Using Files Over the Web

Make sure you've created the necessary accounts and privilege sets for users to access files over the Web. (See Setting Accounts and Privileges on page 250). You'll also need to tell users the IP (Internet Protocol) address for where the files are stored. Users' Web browsers need to support CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), since Instant Web Publishing depends on it for displaying the files properly over the Web. For details, see Table 16.1, Browsers Supporting Instant Web Publishing.

Table 16.1. Browsers Supporting Instant Web Publishing

BROWSER	OPERATING SYSTEM
Firefox 1.0 or higher	Windows XP or 2000, Mac OS X 10.1 or higher
Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher	Windows XP or 2000
Safari 1.1	Mac OS X 10.2
Safari 1.2 or 1.3	Mac OS X 10.3
Safari 2.0 or higher	OS X 10.4 or higher

To open a file over the Web

1.	Make sure that Web sharing has been turned on for each of the FileMaker databases you want to open (See To share files over the Web on page 266.)
2.	Launch your Web browser and in the Address or Location text window, type the URL or IP address where the file is being hosted (http://192.168.1.104/ in our example, though yours may be different) (Figure 16.8). Press (Windows) or (Mac). Figure 16.8. Once Web sharing is activated, a user just needs to enter the URL or IP address in their browser.
3.	The Instant Web Publishing Database Homepage appears, displaying all the open databases for which you have activated Web sharing (Figure 16.9). Click the FileMaker file you want to open. Figure 16.9. The Database Homepage displays all the open files for which Web sharing has been activated.
4.	If the page is password protected (and it should be), you have to enter an Account Name and Password before clicking Login (Figure 16.10). Figure 16.10. Before you can actually see a file, you must login using your FileMaker account name and password.
5.	The file appears, looking very similar to how it might appear to anyone actually running FileMaker (Figure 16.11). Figure 16.11. Files shared over the Web look remarkably like those seen by users running FileMaker itself.
6.	Choose any button in the left-hand panel to trigger hidden scripts that closely mimic what you'd see running FileMaker directly on your computer (Figure 16.12). Figure 16.12. Instant Web Publishing mimics FileMaker's regular windows as in this example of a Web-based Sort dialog box.
7.	When you're done working on the file, close the browser window or tab. What could be easier?