I am just starting out with Custom Web Publishing, know a bit of HTML and understand a very, very little bit of CDML. I have set my home page up using the Web Companion dialog box in FM. On that I have a link to a page where a user can enter information. The link works fine, but when I try to enter info and hit the add record button, I get a message saying the browser can't access FM on my harddrive. I have the file open.

The code I used to link the page (so that FM would recognize it) was:

<FORM ACTION="file:///Macintosh HD/FileMaker Pro 5.5 Folder/Web" METHOD="POST">

<a href="FMPro?-db=mtg_info.fp5&-format=next_mtg.html&-findall">Next Meeting</a>

</form>

And the code I used on my linked page, to enter the information and submit it, was:

<FORM ACTION="file:///Macintosh HD/FileMaker Pro 5.5 Folder/Web" METHOD="POST">

<input type="hidden" name="-db" value="mtg_info.fp5">

<input type="hidden" name="-lay" value="basicinfo">

<input type="hidden" name="-format" value="woohoo.html">

<input type="hidden" name="-error" value="dagonit.html">

<P>Name: <input type="text" name="firstname" size=20></P>

<P>Best Months to meet: <input type="text" name="months" size=20></P>

<P>What you want to bring: <input type="text" name="food" size=20></P>

<P>suggestions: <input type="text" name="suggestions" size=50></P>

<P><input type="submit" name="-New" value="Add Record"></P>

</FORM>

Sorry for the long post. I am not sure where to go from here!

The form action must be an http reference. Assuming everything else is properly configured and you have an internet connection, use your machine's IP and change your form action to:

<FORM ACTION="http://XXX.XX.XX.XX/FMPro" METHOD="POST">

In another words, WC is the webserver and you will connect to the webserver from browser like http://10.10.10.10 or http://localhost on windows.

I am working from a Mac G3 Blue and white, connected to the internet by dial-up. I know my IP address changes each time I dial-up, so I make the necessary changes in code until I get a static address.

I am using FM5 and 5.5 Pro.

Thanks for asking!

David and Anatouli...

Thanks. I did change that on the record form to submit the records, and then I got a different error message:

Not Implemented

The server does not support the functionality required to fulfill this request.

Does that mean my version of FM doesn't allow me to do what I want to do, or could it be something with my code?

Thanks again, for your help before! :-)

Please provide more info on your setup. Are you using a stand alone machine connected to the internet or a server? Where is FileMaker installed?

Hi, Just a thought:

have you enabled any other http-capable software on your Mac, like personal web sharing? If so, you'll need to change the port that Filemaker runs on. Port 591 is the "registered" one.

To change it, go to:

preferences >application preferences > plugins , then click "web companion" and click "configure"

That "server does not support" message sounds like something else running on port 80!!

Also, if Filemaker is doing the serving, then you don't have to specify the path to the "web" folder - Filemaker sees this as its "root" folder.

regards, Jeff

If you use any port other than 80, you also need to include that in the IP address: "http://10.10.10.10:591"

Let me guess: you have copied the HTML format files onto your ISP's web server and are browsing them from there.

If so, that's the problem. FMP web sharing does not work that way.

First you need to set up a computer on the internet with a permanent static IP number that is running FileMaker Pro with the Web Companion enabled, and all of your databases opened and set to share with Web Companion. Web companion acts like a web server software. (It's not a fully-fledged web server, it's not meant to be one. It's specially designed to act as an interface between the browser and the FMP databases.)

The HTM format files must be copied to the FMP server, specifically into the "Web" folder in the FileMaker Pro program folder on the hard disk.

If you don';t want to set all of this up yourself there are a few companies around that offer FMP hosting services. It's not cheap though (certainly not $10 a month like regular ISPs).

Don;t despair, for temporary testing and learning purposes you can make your home computer into a FML server -- you almost already have actually. Connect into the internet and your ISP, then open your databases in FMP. make sure Web Companion is activated and each database is enabled for web sharing. Copy your HTML format files into the web folder insode the FileMaker Pro folder on *your* hard disk.

Now determine what your TCP/IP number is: on Windows look in the network control panel, MacOS look un the TCP/IP control panel.

Launch your web browser, type in the ip number of your own machine and the file name of your site and it should work. If you get an error message saying the database isn't open, go into the database in FMP and choose Sharing from the File menu. Make sure Web Companion is checked.