Dreamweaver & Filemaker

[kiwiora]

Hi,

Am new to the whole web thing so please bare with me.

I have setup FMServer Advanced on a virtual server. Have also setup a test database file.

Got both working beautifully, no problem. Can see the php page in IE and it talks to the database.

Question though is opening up the PHP file in dreamweaver to do some design work. I can't seem to see the FM connection?

I go through the motions of setting up the database connection, and under bindings, but it always asks me for MYSQL connection.

It doesn't seem to recognise Filemaker Server as a valid connection.

Is this correct, or am I completely in the wrong place in trying to set this up?

TIA

[Genx]

Dreamweaver only comes packaged with compatibility for SQL based databases - primarily MySQL, it may however tend to work with others given that most SQL is similar across the different DB platforms. It won't see FileMaker Server as a valid connection because the code that relates to FileMaker and SQL are completely different.

FileMaker's PHP interface is based on manipulation of its native XML/XSLT CWP engine. I.e. information is requested, XML is returned, the PHP API then processes the data in a way for you to communicate with it directly via PHP. In otherwords, it is nothing like a MySQL connection because it doesn't actually involve SQL to any extent.

If you do want this functionality via a similar thingo... interface, go to www.fmwebschool.com and purchase their FMStudio plugin (make sure its for the PHP API and not for FX). It was around $120 last time I checked.

[kiwiora]

Thanks for that. Do you think it's worth while? I mean if I generate from filemaker and just do the "eye candy" working around the php code??

Hmm...

Meanwhile, just one other quick question. With regards to passwords etc. I would like when a new record is created, that the user's login goes in i.e get(accountname) etc. But for it to "auto" login to the database (it's on an intranet) it uses "user" as login and thus, it doesn't capture the user login as it would if using the AD (authenticate by external server).

Is there a way to pick up who's logged in?

Hope that makes sense.

[Genx]

Right no, I'm sort of confused.

If you're talking about the whole LDAP thing, I still haven't actually played with that in terms of integrating it with any web server environment so better to ask Steven.

If you're talking about having the user login to the site, storing their username than actually using that in the FileMaker connection, you could do that yes...

The plugin, at least for me, is worth it just for the ability to see all the fields, value lists and portals live. And the code generation, especially in terms of images, valuelists and the little things is quite useful and definitely a time saver.

Cheers.

[kiwiora]

Thanks for your help.

I changed the setting in the IIS to allow integrated windows authentication, so the browser can identify the login used, just have to figure out how to capture it in php.

Off to play and hunt down a good resource for the learning curve.

Thanks again.