How do we manage multiple websites with Filemaker Pro 13s web server?

[brainonastick]

In the previous set up with Filemaker 13 we had 3 websites on our web server each with their own domains and all able to talk to various Filemaker Pro databases. Now it looks as though we can only put one website inside the htdocs (root level) folder of the new Filemaker pro 13 web server. Does anyone know how we can manage our other 2 websites at the same time? Each has a home page called index.html or index.php so they need to be in separate subdirectories.

[webko]

From conversations on a few lists - with great difficulty. I believe you have to manually edit the config files to do this.

 

Not an issue for me - I have always run the actual websites on a totally separate webserver, and only made database calls to the FMS server.

 

Cheers'

Webko

[brainonastick]

From conversations on a few lists - with great difficulty. I believe you have to manually edit the config files to do this.

 

Not an issue for me - I have always run the actual websites on a totally separate webserver, and only made database calls to the FMS server.

 

Cheers'

Webko

Hi Webko,

 

Thanks for that. We tried to do that but Filemaker kept turning off the other webserver in favour of its own. How do you get around that?

[webko]

I mean a totally different box, where the config file points to the FMS machine for FX requests

[brainonastick]

Hey webko,

 

We're still struggling with this.

 

The web publishing engine gets installed on the web server regardless of whether it is a separate machine or the same machine. The web publishing engine is what interferes and makes the FM Server web server take over. How did you stop the web publishing engine from doing that? Is the web publishing engine needed when FX.php is being used?

[webko]

I do not install any FileMaker anything on the web boxes, just the FX.php config that points to a FileMaker Server running the WPE...

[brainonastick]

We tried but could not get a dual machine deployment working without installing any filemaker components onto the web server.

 

However we then reinstalled everything as a one machine deployment and now I have it working with no annoying error messages displaying on web pages.

 

All areas are working except for the search web forms.  They just return no results.  (No errors are displayed on the screen)

[beverly]

Brain, this is NOT a dual machine deployment (in the FileMaker sense). You are just calling FM API (or XML for FX.php or .net or or ODBC for other web apps) on FMServer from a web server. Two machines, but not dual FileMaker. This is a good way to go, as you can have websites calling SQL servers as well, without mucking up FMP. Yes, it takes TWO machines, but it's probably the best way to do this. Listen to Webko. He's been doing web developing/deployment a LONG time.

[brainonastick]

I'm not arguing with anyone beverly, least of all webko who has helped me with a lot of questions and issues, for which I'm very grateful. I'm just relaying what our network guy tried last. I pasted part of his email here in my last post - sorry if his bold text seemed aggressive - its been a frustrating experience for him getting this right. I think (and I need to confirm) he had trouble stopping Filemaker Server installing components on the web server. I'll find out more on Monday and post again.

[beverly]

 

he had trouble stopping Filemaker Server installing components on the web server

 

yes, we understand. he tried to install FMS _ON_ the webserver. advice: don't install on ANY web server. install on a server for FM only. Point the Web server(s) to FMS. this is also how I work with SQL dbs, as well. Web Server is web server and it does what it does really well. DB server(s) do what they do well. *different* machines is all I'm saying.

[johnagapitos]

Hi Beverly,  Thanks for your response.  I'm doing the install for "Brainonastick" and would like to clarify a few things please. 

 

I have 2 machines for this new deployment which are both on the same version of Macosx 10.9.2

 

On machine 1 (called filemaker) do I install the fms software as a 1 machine deployment and do I enable the web publishing engine in the install process?

 

On machine 2 I have a vanilla install of macosx server and the websites turned on.  FX.php server.dat file config points to the filemaker machine's dns name (e.g.  machinename.domain.com)

 

So this should work right?

 

Thank you for your time

 

John Agapitos

[webko]

Dear John, That sounds like the way I configure and deploy to web publish, yes. Cheers Webko

[brainonastick]

We have set things up as follows:

 

The website is on a server called webserver.acwa.asn.au. 

 

The FMPRo13 databases are on a Filemaker server called navigator.acwa.asn.au.

 

On webserver.acwa.asn.au the website is in a folder called web-content which is a sub-folder of the top level of webserver.acwa.asn.au Inside web-content is the FX folder containing server_data.php as follows:

 

<?php

error_reporting(E_ALL);

if (! defined('DEBUG')) {

    define('DEBUG', false);         // set to true to turn debugging on

}

 

if (! defined('DEBUG_FUZZY')) {

    define('DEBUG_FUZZY', false);   // set to true to activate the fuzzy debugger

}

 

$serverIP = ‘navigator.acwa.asn.au’;    

 

$webCompanionPort = 80;

$dataSourceType = 'FMPro7';

 

$webUN = ’XXXXXX’;     //real username and password omitted from post for security reasons

$webPW = ‘XXXXXX’;

 

$scheme = 'http';

 

function fmdate( $cD, $cM, $cY ) {

return substr( '00' . $cM, -2 ) . '/' . substr( '00' . $cD, -2 ) . '/' . $cY;

}

 

?>

 

One of the databases is called News.fmp12.

 

It has the following access settings ticked:

 

fmiwp

Access via ODBC/JDBC

Access via Filemaker Network

Access via XML Publishing

 

The username and password for the database match the ones in server_data.php

 

A web page called ACWA.php calls a database called News.fmp12. 

 

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

 

<?php

 

include_once('FX/FX.php');

include_once('FX/server_data.php');

 

include('debug1.php');

 

$portal=$_REQUEST['portal'];

 

if(isset($_GET['skip'])){ $skipSize=$_GET['skip'];}else{$skipSize='0';}

$groupSize='9';

 

$News_Search=new FX($serverIP, $webCompanionPort, 'FMPro7');

$News_Search->SetDBData('News.fmp12','News', $groupSize);

$News_Search->SetDBPassword('fmsadmin','fmsadmin');

 

etc etc....

 

When I open the URL http://weserver.acwa.asn.au/ACWA.php the web page is blank.

 

Any advice as to what we are not doing right gratefully received.

[fmow]

I might be way off here but aren't you missing

"fmphp

Access via PHP Web Publishing - FMS only

Accessing a database file from a web browser or other application via PHP web publishing - FileMaker Server only.

"

[webko]

Not for FX - it uses the XML interface, not the PHP interface...

 

brainonastick - do you want to mail me backchannel about this one?

 

timwebko at gmail.com

[brainonastick]

Thanks webko have emailed you.