solutions wanted web display of still and video images

[Norb]

Hi:

I am a videographer and photographer who has been using Filemaker for perhaps 20 years to run my business and still image database. However, I am by no means an expert or even medium-skilled programmer, Filemaker or otherwise.

I have a database for my still images that I can easily publish to the web. However, I need to develop an interface for this database so that clients can register, get their own “space”, and save found sets as their own “galleries.” I am wondering if Filemaker makes a solution like this that someone like me can implement, or if this is a relatively simple thing that a consultant –anyone out there? – can implement for me. I’d like to do the same thing for my video clips database.

If anyone knows of an existing solution, or is willing to consult on a fairly low budget, please let me know. My direct email is temp1_at_norbertwu.com.

Thanks!

Norbert Wu

Monterey Bay area, California

[Norb]

Hi:

I am a videographer and photographer who has been using Filemaker for perhaps 20 years to run my business and still image database. However, I am by no means an expert or even medium-skilled programmer, Filemaker or otherwise.

I have two questions:

1. Using Instant Web Publishing to show videos on the web:

I’ve followed the above thread, and it has been very helpful. I have created a database that exists on the Desktop of one of my four Macs. I have a nested folder called “video clips” that is also on the Desktop. The actual video clips are Quicktime files that are in folders nested one level down from the video clips folder. For instance, I have videos of penguins in the folder …/Desktop/video clips/PGN.

I will eventually have thousands of clips in this database. I’ve used the above structure to organize my still images, and I would like to mirror this structure for my video clips.

I’ve been able to move the Filemaker database and video clips folder to various folders on various machines, and have used relative pathnames so that the videos will show up and play in the database as long as the database is in the same folder with the “video clips” folder. I followed the tips in this article on relative pathnames for video files:

http://my.advisor.com/articles.nsf/aid/15011

I’d like to publish this database so that clients can view clips on the web. However, the relative pathnames for video files don’t show up when a client is viewing the database using a web browser. A suggestion to insert the video clips into the Web folder for the machine, then insert the video clip into the database works. But it means that I have to reimport all the video clips, and cannot move the database and video clips to different machines or locations. In other words, the relative pathnames for the video clips do not work. I am wondering if there is a way to make relative pathnames for video clips work rather than having to rely on absolute pathnames.

2. I have a database for my still images that I can easily publish to the web. However, I need to develop an interface for this database so that clients can register, get their own “space”, and save found sets as their own “galleries.” I am wondering if Filemaker makes a solution like this that someone like me can implement, or if this is a relatively simple thing that a consultant –anyone out there? – can implement for me. I’d like to do the same thing for my video clips database.

Thanks!

PS I am using FM Pro 8, and have a version of 8.5 but have never moved to it.

[bcooney]

Norb, welcome. Please do not double-post. I've merged your two posts.