FileMaker and PHP

[trhacker]

Hi, which is the best way to integrate FileMaker and PHP? I've read something about the PHP API for FileMaker, and about FM Studio. Is it possible to create forms with FileMaker and automatically convert them in PHP/HTML, without writing PHP/HTML code?

[Genx]

... Yes and no ...

If you view some of their video's you'll get a better idea. Can i ask what you want out of integrating it FM via PHP and HTML?

[trhacker]

I'd like to realize some kind of web-application relying on FileMaker, taking advantage of FM's graphical features, so that I don't have to write code in order to create forms and tables layout.

[Genx]

...Well there will still be code.

The construction of the actual database and data relationships is a lot quicker and more straight forward than you would get with an enterprise class database like SQL or MySQL.

... and with the My Studio plugin (i've only started playing with it pver the past couple of days)... it's easy as to interface php with FileMaker without writing a line of code... but better than that it's a great guide to get you started.

What you may want to look at though if you don't actually want to do any of this is IWP -- FileMaker's in built Instant Web Publishing engine that publishes whatever you build in your database directly to the web without any code or anything else.

[trhacker]

Thank you.

When you're talking of My Studio plugin, do you refer to FM Studio, or to another solution? And can you address me to some getting-started guide -tutorial about it?

[Genx]

Sorry, For some reason i was mixing MySQL and FM Studio, my bad I've been dabbling in everything of late, i forget what i'm doing lol.

I meant FM Studio.

This video might give you a breif idea of what's possible: http://www.fmwebschool.com/movies/fmstudio/fmnew/fmnew.html

What it the plugin essentially does though is generates the code to perform all the basic functions like the initial connection, finds, saving records etc... It will get the data into your page for you in the form of arrays... it's then really up to you to parse that data out and deal with it before you post it back to the fm database (once again, the code can be written for you).

There's also a $50.00 book on there i might buy, but so far i think the FM Studio plug-in is paying off -- would've taken me forever to workout how to make the intial connections etc... now i've managed to deconstruct half the code and after two days am confident enough to write simple requests myself : So basically it's a good learning tool.

[trhacker]

K thanks

I'll check out and let you know how's it goin... ;)

[Genx]

;)

[FMWebschool]

Genx,

Thank you for your post, we are setting up a group of beta testers to work with FMStudio as we are working on a killer new release - if you would like to be added to the beta test team, shoot me an email at [email protected]

Thanks again for your post!

In Kindness

Stephen Knight

[trhacker]

Well, I've taken a look at the video tutorials, and now I have clearer idea of what FM Studio does.

It allows to use Dreamweaver to build web pages relying on FileMaker database.

What I want to do is a bit different: I'd like to integrate FileMaker and PHP, using Filemaker (not Dreamweaver), to create forms. I try to explain better.

I want to create dynamic PHP pages, that rely on a Filemaker database, and I'd like to use FileMaker to create forms and tables graphical layout and automatically convert it to PHP/HTML.

In short, I don't want to write PHP code to realize forms and tables, but I still want to use PHP to do operations inside the web pages.

Is it possible? :confused:

Edited April 4, 2007 by Guest

[FMWebschool]

The closest we have come to this is http://www.fxforge.net which has thousands of calculations etc. We basically wrote a FileMaker database that generates PHP.

In Kindness

Stephen Knight

[trhacker]

OK thanks, I 've already downloaded this, but I didn't know what it exactly does. I'll take a deeper look.