Which middleware option should I choose?

August 9, 200421 yr

Dear Folks,

I've been away from FileMaker web publishing since FMP 3.0 and Tango (circa 1996). I'm developing a complex custom web-based solution today and I need some middleware direction. Here's the skinny:

Developing on Mac OS 10.3.4, FM 7 Developer

Staging/Serving on Win Server 2003 Standard running FM Server 7 Advanced

It seems like I have several options for middleware, but I'm not sure which direction to go. My basic needs are multiuser access, security and scalable future web integration with non FileMaker solutions.

If you were building from scratch and money/time weren't issues, which direction would you go and why?

A - IWP, FM 7 (seems to limit front-end control, but offers rapid publication)

B - XML/XSLT (seems to offer widest scalability)

C - PHP/FX.php (was my first choice, but does FX.php work with FM 7?)

Any feedback would greatly be appreciated!!!!

August 10, 200421 yr

PHP is my choice. You do not have to use FX!

Some XSLT may also by handy.

All the best.

Garry

August 10, 200421 yr

Author

Garry,

You're a gentleman and a scholar.

I won't be able to receive FS7 Advanced until the end of the Aug 2004. Looks like I chose to come back to FileMaker at a weird transitional time. If I understand the situation, I can't connect PHP or XML/XSLT to FileMaker or developer, so I'll have to wait until Server 7 Advanced is released. Is this right? Is IWP the only web publication option for FM7?

(If so, I remain in a holding pattern and I share other developer's expressed frustration about the inability to fully test for months now.)

If I'm wrong, does anyone have a good resource for connecting PHP to FileMaker 7? This forum is helpful and I have the Bowers/Lane book, but it emphasizes FX.php and was written for FMP6. Anything else?

THANK YOU!

Shannon

-=-=-

August 11, 200421 yr

Re: I'll have to wait until Server 7 Advanced is released.

Unfortunately that is correct

All the best.

Garry

August 13, 200421 yr

Howdy, Shannon! Not that I'm necessarily an advocate for it, but an option you did not list is to go the Lasso route. Lasso, by Blueworld, takes over where CDML leaves off and uses CDML-style tags to do a whole lot more. I've never used it and don't know how it will fare now that FM is moving away from CDML, but I thought it worth mentioning.

Wow... I can't conceive of where "money/time weren't issues", LOL! That's what I tend to think of first.

--ST

P.S. I'm working on a php/mysql project right now and I'm beginning to appreciate how PHP works, its full-functionality, its pre-served execution, its hidden source code, and its good documentation.