[WEB4LIB] FileMaker]

[Bobb Menk]

Lori

Take a look at
http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us:591/FMPro?-db=HamptonUnion_.fp3&-Format=searchunionb.htm&-view
for a newspaper index done using Filemaker 4.1. I wrote up how we did
that project in "Library Computing", v18, n2, 1999 pp. 151ff.

I find Filemaker an extraordinarily useful tool simply because it _is_
graphically-based, easy to learn, and delivers up web-enabled data bases
quickly and reliably. And given that Filemaker's Web Companion is
basically just a script processor, it strikes me that delivering
well-commented scripts in a series of HTML pages & forms is a very
viable means of serving useful data up on the web. Doing it that way
also means you don't need to build client apps within the db environment
- they're just web-based tools created with a scripting language. The
database becomes just the warehouse and script parser.

I'm currently using Filemaker 5 and find that the biggest practical
improvement is the capability to pass multiple "tokens" (their term for
a stored variable within a script). They have added several other
improvements, but that's the one I find I'm using the most often. 

The biggest "gotcha" with the upgrade is the way they've split the
licensing up in version 5. To share databases on the web with anything
more than just a handful of people, you need Filemaker Pro Unlimited.
But to use their web publishing toolkit effectively you need the
reference manual for their scripting language (CDML). That manual only
ships with the Developer edition, but can now be downloaded separately
from the Filemaker corporate website. (It's also available as an online
database at http://cdml.org)

Feel free to contact me off list if you have more questions.

Bobb Menk
Electronic Resources Librarian, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
bmenk at ll.mit.edu 

Lori Bowen Ayre wrote:
> 
> I've noticed a lot of libraries use Filemaker.  The current version,
> Filemaker Pro 5, appears to have a nice web publishing feature including the
> ability to generate web-based data entry forms.  It also has the ability to
> export a database to XML.  Or so their website claims...
> 
> Is anyone using Filemaker Pro Version 5 yet and if so, how do you like it?
> 
> Any other database programs people prefer to use?
> 
> -Lori Ayre
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> Hi -
> 
> We have something similar at:
> 
>   http://www.oswego.edu/library/archives/newspp.html
> 
> Currently, we are using FileMaker Pro 4.1.   I have a similar application
> for e-journals, with 'how-to' info:
>   http://www.oswego.edu/library/ejournals/how_to/
> 
> Our local newspaper index has existed since before 1980.  Indexing has
> been done by a vast number of students, so is very uneven.
> Technologically, this has gone through many generations:
>   * card file
>   * dBase III+ in-house file
>   * dBase III+ file that created a WAIS index
>   * FileMaker
> 
> Currently, we add new indexing off-line via dBase III+ and then import it
> into FileMaker.  For historical and personality reasons, it works.
> 
>           -- Natalie
> 
>         Natalie Sturr                 sturr at oswego.edu
>         Systems Librarian             http://www.oswego.edu/~sturr
>         SUNY Oswego                   Voice:    (315) 312-3565
>         Oswego, NY  13126             FAX:      (315) 312-3194
> 
> On Mon, 19 Feb 2001, Barbara Robeson wrote:
> 
> > We are going to index old editions of our local newspaper into a simple
> database.  We will be designing the database soon.  Does anyone know of good
> examples of local archival newspaper indexes that I can find on the Web to
> check out how people are accomplishing this?
> > Aloha,
> > Barbara Robeson
> > Kauai, Hawaii
> >