Web client file upload into FM Container field...

[Tavernier]

So... I googled around for about an hour. All I found about this topic was a post on these forums for the wishlist, a post that was over a year old.

I'm currently working on a number of PHP scripts which parse through the XML that the FM8 Server Advanced Web Publishing spits out. I can view, edit, create records, and download files that are stored in the database. My PHP runs over Apache on a Linux server, and sends HTTP queries to a Windows machine running FileMaker Server.

Now I'm trying to write a portion of a script that would allow a web user to upload a file with an HTML form to my web server. So far so good... Now I'm trying to store this file in a Container field in my FileMaker database.

The FM documentation doesn't mention anything about this, nor does their online Knowledge Base (just submitted a question there). I'll assume this functionality simply hasn't been implemented.

Now, I'm wondering if there might be a workaround. My idea is this:

- On my Linux server, save the file to some temporary location on a samba share that my Windows FM server will have access to.

- From my PHP script, trigger a FileMaker script on the FM Server to import this file in the right field for a previously created record (whose record id is a known parameter).

In my imagination, the FM server would simply open that file from the network share it's got access to, and that would be it... I could also trigger a script to copy the file directly to the Windows server if network shares cause problems.

What do you think? Am I heading in the right direction?

-Tav

[Wim Decorte]

for the normal parsing: why don't you use fx.php or fm-and-php. All that XML parsing code has already been written.

Uploading: I seem to remember the CWP documentation saying that users's can't upload directly to a container.

Your workaround is exactly as I see it should be done.

[Tavernier]

I've looked at fx.php and it was just much too complicated... my fm xml parsing code fits in 600 lines, including 15+ access methods (ie, getRowCount() etc), and works with php 4 and 5. I like my code lean and mean, no offense to the fx.php developpers...

Thanks for the advice, I'll try to get that FM script working... I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to Filemaker, I'm more coming from an open source background...

cheers :P