Re: Filemaker on the Web


Subject: Re: Filemaker on the Web
From: Basil Hussain (basil.hussain@specialreserve.net)
Date: Fri Mar 02 2001 - 09:46:08 EST


Hi,

> Does anyone have any experience posting Filemaker Databases to the Web. We
> have many good Dept. Databases that we would like to push out to the web,
> but I am not experienced in coding any of this. I am going to learn it
> however, but I need some examples to work off of.

I have just one word of advice - don't. It may be fine to start with using
the Filemaker Web Companion or something like Lasso and WebStar, if your
usage is going to be light. But, if you're going to be getting any more than
light usage, then I would advise against either of these options - and
against Filemaker altogether even.

The company I work at used to be a solely Mac environment, so our web site
started out working completely with Lasso and WebStar. Needless to say, we
had to restart the web serving Mac virtually every day, as crashes were a
frequent occurance. Even later on, as things got more popular, with 5 Macs
serving web pages and one Filemaker Server, things didn't improve. We've
since switched to PC servers with Linux, Apache, PHP, MySQL and of course,
Netatalk. Our uptime is now measured in months, not hours...

But, you probably don't want to hear this. So, if you're a novice and only
need a really basic solution for a few people here-and-there to access
occasionally via the Web then I'd go for the bundled Filemaker Web
Companion. I've never used it myself, but I gather it's pretty simple stuff.

But, if you're planning on beginning the makings of an e-commerce presence
for your company, then steer well clear of Filemaker.

Regards,

------------------------------------------------
Basil Hussain (basil.hussain@specialreserve.net)



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