William M. Mongan

Putting FileMaker Pro Databases on the Web

By: Bill Mongan

Believe it or not, FileMaker Pro has a fully-functional web server built right into it. Even the most basic version of FileMaker that you thought could only be used to hold records and fields actually can serve web pages right from your computer. This means that your FileMaker databases can "instantly" become web pages and dynamic content that you can use to share your information with members of your LAN, or with the world. In this little "snippet" I show you the fastest way to put your FileMaker databases on the web.

The following steps will allow you to serve your FileMaker databases from your computer.

Open your database(s) in FileMaker Pro
From the Edit Menu, select "Preferences" and then "Application"
Make sure that the Network Protocol is correct. For most Internet examples, this means "TCP/IP" though some Mac users may prefer "Appletalk" for local connections.
Under the Plug-ins tab, make sure the Web Companion option is checked. This is the tool that enables the webserver within FileMaker Pro.
Next click "Configure."
There are a number of options you can set here to make the webserver powerful and flexible, but for this example we'll just check the "Instant Web Publishing" feature; this is the most basic but fastest and easiest form of FileMaker Web Publishing available. Also you'll want to set the TCP/IP Port Number to 80, if possible.
Notice the IP Guest Limit at the bottom of this screen. It is hard-coded to be 10. This means that only 10 different users can access your FileMaker databases per day. FileMaker Corporation offers a product called FileMaker Pro Unlimited, which is the exact same program as FileMaker Pro, but this limitation is removed.
Click OK; the Web Server is set up!
Under the File menu, click "Sharing." This will allow you to pick which databases to share (for security reasons, you must specify each one!).
The two settings you'll want to set here are Sharing and Plug-Ins. Sharing should be set to "Multi-User" and you'll again want to check the "Web Companion" plug-in.
Advanced users may click "Set Up Views" to further customize the look and feel of the databases. Otherwise, you are finished with this step.
In a web browser, navigate to http://localhost and you will be greeted by the FileMaker Pro web server. There will be a list of databases (or maybe just one) on that screen; these are the ones you have chosen to share over the web. Click on one and begin working!

Of course, these features are very customizable; in fact, you can even create entire web sites based on FileMaker pro databases, and you can make them look nothing at all like what you see with the Instant Web Publisher. You can design web sites in application suites like Macromedia Dreamweaver and use them as a template to serve your data. But this method will get any FileMaker Pro database on-line in less than 5 minutes!

Duplication is permissible with permission of the author (must be included on the duplication).