I apologize for the newb question. My company has placed me in charge of updating our database in FM. I've mostly been learning FM as I go, but it's all gone remarkably well so far. I've now got a heavily modified version of RCC Recruiter up and running on FMS and users are currently only connecting through FMP11. Eventually we would like to set this up for web use, but it's not necessary at this point.

The one thing that is really stumping me is the built in SuperContainer Lite. I have authorization to purchase Supercontainer (enterprise license) for our database, but I'm trying to figure out (1) if it's necessary and (2) how to make it work with our files. If I can use the builtin Supercontainer for RCC Recruiter for both current needs and potential web based needs - awesome. Otherwise I'll go to the full Supercontainer. I'm just trying to figure out how to make it work!

The setup is that there are multiple files of various types (.doc, .docx, .txt, .pdf) that are associated with each record. Currently these files are stored in containers, and users can download them to their desktop and open them.

Ideally, my users want to be able to view the contents of these files without having to download them to their own computer (they go through a LOT of files daily and the cleanup is annoying). Instead, I want to let them view file contents either through a web viewer or opening the file from a folder on our server, so that they never have the file on their computer.

First off, is this something SuperContainer will allow me to do? Since these are not image files, can I view them directly in the web viewer? Or can I make it so users can open them from the folder on the server without having to download a copy?

"Since these are not image files, can I view them directly in the web viewer? Or can I make it so users can open them from the folder on the server without having to download a copy? "

SuperContainer allows for you to view files that are hosted on the server machine from virtually anywhere in the world -- mind you, you would need to provide some external access to that machine. As for the ability to view files directly in the web viewer... this depends on the file type that you are wanting to view. Files types like .pdf, .tiff, and other images can be viewed on Mac OS X machines in the Web Viewer as a preview is generated when SuperContainer is run using the standalone deployment option.

NOTE: There is a "page" URL parameter that you could possibly make use of, in order to flip through the pages of a PDF document to show to the user: Ex. "http://hostname/SuperContainer/RawData/MyPDF?page=4"

As for other files, such as .doc, docx, .xlsx, .txt, etc., these files cannot be viewed and read through by solely using a FileMaker web viewer. Though, there may exist additional IE plugins that add extended functionality to Internet Explorer, which allows for documents, spreadsheets, and text files (for example) to be used and viewed within the browser. However, if you are distributing this to others, your users would need to download that IE plugin in order to take advantage of said functionality.

It is important to note that even when using this method, or others like it, users will -still- be effectively downloading the file to their computer -- albeit in their Temp folder. In any and all ways that someone uses to view a image, document, website, etc. they will essentially be downloading the contents of that file, website, etc. on to their computer.

I hope this answers your question... if you have any other questions or need clarification on this... let me know by e-mail or by phone and I'll be happy to assist.

Regards,