Does anyone have a concrete example Custom Web Publishing?

[morrisan]

Hello,

I've seen this question posted in a number of forums and I haven't seen one solid reply or example.

I realize the Filemaker Server Advanced CWP capability is new from Filemaker (as it replaces CDML for FM7+) but it has been well over a year since it has been available and I have yet to see a good working example. I also realize that Filemaker is embracing the web's future in XML.

I've purchased the Filemaker Professional Series Foundation Series II documentation from Filemaker and Beginning XSLT by Jenni Tennison.

I've been developing with Filemaker 5.5-6 for about 2.5 years.

I am serious about making CWP publishing work for my organization but unless someone steps up with a working example, I will have serious reservations about investing my time and money into something that doesn't seem to have taken hold in the professional development world.

Ideally, the example would include user password log-in.

IWP is not an option because we have more users that it can handle.

I will cross post this same question in other forums on other sites as well.

Regards,

Andrew

[Zero Tolerence]

There are other viable options for you, I have a 5000 hit per day Intranet set up using Lasso Professional 8 and FMSA 7 and I couldn't be happier. However, Lasso is a bit pricy for most people and that has soured a lot of their tastes.

You can also look into FX.PHP as a real good choice, either one of these are fairly easy to learn.

As my site is an "IntAnet" I can't exactly show you an example of how things work.

A bit about my set up. With Lasso, you can set up Users, User Groups, User privledges, all very quickly and easily, then at the top of the pages all you have to do is something like

[Auth]

[user_Group='groupname'] if the Username and PW does not match the group you specify, no access. Setting up the connections to Filemaker has been a breeze, and I even connect to a few mySQL databases too with Lasso. Scripting is fairly straight forward, and I have yet to find something I WANT to do, that I cannot do through Lasso.

If you think you might like Lasso, send me a message, I'll answer any questions you might have. I'm sure many more people on the forums can talk to you about FX.PHP, but I haven't used it for almost 2 years.

[DBHawk]

I share your frustration Andrew. I recently completed a solution for a client that was to include a simple web based followup form with 5 questions. In FileMaker 6 it was possible to e-mail a link to an IWP site and call up a specific record based on information imbedded in the URL. That is no longer possible for FileMaker 7 Advanced. No problem I thought, this should be easy using the CWP features, especially the Site Assistant. I have yet to genterate a working xsl file using the site assistant, and I'm working with a single layout containing just 6 fields.

Boy did I underestimate this job.

I just downloaded a copy of XML Editor from www.oygenxml.com and registered for an evalution license. This was recommended as a powerful tool in creating XSLT solutions at DevCon. I'll give it a try and let you know if I have any luck.

You should also go through the Custom Web Publishing Guide and there is a White Paper from FileMaker about "Extending the functionallity of FileMaker Server 7 Advanced Custom Web Publishing with Server-Side Scripting" available.

Good luck. I'll be watching this post for futher updates.

[ralph.nusser]

The only starter files I know of is a shopping cart system at

Dan Jerry Datamandan

Dan Jerry writes: This set of files is an adaptation of the older "Shopping Cart" solution originally distributed with FileMaker 5. They have been substantially modified, so they work with FileMaker 7, and FileMaker Server 7 Advanced.

It has an online demonstration.

[Mike Summer]

I would like some advice. I would like to build, for my customers, a web site displaying a catalogue of their products. Presently I use Dreamweaver and Filemaker Pro 8 and have been looking at the option of using Filemaker Server 8 Advanced (using Custom Web Publishing) as a solution for building a database driven web site. However, at over £1,600 (approx $2,500) Filemaker Server 8 Advanced is very expensive and it's not possible to get a trial version of this to see whether it suits my needs. Furthermore, like Morrison, I can't find an example of a web site driven by this package. I spoke to Filemaker UK today and they said www.eatpret.com was an example, but having looked at it, it's nothing like a web site I wish to build.

I was intrigued by the mention of Lasso. I have looked at their web site and it looks like it might be a better solution. Whilst it is pricey, it's not as expensive as the Filemaker option and it supports both Filemaker and Dreamweaver. Further, it is possible to download a trial version.

What do you think I should do? I would be grateful for any comments.

I might just add that I have used the Instant Web Publishing feature in Filemaker which is incredibly simple and it turned me on to the idea of Custom Web Publishing.

[rivet]

I am in the same boat. I am investigating xml/xslt, but for an upcoming project I will using lasso because it is similar to CDML.

Note, it still requires FMP Adv.7 if you are going to host it yourself so it will be quite expensive, unless a provider will be hosting your files.

[lenomadecom]

Hello

I see here many questions, I'll try to answer some of them.

First I'll give you some web site that use filemaker and php :

http://www.intair.com (fm6/php/fx.php)

http://sebulba.privatedns.com/doc-co.com/ (fm7/php/fmandphp)

http://le-nomade.com (fm6/php/fx.php)

http://www.fmqc.ca (fm6/php/fx.php)

Now, if you used fm/cdml, the best solution with similarities would probably be fm7/8 with php and FMANDPHP class.

It seems to me the best combination. The learning curve is of course harder, cdml was very simple and easy to use.

I usually use dreamweaver but any coding software would do th job for php.

One of the thing that I miss is the possibility to trigger fm scripts with php and fm7/8.

In terms of hosting we finally decided to create our own company called fmhost (fmhost.net), this way we control the whole thing.

Phil.

[Doug Moskowitz]

We do extensive CWP using XML. Have been for a few years. It requires a solid understanding of the browser environment, including scripting languages such as JavaScript or VBScript.

This is not for casual HTML users as Lasso allows for, it is more like real software development requiring an understanding of the browser environment, its document object model, and the XML document object model. If those are new concepts to you, there will be a learning curve. In our case, the learning curve was well worth it.

[txjcfsr]

I also migrated from CDML on FMP6 Unlimited to FMSA7 and CWP. I used oXygen to do the xml/xsl work, as well, and found it very helpful, due to its ability to check the correctness of the code. It was painful at first, but now I am doing it reasonably well. I have 2/3 of my files converted on my server and using xslt for the serving of the files. It is just a learning curve that has to be done, and it helps if you understand how css style sheets work, as well.

My advice is just to hang in there and keep going. Every time I was frustrated I realized that somewhere in the FileMaker documentation there was an answer, it was just hard to find, at times.

I just ordered FMSA8 and am hoping to upgrade. I find the search time for FMSA7 to be much longer than I expected and I hope it is fixed in FMSA8.