From FM 6 CDML to FM 7 IWP

[Sam Laundon]

I don't know if there is a solution for this issue, but here goes:

I just went live with my FM 7 IWP solution. The original was on FM 6 Unlimited published using CDML.

Now I have a different URL for my clients to access the the new database. I have sent emails out to the clients to announce the change, but I know some clients will try and access the old database at the old url.

Is there away to configure the Web Server so it does not show "Page cannot be displayed" message and have the old url be directed to the new one. The old database url is http://66.134.218.226:4000/dr/

The problem is the ;)/4000/

Any thoughts would be appreciated - Sam

[Steve T.]

Hi, Sam! Well, I'm not sure if your new URL is also over port :4000 or not. If the new URL is over :80 or anything other than :4000, then what you can do is enable your built-in Mac OS X Apache web server and tell it serve over port :4000. Then, you can create a "/dr" folder/directory in the Apache web root folder with an index.html (or index.htm or whatever) with either a friendly "UPDATE YOUR BOOKMARKS" message or a META REFRESH redirect to the FM site.

I hope you can change the Apache port easily somehow through OS X, but if you can't find a way via the GUI, you may have to go to the unix command line via the Terminal utility and change the configuration manually. I'll help you get started but you should research changing the web port number on Mac OS X since I don't have exact details. Here's what I'd suggest, though...

* launch Terminal

* cd /etc/httpd

* ls -l

That shows you a listing of files and what permissions are on them.

* sudo pico httpd.conf

This puts you in a text editor with the Apache configuration file.

Then search or scroll until you see

# Port: The port to which the standalone server listens. For

# ports < 1023, you will need httpd to be run as root initially.

#

Port 80

And then change the port from 80 to 4000.

Pico has ctrl commands listed at bottom of screen so it's easier to use than vi or vim. I think it's modeled after PINE if you've ever used that for e-mail.

Anyway, exit and save from pico and then go to System Preferences > Sharing and enable web service. Hopefully there's an easier way to change the port, but I thought I'd mention what I'd try in case there wasn't. Mostly I work with Mac OS X Server which is much easier to use and configure even if the underlaying applications are almost exactly the same.

Hope this helps!

--ST

[Steve T.]

Oh, BTW... The default Apache web root folder is

/Library/WebServer/Documents

There's a bunch of default Apache pages in various languages but you can toss them, move them, or replace them as you wish.

--ST

[Sam Laundon]

Hi Steve

Thanks for your detailed explanation. I appreciate it. I just have a couple of questions to clarify whether my situation will work with your scenario:

The web server is presently serving under port 80 (also IWP at port 80). This seemed the simple way of doing it rather then serve through port 4000, but this may cause problems under your solution.

If I make the changes to Apache that you recommended, will I also have to change IWP to port 4000? It seems that the url that I gave my clients would also have to change (www.domain.com:80/) which will cause more confusion for them.

I did try setting the error code through httpd.conf to redirect, but because of IWP url, all it did was continue to redirect because of the url that IWP uses.

Thanks for your help - Sam

[Steve T.]

Hi, S! Apache and FM IWP are both web servers and they cannot use the same port to serve web pages, so you can choose either one to use :80, but the other must choose another port, e.g. :8080, :591, etc. Otherwise, when your server accepts traffic on :80, it wouldn't know whether it was FM or Apache that should handle the request.

I haven't done it, but I think Garry Claridge mentioned how you can reconfigure Apache to intercept /FMPro requests and redirect them to FM. In a way, that would allow you to use :80 for both although what's really going on is that the /FMPro is redirected to FM on another port, I think. This is different from standard procedure, however, so I'm not sure of the details.

Normally, we just stick to 1 web server to 1 port, so you'll have to choose which one should use :80 unless you ask Garry about the Apache intercept trick. I don't use IWP, but I'd think Apache on :80 would be better so it can serve the bulk of your site (downloads, pages, and possibly even php/mysql apps, etc.) and then IWP would just be accessed for searches and what not in FM, but since you're giving direct URLs to IWP, I'm not sure if what would be best for your situation.

Hope it works out!

--ST

[Sam Laundon]

Thanks Steve,

I tried what you described and I could not get it to work properly. I have decided to let it go for now. It took me long enough to get things configured properly and I don't want to mess it up.

Thanks for you help - Sam