Since there are so many combinations, I won’t go into a lot of detail here, but I want to make sure you’re at least armed with the knowledge of how to compose a valid URL to your database.Īt the very least, you’re going to need to know:
How you go about creating a link though, will depend on a number of variables such as what version of FileMaker Pro was your database designed for, what browser you’re using, and what operating system you’re working with. Linking to the database is typically done through a web-browser. There are of course multiple ways to accomplish this, and I’d like to briefly touch on a couple of them. In cases like this, it would be nice to have a simple shortcut to click on, that will launch FileMaker Pro for you, and automatically connect to the proper database. Once you get into hosting your database on a FileMaker Server, then your clients will have to “Open Remote” to access the database, and sometimes that will introduce even more complexity into the picture such as “What server is the database hosted on?” or “Why do I have to enter my credentials twice?”. If you’re using your database regularly, and if it’s got any mission-critical data in it, then you really should be hosting your database on a FileMaker Server, and let’s face it, not everybody understands how the client-server model works. Any of these approaches seem to involve an unnecessary intermediary step… especially if you’re a novice FileMaker Pro user. And when I say FileMaker Pro throughout the tutorial I mean both FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Pro Advanced.If you use a FileMaker database (or even multiple FileMaker databases) on a regular basis, then chances are you typically open up FileMaker Pro first, and from there either pick the database you want to work in from within the Recent Files list, or even use the “Open” command or “Open Remote” command. Wherever possible I will show both the Windows and Mac versions of FileMaker Server but ever since FileMaker Server 9, all FileMaker Server related things pretty much look the same on either platform.
The trial software for FileMaker Server is good for 30 days and there are no limitations so you'll get the full FileMaker Server Advanced and this trial installation can always be updated with the real FileMaker Server key as long as the trial has not expired, so as long as the trial has not expired you don't have to uninstall FileMaker Server to get the real thing. If you want to follow along with this tutorial but you don't have FileMaker Server you can always go to the Support section on the FileMaker website right here in the Downloads and if you scroll down a bit you'll be able to download the trial software. Keep in mind that FileMaker Server also runs on Windows 2003 and OS X 10.4, so if you are running on either of those older platforms there might be subtle changes in what you see and what tools are available, but for the most part everything will be the same.
For this tutorial we will be working with FileMaker Server Advanced 11, running on Windows Server 2008 that I'm showing here through the Mac Remote Desktop client and also FileMaker Server running this Mac OS X 10.5 Leopards.
So let's set the stage for what we are going to do.
NET or DBC that you can use to consume FileMaker data through the Web and from other Desktop applications, all of that through either regular FileMaker Server or FileMaker Server Advanced. And to wrap things up in this tutorial we will talk about non-FileMaker technologies such as PHP and. An important section of this tutorial will be about strategies for troubleshooting when things go wrong. Plus also detailed information on how to put together the best possible deployment so that once you have all of this configured it will keep on running with the best possible up time. In this tutorial you will get an in depth look at what FileMaker Server is and how you configure it. And welcome to the VTC tutorial on FileMaker Server.