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Volume 12

No. 1   September/October 1996

Publishing FileMaker Data on the World Wide Web

Debi Fuchs

For years, MIT departments have used FileMaker databases to maintain 
contact lists, room reservations, and event schedules. Now there's 
interest in publishing this type of data on the World Wide Web. This 
article discusses two approaches to getting FileMaker data on the Web, 
each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
 
Approach 1: A Snapshot
You can export your FileMaker data into HTML files (HTML is a format 
recognized by the World Wide Web), and then upload them to your Athena 
locker. This results in a snapshot (static file) of the data at the time 
you did the export; it does not update automatically as you update your 
database. Periodically (depending on how current you want your Web pages 
to be), you need to export and upload the data again.
 
This method is by far the easiest and least expensive way to publish 
FileMaker data on the Web. Even so, be prepared to spend a lot of time 
learning more about FileMaker. The box below offers a glimpse of 
how you publish data using this approach.

Approach 2: Live Access
The second approach is to publish your FileMaker data so that it is 
live - that is, always up-to-date and searchable. To do this, you set up 
a Macintosh as a Web server (with a connection to MITnet) and buy and 
configure software that provides a gateway to your FileMaker database. 
Note: For now, there are no software solutions for publishing live 
FileMaker data from a Windows computer.
 
If searching is a necessity, this more complex approach may be your 
only option. Be aware that it requires a significant amount of 
expertise, programming, equipment, and software, and that Information 
Systems cannot provide you with support.

Advantages and Disadvantages
Keep the following points in mind if you are considering publishing 
FileMaker data on the Web:

* If the data you publish needs to be updated less than once a week 
and doesn't require searching, a static solution should be sufficient. 
You can write a script to regenerate your Web pages on a regular basis 
so that the data on the Web is current or close to current.

* It is faster to access FileMaker data exported as a snapshot, 
since it can be viewed as quickly as any other Web page. In contrast, 
when users search and retrieve live data, the database has to be queried 
and the HTML files created on the fly.

* Publishing a live database requires significant resources in terms 
of equipment, programming, and maintenance. You need a Web server and 
properly configured gateway software. IS does not offer support for this 
kind of configuration, so if your department opts for this approach, it 
will have to do its own troubleshooting.
  
For More Information
To find out more about publishing live FileMaker data on the Web, 
check out the Web page at 

http://www2.claris.com/filemaker/cgi.html

If you have questions about the snapshot approach, contact CWIS Support  
at <cwis-help@mit.edu>. 

------------------------------------

Publishing a Snapshot of FileMaker Data Using Calculation Fields
 
The following procedure is a simple example of how to export data from a 
room reservations database into an HTML document, in this case in table 
format. The database contains the following fields: Date, Time, Room, 
and Contact.

1. Define a calculation field called html row with the following text:

   <tr><td>" & DateToText(Date) & "<td>" & TimeToText(Time) & 
    "<td>" & Room & "<td>" & Contact

Note: For this and the following two calculation fields, make sure to 
select Text as the calculation result type.

2. Define a calculation field called html header with the following 
   text: If(Status(CurrentRecordNumber)=1,"<html><head><title>Room 
   Reservations</title></head> <body> <h1>Room Reservations</h1> <table 
   border=1> <tr><th>Date<th>Time<th>Room<th>Contact","")

3. Define a calculation field called html footer with the following 
   text:

   If(Status(CurrentRecordNumber)=Status(CurrentFoundCount), 
   "</table></body></html>","")

4. Use the Export Records command to export the data into a file:

a. In the dialog box, choose Tab-Separated Text as the Type and name 
   the file reservations.html 

b. In the Export Field Order dialog box, click the Clear All button, 
   move html header, html row, and html footer (in that order), then 
   click on Export.

5. Transfer reservations.html to the Athena locker where you store 
   Web pages.

Note: Repeat steps 4 and 5 whenever you want to update the data 
on the Web.

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