Searc across two FM databases

[dukerochester]

I have two databases that I have inherited and need to create a federated search. We are running FM 6 and the users access the database through the web. Is there a way to create a search across the two databases? BTW, I am relatively new to FM.

[Matthew F]

Its been awhile since I used FM 6...

When you state, "users access the database through the web" do you mean that you are using Instant Web Publishing?

What is a "federated search"?

Are the two databases linked in filemaker with a relationship?

I'm pretty sure that, using IWP, you can perform searches in one database or in a related second database.

[dukerochester]

A federated search is a search over multiple databases.

I am not sure about the IWP use, but the only way that users access the data in the database is through web pages. I am not familiar with IWP.

The databases are not linked but I am assuming that they could be.

Thanks,

Chris

[Matthew F]

I'm not sure whether your users are using Filemaker software to access the database over the internet or whether they are using a web browser. If you are hosting data to web browsers you will need to figure out how it was setup, i.e. Is it using filemaker tools or some other software?

Filemaker 6 allowed files to be hosted to web browsers with the addition of the Web Companion plugin on the server computer. The actual web pages can be easily rendered by Filemaker using the Instant Web Publishing feature (IWP). It gives you some stock layouts and search capabilities, but it doesn't have as many features as does the Filemaker client software.

You can get a copy of the FileMaker Pro 6 User's Guide on Filemaker's website which describes the basic web setup.

[dukerochester]

The app is set up so that the brower is accessing the database with code like the following:

I have a copy of the users manual but it does not seem to have a description on how to publish the database to the web. It just refers to the online help .. "Help menu > Contents and Index, click the Index tab, and type Web Companion,testing databases" which itself does not yield any usable info (from what I can see). Do you know if there is a simple step by step procedure documented for publishing a FM database to the web using IWP (or any other tool)?

Thanks again for your help,

Chris

[Vaughan]

Look for a FMP database called (from memory) the CDML Reference, it should be in the FileMaker folder somewhere, or on the original disks. This has the CDML codes and syntax.

Also see if you can find a copy of Claris Home Page, this was designed to work with FMP to create the web pages really quickly. (They looked pretty basic but all the functionality was there.) There was a trial version that was readily available.

Regarding the federated search: it's possible to display the search results from multiple databases on the same page. Such as result would not be possible with IWP though.

[dukerochester]

Any thoughts on the easiest way to do this? Can I build a relationship between the two databases and then do a search across both of them? Or must I just do separate searches and combine the results on a web page where the user can select a record form either database?

Thanks again for your help!

Chris

[Matthew F]

Using a relationship would make sense if there is a logical connection between the databases. For example if you have one db for Clients and a second db for purchase orders then you can find the POs for a given client through a relationship. If there is really no connection whatsoever it would seem more simple to do the searches independently.

[dukerochester]

Although both databases have a similiar fields they are no logical connections between them. The current approach for searches for these individual databases is using a web page to gather input and doing a post of the html form info to FMPro and send the results to a new html page via the "-format" CDML parameter.

How would I be able to combine the results of two separate searches using into one results page using this technique (or would I have to take a different approach - my assumption)?

[dukerochester]

I have two databases with similiarly named fields (request_type, request_date). Our users access the databases via web pages and CDML. I need to create a process/web page that allows the user to search both databases and present results of the search on one web page.

The databases are not linked and are not directly related. They support the same type of user (but in two different geographical sites)and contain similiar data.

I am relatively new to FM.

Can I do this with ([color:red]and how would I implement this?):

- a Portal

- ODBC

- Anything???!!

or would I be better off just merging the two databases into one.

Thanks,

Chris

(BTW, this is a repost of a less clearly stated note: original post )

[Lee Smith]

I merged your two topics.

Please do not double post. Just do your clarification in your original thread.

Lee

[Matthew F]

If the 'request_type' and 'request_date' field match one another in the two different databases then you can display data from one in the other with a portal. With FM v.6 you can only use one match field in each file to join the databases. The typical way would be to have yet another field (such as a record ID number) that appears in both databases to match the appropriate records together. Alternatively, you can create a calculated field in each database that combines the two fields (e.g. request_type & request_date) and then you use this as the match field.

It only makes sense to merge the two databases if the corresponding records have a 1:1 (or 1:0) relationship. In other words, you should not have a situation where two or more records in one database need to be connected with a record in the other database.

Furthermore if your databases have a many-to-many relationship, e.g. where 2 records in databaseA match 3 records in databaseB, etc. you will probably want to create yet a 3rd database to act as a 'file joiner', or hash table. Alternatively you could create a multi-key field. See this FM support page for more info... Building many to many relationships without a join file

[dukerochester]

Thanks for the feedback. I am not sure if the match would work with these two databases.

Although they both have request_type and request_date fields, the cooresponding values do not logically connect the two databases (like a record id might). They are just similarly named/valued fields in two distinct databases.

We just need these two databases to function as one when it comes to searching for specific values, i.e. the customer wants to search both databases for all requests that have been submitted between 6/1/2010 and 7/1/2010.

I guess you could say that the databases records have a 1:0 relationship.

[Matthew F]

We just need these two databases to function as one when it comes to searching for specific values, i.e. the customer wants to search both databases for all requests that have been submitted between 6/1/2010 and 7/1/2010.

It sounds like you just might want to automate the search process with a script. Search for the records in one database, then open the second database and do a second search there. That should work fine unless you need to see the data consolidated between the two on a single record. In that case you will need to build a relationship between the two.