I have a database of scientific papers in which one field is the url of the PDF of the paper. I have published the database using Instant Web Publishing on FM Server 7. I want the urls in the field described above to be live links, so database users can click on them to load the PDF file. Is there a way to do this? I tried entering the tag in the database field, but the browser didn't recognize it as a tag. Thanks for your help!

Jan

Hi,

Here's one way to do it. Create a field, which will contain the 'live' url. Say, we call it 'url'. Go to the layout drop this 'url' field on the layout. Set any formatting you like. [sneaky part] now click on the field (url) and define that field to be a button. For the action of the button, go to the misc section of the included scripts available and choose 'open url'. Go to the calculations dialog and select the 'url' field as the source where the url should be pulled from.

the result is in browse mode, you can click on that field and it will open a web browser in response to the click. Make sure to check the checkbox that says 'no dialog', you don't want a dialog to appear when your user clicks on the url link.

You make it a little more like a web page by removing the lines in the field and maybe changing the text format of the field to have an underline (url link right?) and perhaps even a color for urls.

If the script is compatible with the filemaker instant web stuff then you should be able to use this. Oh and you can determine if it is compatible by looking up the 'open url' script in the help fm7 help file Or 8 whatever you are using.

According to the FM7 help, it says it is compatible, so you should be able to use this technique.

Hope that helps,

sincerely,

J__

Thank you!! This is exactly what I was looking for, and it works perfectly. I never noticed the Open URL script step. Thanks for pointing it out!!

Jan

Jan,

no problem, glad to help. Yeh, that script isn't so obvious. Making the field a button is neat too. I believe you can do the same kind of thing for mail too.

glad I was able to help,

have fun with it,

sincerely,

J__