than an hour (index/search page, submit form, edit page, search results page, detail page, error page) if I had to.

Good luck!

--ST