Advanced FileMaker Pro 6 Web Development [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Bob Bowers (Author), Moyer (Author), Bowers (Author)

Book Description

Series: Wordware Library for FileMaker | Publication Date: March 1, 2003

This book covers all aspect of web publishing with FileMaker Pro.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Wordware Publishing, Inc.; 1st edition (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556228600
• ISBN-13: 978-1556228605
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,542,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, flawed, but only source for this topic, August 15, 2004

By 

Michael A. Alderete (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Advanced FileMaker Pro 6 Web Development (Paperback)

This is a very good book, and if you're looking to web-enable your FileMaker 6 application, this is pretty much the only source for in-depth information that's available.

However, this book definitely left me wanting more. I have been building a fairly sophisticated web application in CDML using the Web Companion, the web toolkit that comes built into FileMaker 6. This topic gets less than 50 pages, and feels light. Many of my questions went unanswered. This topic could have been 100 pages, easily.

Two other toolkits, Lasso and PHP, while great options, require you to acquire and install add-on software. Each gets 60+ pages in the book. It's great that there's additional information (possibly required to cover installation), but devoting that much space to things not built into FileMaker, while not giving enough depth to the built-in component, seems like the wrong focus.

Another flaw with the book is that it doesn't really cover larger-scale applications. You get information about how to access, search, modify, and delete data, but you don't really get advice about how to structure a full-blown web application. Things like managing user sessions, authentication, etc., really are not covered at all. You'll need another book (which won't use FileMaker as an example at all) to get information about these basic web application topics.

In the end, this book gave me enough information that I could get started, and a good enough CDML reference that I've been able to figure out a lot more on my own. That makes it quite a good book, well worth the money spent. I would love to purchase an expanded 2nd edition.

I should note that it remains to be seen how well this book will hold up after FileMaker 7 Advanced Server is released. There's a lot of changes in FileMaker 7, and all of the web functionality has moved to the Advanced Server (not yet released), so many things may change...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally a book that goes beyond the basics, August 15, 2003

By 

Brian A. Dunning (Laguna Niguel, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Advanced FileMaker Pro 6 Web Development (Paperback)

This is one of the first books that goes beyond a mere rehash of the manual, like most FileMaker books out there. This book is a treasure trove for those who already have their feet wet in FileMaker and are looking to go to the next level.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Worth It For Extending FileMaker, June 30, 2003

By 

Michael Layne (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Advanced FileMaker Pro 6 Web Development (Paperback)

This is the second book I've read from these guys. If your a FileMaker developer wanting to get in touch with more web-centric technologies, this book not only explains how, but give you the background so you can cross-reference other sources. Good explanation of XML and XSLT with examples and the section on PHP should open up a whole new world if you're willing to live in a text editor. Good-bye CDML. Plenty of good examples, plain English, and their understanding of technology goes well beyond FileMaker.