I remember a while ago looking into creating a desktop shortcut to a file hosted on a server machine and it was a little more complex than I expected it to be.

Has anyone had luck in creating a desktop shortcut that opens a FMP file over the network? I'd also like to use the icon I created rather than use the FileMaker default. I would need to create a shortcut on Macs and Windows computers.

Option 1:

open the file then choose File > Send > Link to Database...  copy the url, paste it in to a browser,  before you press enter in the browser grab the Fav icon to the desktop or save the "bookmark" on mac it will place a .inetloc file on the desktop you can rename it and copy and paste an icon on the shortcut.

Option 2:

In lieu of doing option 1 create an xml file and save it to the desktop substituting your url.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>URL</key>
	<string>fmp://your.domain.com/database.fmp12</string>
</dict>
</plist>

 

Option 3:

create a filemaker file that has one script that on opening runs a script that open the remotely hosted file, then closes. 

Option 4: 

Upgrade to FMP 14 and use the new launch center that will show icons include custom solution icons.