Absolute www beginner in trouble!!!

March 15, 200421 yr

Thanks for stopping to read this.

I

March 15, 200421 yr

Using CDML is not difficult, especially if you have some knowledge of HTML.

Here is an example URL request of a database:

http://dbaddress/FMPro?-db=mydb.fp5&-format=mypage.html&-findall

Here is the Format file "mypage.html":

<html><head><title>My Page</title></head>

<body>The Results<br>

[FMP-Record]

Field 1: [FMP-Field: field1] Field 2: [FMP-Field: field2]<br>

[/FMP-Record]

</body></html>

This will give a listing of the records in your database. Not too difficult

All the best.

Garry

March 17, 200421 yr

Hi, giles! For the most part, all I use is CDML and FileMaker Pro - Unlimited... both of which seem to be discontinued in FMP 7, but that's how I got started and it's really easy if you've done any kind of coding or programming before. If you haven't, CDML is still quite manageable if you understand the concepts.

HTML (and CDML) is tagged based as you can see in Garry's example. Web pages are basically text files with little <something> tags that instruct web browsers how to display information. Making something bold, for example would be just <B>boldedword</B>. If HTML does not seem daunting to you, then CDML will be just a little bit more to learn. I work primarily in Dreamweaver (used to use PageMill) to design how the page will look but keep Dreamweaver's code editor up so I can see what's going on underneath.

The difficulty depends upon a lot of things (what you want, what technologies you choose, how secure it needs to be, how complex the db is, etc.). Simple systems might be something like..

SEARCH PAGE (input find criteria)

SEARCH RESULTS PAGE (list of records) -- it is also format page for search page

DETAIL PAGE (show fields from 1 record) -- it is also format page for search results page

or

SIGNUP PAGE (input name and info for new record)

THANK YOU PAGE (thank you message; maybe send e-mail) -- also format for signup

Instant Web Publishing vs. Custom Web Publishing.

Yes, IWP is limited but is literally "instant" and serves basic needs for some folks. Some folks even use both IWP and CWP at the same time. I only use CWP, but CWP usually takes a lot more time because you are doing it all from scratch, so to speak. If you want a button, you have to go to Photoshop and make the artwork for one if you cannot find one already made somewhere. Like designing a flyer or publication, you have to decide where stuff will go and how it will be layed out. You have to plan and organize your website and you have make anything yourself that the web user might see.

CWP is many times more versatile than IWP, but even CWP using CDML can be very limiting, too. Many advanced users enhance their FileMaker sites with JavaScript as it plugs many missing holes in CDML, or they use something different altogether such as PHP to pull data from their databases. IMO, here's a simplistic generalization I'll make with respect to "steps" of difficulty...

.nocoding. IWP

.simpletagcoding. CWP using HTML, CDML

.programmerlevelcoding. scripting languages (JavaScript, PHP, XML, etc.)

For the most part, we just use FileMaker, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop. FMFORUMS helps us with the rest. There's really great posts, and really, really friendly helpful people here willing to help. Some are great at pointing out errors, others are great teachers. Some make sample files for you to download so you can get the whole thing in context, others ask you to post your code for them to fix. Whatever you need, however you need it... it's all here on FMFORUMS. (Hmm... that reminds me... I never did get around to posting that FMFORUMS endorsement I was gonna add to in the Feedback forum.)

Good luck!

--ST

P.S. I'd recommend browsing the CDML and Internet forums on FMFORUMS to see what you're in for. There's lots of newbie help messages and important discussions about security and all manner of things.