Can anyone provide a URL that points to a hosted FileMaker database that is open to the public? I mean a really excellent one. I would love to see some examples of what is possible so I can in turn show my supervisor and get funds to make our databases Web-accessible.

I have hosted a super basic database and was very impressed with the quality. But....I then hosted one of our more complicated dbs and it was a garbled mess.

Check out the sites in the "Current Clients" section of our website:

www.pointinspace.com

- John

Give Filemaker, Inc sales a call. They should be able to give you some examples.

I checked out a number of the Current Clients and only saw basic Web pages, no obvious databases with searchable records, pull-downs, radio buttons and the like.

...no obvious databases.

Yep, that is one of the beauties of it. You can structure it so that the client is not aware of the interface. If you want to design a layout that looks like a database you can. If you want to expose the database directly (Instant Web Publishing) with very little control over what can be done, that is also possible.

The biggest drawback is the inability to use the cdml -script tags unless you develop a workaround for the single-threaded engine through which the ScriptMaker scripts are run. In versions 4.0 and 5.0 any multiple request for a script in a near simultaneous manner will cause severe problems with your data. While verison 5.5 is alleged to be multi-user friendly, it has also been alleged that the improvement is for requests on static objects, not on database operations such as running scripts.

Be sure you're looking under the "Web Hosting w/Database Clients" section of the Client Access area.

Some in particular I picked out:

www.gerberstore.com (storefront)

www.mediamanager.com (searchable database, dynamic site)

www.new-chapter.com (storefront)

www.arslonga.com (searchable database, dynamic site)

www.albemarlekids.com (dynamic site)

www.duon.de (storefront)

www.goliveheaven.com (dynamic site)

By "dynamic site" I mean the whole site is built off Filemaker database contents for instantaneous updates, structure changes, etc.

- John

Nice stuff !!!!!

I find it very hard to convince people here to accept FileMaker solutions simply because it's 'not MicroSoft', even though we prove time after time that it's the simplest, easiest way to build and deploy dynamic web sites.

Case study1:

Thursday - can we have a logo library to upload logos, search, see a thumbnail and download the hi-res file over the web.

Friday - dunnit, tested, running (with a bit of help from Photoshop scripting to make the web thumbnails automatically)

Case study2:

trade directory in ASP on IIS

...er we're in to week six on that.

regards, Jeff

John - Thank you! Exactly what I was looking for.

<<By "dynamic site" I mean the whole site is built off Filemaker database contents for instantaneous updates, structure changes, etc.>> If I understand correctly, in a nutshell, HTML pages are created that are basically skeletons, hosted via Apache or the like, and that a software solution dynamically takes advantage of FileMaker database(s) to fill in the fields?

Ken -

Correct. The "dynamic sites" are built off of content in Filemaker databases, so that the site managers only need to update the databases to have the changes "bubble through" their sites.

- John

Check out our site: http://www.telecom-idag.com

It's in Swedish, but you'll get the idea of how an entire site can be built with CDML and Filemaker.