Looking at the documentation, solutions, etc, I am unable to tell exactly where I should be looking to find a solution that will fit our needs. We've got FMS 11 setup and running and use it internally via the desktop program, now we want to expose part of the info to outside customers via web. I'm hoping if I explain our needs the community can point me in the right direction to find a solution!

 

We'd like to provide a simple webpage for customers to enter in their order number and receive status/tracking info for it. If you know the order number you can get basic info. (yes this is a security concern, see below)

 

We don't want the whole account exposed, just some very basic info. It appears that IWP (or WebDirect if we upgrade) is not the way to go for this. We'd like to not have to assign usernames and passwords, so we'd want just barebones order info shown with no personal account info of the customer. This will hopefully mitigate the security concerns of being able to pull up any order with only an order number.

 

This does not require the ability to make any changes on the customer's part, just informational only. However if the data changes in the database we'd want that reflected in the output, so we'd like to avoid using static web pages.

 

That's it to start, should we be looking at FileMaker PHP/XML publishing, moving to the newer version of FileMaker and using WebDirect, looking for a FileMaker consultant, etc? Thanks in advance for any assistance!

 

(note, cross posted from a topic I started several days ago on the official forums that's gotten no response, please excuse if such cross posts are not allowed)

FileMaker PHP/XML Publishing will do this - and it's really not a lot of work to create the form and results.

 

Might take a bit more time to set up the web -> FileMaker connection, but the form would be less than 15 minutes work after that, given the lack of security requirements.

 

HTH

 

Webko

I think you can achieve what you want using any of the three options.  

 

You can fully control what the user sees by just making layouts only showing what you want them to see.

 

I prefer developing custom web publishing sites (Filemaker/php) myself because I believe it will create the best experience for the user.  I tested WebDirect vs. Filemaker PHP with one of my clients and the latter was much faster.   Both IWP and WebDirect are shortcuts to bypass web technologies and save on development costs but the cost is a hit on performance.  But if we're talking about one simple form getting information for viewing only, speed probably won't be an issue for you so all three could probably work just fine.   For myself, I've found IWP to be a bit buggy and restricted.  I would go either WebDirect or Custom Web Publishing, if I were in your shoes.