Export data through IWP

[alankeny]

I have never used FileMaker before, but I would like to use it to publish several large data tables on the web. End users would access the tables through Instant Web Publisher. They need to be able to select a source table, limit the rows through a search, and then download the results to their local PC.

It looks like IWP can handle everything except the last step. The "Save as Excel" and "Export Records" script commands aren't available in IWP.

Is there any way around this in IWP? Is there another solution that doesn't involve a lot of programming. A CSV version of search results would probably be good enough.

[Wim Decorte]

How about if you create an FM layout that has nothing but the data in an Excel-like style. Have the users save that page as HTML right from their browser. Excel can import HTML data. So as long as there are no other elements on the HTML page then nothing but data should come through...

[alankeny]

By large I mean a table that could have 100 columns and 100,000 rows. I need to give the user a download option, so their data will be saved directly to a file by default.

Many of the site's users are looking for data to import into their own databases or statistics software. Most of them won't be able to load HTML easily.

[Wim Decorte]

Ok, in this case it will be more complex and will require a fair bit of programming. Not sure even how much of it you can do in IWP but here are the basics:

- you can construct a URL that will produce the same found set as the user has

- that url will produce the data in XML format

- in the url you also point to the XSLT stylesheet you will write to transform that XML into CSV

The tricky part is to do it in such a fashion that the user can download it (you'd need to create the CSV in a "clickable" location on the webserver, ...

[alankeny]

I started looking at FileMaker specifically because it lets non-programmers publish databases on the web. A workable solution could include complex programming up front, if it's general enough that it doesn't require additional coding for every layout non-programmers add to a database.

I started reading through the CWP manual for Server 7. It looks like it might be possible to write an XSLT that transforms everything in the current layout to CSV.

I thought CWP sent the results of the transformation directly to the browser. If it's flagged with the right MIME type, the browser should download it directly from the link, right?

I'm more worried about being able to write an XSLT that's general enough for any layout. I'm also worried about sending all of the user's current search parameters into the XSLT, so the results in the CSV match the current search.

I haven't found any examples of XSLT that don't hard code the field names from the layout and the query parameters.

[Wim Decorte]

One XSLT wouldn't do it. It's still possible to do what you want but not without some serious coding... Nothing simple I'm afraid.