Install/Uninstall Web Publishing Engine

[sec39]

One day I could not access the /fmi/config page on my webserver. I checked to see if the Web Publishing Engine service was running, and in fact, it was. I decided to go ahead and restart the service. Tried /fmi/config again and got nothing. At this point I decided to just go ahead and uninstall the Web Publshing Engine and reinstall. Upon uninstalling I got this error:

then this error after hitting OK.

Just hitting OK, I decided to reinstall the Web Publishing Engine and was then prompted with this error.

After getting this error, the Web Publishing Engine does not show up in the services tab.. but it does say that its installed in Add/Remove programs.

At this point, I am not sure what to do now. Does anyone have any ideas?

[jonathanstark]

Well, I am not a windows guys, so I can't help you untangle your current reinstall troubles, but I might be able to prevent you from having to go through it again.

I am willing to bet that the reason you could not access the config page in the first place is this:

you closed the browser window without actually logging out the last time you were there.

For some reason, if you don't log out of the config pages, the thing WILL NOT let you back in, and no amount of restarting or waiting for a time out seems to help. I never found a way around it because now I RELIGIOUSLY click logout when leaving the config window.

hth,

j

[sec39]

If that is the case and I couldn't access the administration console because I didn't log out, the only way to fix the problem would be to uninstall and reinstall -- both of which aren't working. I'm not able to access the administration console after reinstalling because the wpe and wpc services arent even running (they dont even show up in the services list).

[sec39]

Is anyone aware of a cleaner type program that will wipe everything related to filemaker from a machine?

[infiniteg]

If you're running windows then all you have to do is restart the two web publishing services to have access again. At least it works for me. Go to control panel -> administrative tools -> services. The names of the services are...

FileMaker Publishing Engine (CWPE & CONFIG)

FileMaker Publishing Engine (WPC)

... Just select the FileMaker Publishing Engine (WPC) service and press the restart button on the menu bar (it's a little square with a triangle next to it).

[deepdream]

Sec39, did you change the security permissions for the Default Website in IIS?

I had a huge problem 6 months ago just getting WPE installed and configured correctly. Long discussions with FileMaker didn't help because they just wanted me to uninstall and reinstall a bunch of times.

It turned out that if you do not have the Default Website in IIS configured for Read access by Anonymous user, FMSA console/WPE Config won't display, let alone authenticate if it does display.

I know this because my FMSA Console/WPE Config was working fine until just yestereday when I turned off Read access by Anonymous user and now I can't get in. (I totally spaced that FMSAconsole and WPEconfig needed this) It's kind of broken at the moment until I figure out what the correct directory security setting were.

This kind of problem only crops up for admins who create other virtual websites on their IIS box and turn off the default security settings for the Default Web site. So you could probably fix the problem by reinstalling IIS, or running the permission Wizard on the default site. It's a must to backup your IIS settings once you've got FMSAconsole and WPEconfig working. That way you can restore it if it breaks after changing something in IIS.

If you try my suggestions and it restores your access, let me know what specific settings you ended up with. Proper IIS config should be documented because it is so essential to the FMSAconsole and WPEconfig.

UPDATE: OK, I just installed, uninstalled, reinstalled WPE a couple of times and succesfully created the FMSAconsole user account, WPEadmin user account, and FMSA identifier. Before doing so, I opened IIS admin, right clicked the Default Web Site, chose Permission Wizard, create security permission from Template, chose public site, had the permissions applied to all items in the folder, then finished the wizard.

There's probably more going on, but this seems to be the common solution to my WPE install and config problems. I hope it helps.

[deepdream]

Oh, one last thing. When you get to the step where you create the WPEadmin user account, make the user name and password exactly what you have in the identifier under FMS Admin (Desktop console)-> Server Advanced Settings. Don't try to make a WPEadmin account that's different than what's in FMS Admin Identifier. This is also what FileMaker insisted upon.