Pass Data from record to the web viewer

[Answers]

We have a table we call Carriers (basically vendors we use). We used to enter info about their insurance info etc manually into filemaker. Now we can look up the information we need on our carriers via the web. Basically we type in something called the MC# and it tells us if the carrier has everything up to date.

I put the web viewer on the layout, used the custom address: http://li-public.fmcsa.dot.gov/LIVIEW/pkg_carrquery.prc_carrlist

Now I want the MC# that's in my database to be transferred into the the field on the website. That way as we go from record to record we can see if the carriers have their info up to date.

Is this possible? Perhaps with a script?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Caroline

[TheTominator]

No, this isn't possible with FileMaker's built-in tools.

If the form on that web page was submitted with action="GET" instead of action="POST" (the webmaster's decision), then you could have encoded your form submission in the URL, but with POST, you have to use additional features of the web browser.

Third-party software such as ScriptMaster, SmartPill PHP, or even scripting fully outside of FileMaker can do what you want, but requires a whole new set of skills.

[comment]

It MAY be possible (depending on the web site's permissions), but instead of loading their web page, you need to construct your own form and submit it from within the web viewer.

See also:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/190495/

[fseipel]

I would suggest using Firefox browser with the WebDeveloper Extension Tools (free Link ) -- this will enumerate all the form parameters in your browser. By going to Tools|Web Developer|Forms|Convert form Methods|Post to get you can convert the form to a GET request, enter some data, and then copy the URL into Filemaker, e.g.

http://li-public.fmcsa.dot.gov/LIVIEW/pkg_carrquery.prc_carrlist?n_dotno=&s_prefix=MC&n_docketno=482621&s_legalname=&s_dbaname=&s_state=~~&pv_vpath=LIVIEW

would search for docket #482621. This way, you need not even examine the page source.

In many cases, though, server won't accept GET requests.

It would be very nice, to have a JavaScript, which accepts a GET request and retransmits as a POST request. This ought to be possible; such a script would be generic and work with any site.

[Answers]

Thank you! I put as the custom web address a calculation that adds the field from a database for MC#:

e.g.

"http://li-public.fmcsa.dot.gov/LIVIEW/pkg_carrquery.prc_carrlist?n_dotno=&s_prefix=MC&n_docketno="[color:blue]&Carriers::MC#&"&s_legalname=&s_dbaname=&s_state=~~&pv_vpath=LIVIEW"

It works great. Now the next thing is can I take info from that web site,.i.e. looks at a field on the website to see if the carrier is active. So Filemaker can color code another field based on that information?

Thank you so much for your help!

[fseipel]

Yes, this link describes the procedure for screen scraping Link

WebViewer must have a name. You can then get its contents into a field, find the tags that prefix and suffix the data you want, and extract it.