Is Web Server Connector Absolutely Necessary?

[The Bridge]

Hello,

I'm working on a client's site that has, until now, been set up with FileMaker 5 Unlimited, IIS web server, Web Server Connector and Liquid Audio server on the same Windows NT box.

Because FileMaker uses up 99% of the system resources every time it is accessed, we are moving it to a dedicated machine.

The other day we hooked up the new FileMaker server, disabled FileMaker on the web server, and tried to configure Web Server Connector (on the web server) using the <IP Address>/FMPro?config call, as documented. We got an error 404.

I uninstalled/reinstalled WSC on the web server according to the docs, without success. i.e. still got the 404 error.

I guess what I'd like to know is, if I have absolute calls to my format files (e.g. <FileMaker UL IP>/FMPro?-DB=db.fp5...) in my IIS-served pages and absolute calls to IIS-served files (e.g. <IIS IP>/...) in my format files, is Web Server Connector absolutely necessary?

I'd appreciate any help from members who have experience setting up FileMaker on a separate machine from the web server.

Many thanks!

[CaelC]

I think it is neccessary. You must have the format files on the same server as FMP. I believe the Web Server Connector serves as a sort of load link to the other server allowing for FMP to process those format files.

I'm not positive on this as I am using Lasso, since it is multithreaded, it speeds up calls to FMP and a lot of things can be done in Lasso without going to FMP. However, I think the only true (and best) answer to this processor hog is a fully multi-threaded FMP. Maybe in the next version?

Please post if you find out otherwise, I don't know much about the exact applications of Web Server Connector and am interested in learning more.

Cael.

[dmcwhirt]

I think the Web Server Connector is necessary. The format files must be in the "WEB" folder on the FileMaker Unlimited PC. The WSC is the tool which "realizes" when a web page needs to deliver results from the FileMaker data and it redirects over to that box, gets the results and pulls them up for the user.

[The Bridge]

quote:

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Originally posted by CaelC:

I think it is neccessary. You must have the format files on the same server as FMP. I believe the Web Server Connector serves as a sort of load link to the other server allowing for FMP to process those format files.

Please post if you find out otherwise, I don't know much about the exact applications of Web Server Connector and am interested in learning more.

Cael.

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Whoop, sorry for replying so late -- I was certain I'd told UBB to e-mail me whenever I got replies.

I ended up making a call to FMI and apparently if you're only using two machines (the FMP server and another web server) then absolute links will work just fine. WSC is only really necessary if you're using multiple FileMaker machines.

Thanks for your response! I'll do a better job of checking for replies to my posts in the future.