Customising Web Companion

[dylan]

Wow! Used web companion the other day. Not only did it work first time, the layout looks great!

How can I squeeze more life out of it? In particular I want to:

1) Bypass the homepage completely. I only have one database. Is this possible?

2) Filemaker shows the current record by default. How do I change this to show, say, the last record or a particular record no?

3) Can I get rid of the default layout (eg that navigation bar that appears in FM5). I'd like my database to appear without any reference to Filemaker.

4) How do I get to the HTML code? Can I open it in Dreamweaver or BB Edit?

5) Can I insert an animated GIF? Would this work the same as any other image? How about Flash?

6) Are Lasso and Tango any good? What do they do that Web Companion doesn't? Do they offer the properties of an ASP?

Thanks!

[yafreax]

dylan, dylan, dylan

no offense to anyone like my friend dylan here who enjoys the instant web publishing, but there's just no comparison between instant and custom. Instant is alright, but custom is more customizable (thus custom), and there is a multitude of things that you can do with custom that you can't with instant, such as running a script, setting cookies and tokens, even mailto:'s and on and on and on. I'm currently using Claris Home Page 3.0, which has its ups and downs, but we are looking into lasso. It looks really good and we'll probably go on to that here soon. The only thing i've heard is that it is pretty confusing sometime to use and the books and help that come with it are pretty confusing. I'll guess I'll find out.

well, that's my two (and a half) cents.

Jeremy

[Vaughan]

As I understand things, Lasso is a replacement for Web Companion (in fact I heard that Web Companion is actually Lasso v1). Hence Lasso would not be a replacement for Home Page.

Home Page is an html editor that understands and recognises FileMaker Pro's CDML language, the codes that Web Companion uses when it generate web pages.

Last time I visited the FileMaker web site there was a press release about DreamWeaver and other high end HTML tools adopting CDML in future versions, but I dunno whether the current versions already do.

I personally find Home Page a neat little package, but then I want functionality rather than fancy graphics and roll-over stuff. YMMV.

[dylan]

Thanks for your response. I've been having a look into this and still am undecided whether Lassoo, Tango or Web Companion/Homepage is the way to go.

However, I have a far more pressing problem. I must get a page up live for Saturday which does not mention Filemaker, ie it cannot use the default Filemaker layout. This would look unprofessional.

As I only have three days to do this, I'm looking for the fastest solution, preferably one that does not involve learning new packages.

I could probably handle Homepage if I need to, between the other Claris stuff and Dreamweaver this should be easy to pick up. (Incidentally, am I missing something or has Homepage not had an update in around 2 years?)

Again, I'd very much appreciate a reply about the best/quickest way for me to do this.

[chandra]

Since no one else has posted, I'll attempt a suggestion (a.k.a. stab in the dark).

If you want to figure out how CDML works with HTML code, I suggest looking at the HTML files for the Employee database that comes with FM Pro 4.1. It should be located in the directory called "employee_database" under the directory "Web". There's semi-decent CDML documentation in the form of HTML comments within the files.

If you really love the layout that instant web publishing gives you. I suppose you could save the HTML code and images and insert CDML tags in it, once you are familiar with how they work.

Hope this helps!