I'm trying to design a complete website just using the IWP
functionality of Filemaker.  What I am trying to figure out is 2 things
?

1.  How can you create a true "Log In" type application ?  I'm thinking
that I just use a find on the combination of User / Pass ?

2.  In most web sites before you "submit" a form, like a request for
information, the boxes are blank and it isn't until you hit submit that
you actually send your data.  But in filemaker as soon as you hit "new
record" a blank record is created and it waits for you to fill in the
boxes.  I'm thinking that if I have a sign-up sheet I am going to have
to use a combination of a "Change Layout and a scripted "New Record"
but if the user bails I'm going to end up with blank records.  I could
clean this up by running scripts every hour but it seems sloppy to me.
Any ideas on how to do this ?

3.  Can you use SSL with IWP for capturing credit card data ?

4.  Lastly, is it crazy to think that you could create a full web site
with the intention of displaying info about a company and accepting
subscriptions to services just with IWP ?

-Squeed

squeed2000@yahoo.com wrote:
> I'm trying to design a complete website just using the IWP
> functionality of Filemaker.  What I am trying to figure out is 2 things
> ?
> 
> 1.  How can you create a true "Log In" type application ?  I'm thinking
> that I just use a find on the combination of User / Pass ?

Not sure what you mean by this... if want to control what a user sees 
and does based on account information, the best way is to create a user 
table that has the account name and any other user-specific preference 
information.  Then capture the user's account name with the 
Get(accountname) function, and either store this in a global in the 
startup script or make it an unstored calc field.  Then you can drive a 
relationship with this information. (Like go to related record... will 
direct a user to records based on the account)

> 
> 2.  In most web sites before you "submit" a form, like a request for
> information, the boxes are blank and it isn't until you hit submit that
> you actually send your data.  But in filemaker as soon as you hit "new
> record" a blank record is created and it waits for you to fill in the
> boxes.  I'm thinking that if I have a sign-up sheet I am going to have
> to use a combination of a "Change Layout and a scripted "New Record"
> but if the user bails I'm going to end up with blank records.  I could
> clean this up by running scripts every hour but it seems sloppy to me.
> Any ideas on how to do this ?

Set up a data entry form that uses only globals.  The user will fill 
those in before creating the record, and then they press a button to 
create a new record with the values from the globals.

> 
> 3.  Can you use SSL with IWP for capturing credit card data ?

If you have server advanced, you can use SSL with IWP, but most people 
would still say you're better off using a payment service for the actual 
credit card transaction, then you're not liable for any identity theft, etc.

> 
> 4.  Lastly, is it crazy to think that you could create a full web site
> with the intention of displaying info about a company and accepting
> subscriptions to services just with IWP ?

The main drawback of using IWP for a commercial website is that you have 
to use sessions for every user that enters the site, and even with 
server advanced you only get 100 concurrent sessions.  If you use CWP, 
you don't have to use sessions for everything, and you can handle more 
traffic.

> 
> -Squeed
> 

If I use as global field per above, what happens if 5 users at the same
time are entering the form all with different information.  Will this
work ?

I don't understand your answer to #4, can you explain ?

-Squeed

Global fields are session-specific, so each user that logs in to the 
database gets his own set of global variables which only exist until the 
session ends.

#4. If there is a lot of traffic to your web site, (more than 100 
simultaneous users) IWP won't be a good solution.  You don't have to use 
sessions in custom web publishing, so you're only limited by how fast 
your web server can pass information to the web publishing engine, then 
to filemaker and back again.  (I don't know that much about custom web 
stuff since I don't have server advanced... I've just been playing 
around with the 3-user development license you get with filemaker 
developer.)

squeed2000@yahoo.com wrote:

> If I use as global field per above, what happens if 5 users at the same
> time are entering the form all with different information.  Will this
> work ?
> 
> I don't understand your answer to #4, can you explain ?
> 
> -Squeed
> 

Regarding the login info.  So you are saying that I should create a
table of users and then use a relationship off of a find ?  Meaning the
first screen is in find mode looking for user/pass combo in the table
and once there is a find I reference off of that find for access to the
records ?

I'm building a very simple web app where all I want to do is display 2
products and allow the user to sign up for one or the other.  I doubt
that I will have more than 100 users at once.

Also when you close your browser does that end a session ?

-Squeed

squeed2000@yahoo.com wrote:

> Regarding the login info.  So you are saying that I should create a
> table of users and then use a relationship off of a find ?  Meaning the
> first screen is in find mode looking for user/pass combo in the table
> and once there is a find I reference off of that find for access to the
> records ?

You don't need to use a find.  When a user is directed to the website, 
they will be presented with a username/password dialog.  When they enter 
in the account information, that can now be accessed using the 
Get(accountname) function in fields, scripts or relationships.  So any 
record that has a field with that account name can be linked to the 
specific user (you can use a find to get there, but you can also use a 
relationship with a go to related record[] script step.

Actually getting the users their accounts is a whole other matter.  You 
can script adding accounts, but there's no way to mask a password field 
so it won't be visible on screen.  For me this isn't an issue because I 
have to train my users to use a certain piece of equipment in the lab 
before I give them an account, so I can do it while they're sitting 
right there.  They just use IWP to schedule time on the equipment, and a 
FMP kiosk to control access to the equipment and bill them based on the 
usage.  So the general public never needs to see the IWP portion of my site.

> 
> I'm building a very simple web app where all I want to do is display 2
> products and allow the user to sign up for one or the other.  I doubt
> that I will have more than 100 users at once.
> 

One other thing to worry about with IWP is the browser compatibility. 
It is officially only compatible with IE6 on windows, and IE 5 and 
safari on mac.  (Although it works on Mozilla, Firefox, Netscape, Opera 
since the 7v3 update)  So old browsers (NS4.7 etc) are out.

> Also when you close your browser does that end a session 

The session does not end when the browser is closed.  It ends either 
when the user explicitly ends it using the logout button in the status 
area, or a scripted button you attach to the exit application[] script 
step. If the user quits the browser the session is active until the 
server-specified timeout is reached (the time since the last user 
request).  in IWP you can set this from 1-60 minutes.  For my users, 
scheduling is done pretty quickly, so I've set the timeout to 1 minute. 
  This helps especially if you're using plain FMP to do this since you 
only get 5 sessions at a time.

?
> 
> -Squeed
>