Re: Database/Shopping Cart programs... Help!

At 11:16 PM 5/28/98 -0700, jayse wrote:
>A client of mine, who is somewhat familiar with FileMaker Pro, wants his
>web viewers to be able to access his catalogue (already IN FileMaker
>Pro) on the web.
>
>And after they perform searches etc... to be able to add the items to a
>shopping cart. - All of course, secure.
>
>1. Has anyone had experience like this? Is FileMaker Pro a good program
>for it?

Although I haven't used Filemaker Pro 4 for shopping cart purposes, I do
have it connected to a web server on an intranet. As I had no prior 
experience with database to web connectivity, I found FileMaker Pro to
be exceptionally easy to set up (done in less than an hour).

I spent a few minutes scannning the "FileMaker Pro for Dummies" book and 
picked up everything I needed to know to get it web-connected.

Claris's (FileMaker Inc.) Homepage software has a "connection wizard" for
FileMaker Pro that makes the job a cinch...

FileMaker has security features built-in for accessing databases, but
you probably want to use SSL on your web server as well--not my
expertise...

>2. Is having a web server a MAJOR deal with Maintenance etc... (as I
>understand FileMaker Pro 4.0 IS the web serving software all in one.)

Hmmm...it all depends...

I have IIS running on an NT 4 server, which is also a Domain Server for
about 20 workstations. For the last 1 1/2 years it's been running great
without a problem (Pentium Pro 200, 128MB RAM, lots of disk space). But
this is on an Intranet, and the web server gets 10's of hits per day,
versus 100's or 1000's you might get on the Internet. Your mileage may
vary.

FileMaker Pro 4 is not a web server. It is a database that is web ready. 
It is designed to easily interface with a web server--IIS, Netscape, 
Apache--whatever your preference.

Incidentally, you could have FileMaker running on the same box as the
web server. FileMaker would simply use a different port number than
the web server (default is 80). FileMaker has registered port 591 for
this purpose.

>3. Is there a BETTER way?

Anyone else?



--------------------------------------
Steve Mendes
Associate Engineer
TRW Electromagnetic Systems Division
1330 Geneva Drive
SL03/637A
Sunnyvale, CA  94088-3510

phone: 408-738-2888, ext. 6692
email: smendes(at)pop.svl.trw.com
--------------------------------------

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