FileMaker Web Publishing: A Complete Guide to Using the API for PHP [Paperback]

Allyson Olm (Author), Stephen Knight (Author), Michael Petrov (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1598220411 | ISBN-13: 978-1598220414 | Publication Date: July 31, 2007

FileMaker Web Publishing: A Complete Guide to Using the API for PHP, offers an unparalleled development strategy for database managers, web designers, and programmers who are interested in getting the most out of FileMaker databases on the web. The book introduces the basics of HTML, cascading style sheets, and PHP, then moves on to specific concepts such as database portals, value lists, and complex navigation systems. Advanced topics include uploading and referencing files within the database and sending dynamically formatted emails. With this book: Learn the fundamentals of working with FileMaker from a web publishing perspective. Understand how to set up and configure FileMaker Server. Create a blog application complete with tables, value lists, navigation links, style sheets, and authentication. Discover debugging methods to solve problems on demand by relying on a few simple tools and a bit of logic.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Allyson Olm is the owner of FMWebschool, a professional FileMaker training and development firm, as well as a well-known trainer and developer. She is the lead developer behind the FXForge product line.

Stephen Knight is a FileMaker developer with 10 years of experience creating FileMaker solutions.

Michael Petrov is a programmer and developer responsible for creating a host of web publishing applications with FileMaker. He was the lead developer on the FMStudio web publishing solution from FMWebschool.

Product Details

• Paperback: 472 pages
• Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Publishers (July 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598220411
• ISBN-13: 978-1598220414
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #853,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good foundation, March 28, 2008

By 

Christopher R. Gabbert "Gabby" (Cottage Grove, MN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: FileMaker Web Publishing: A Complete Guide to Using the API for PHP (Paperback)

If you are just starting out using FileMaker with the web it's a must read. It shows several outstanding techniques for setting up pages.

This is a very good book for beginners in FileMaker and PHP. It puts down a good foundation for starting but like so many other books it starts out with several chapters explaining the extreme basics so you are half way through the book before you get to the meat of the topic. Once the books starts getting in to the functions of PHP with FileMaker it stops just short of a little more involved explanation. I don't mean for that to sound like a rip on the book, but would like to see a little more advanced book on this subject.
Like I said I think this was a very well written book and covered the topic well I was just hoping for something a little more advanced.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good source, but flawed, May 10, 2011

By 

D. Messer (MN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: FileMaker Web Publishing: A Complete Guide to Using the API for PHP (Paperback)

To say it's the best resource to the FM PHP API is an oversimplification. It's really the ONLY resource that could be considered any kind of a starting point. FileMaker has not done a great job of providing documentation to this powerful tool. Let's hope they improve on that.

That being said, this book is already somewhat out of date. It uses a number of deprecated or to be deprecated calls to the API that take some time to figure out how to work around (and due to the lack of good documentation, this can be challenging).

The greatest frustration I have with this book is that every section covering a concept is accompanied by a lot of screenshots of code. These screen shots tend to be vital to understanding how the code is constructed. However, the screenshots are so small they are almost impossible to read. I've had to increase lighting and pull out a magnifier to make out what many of the images are trying to tell me. What is wrong with providing written out code in a monospaced typeface like every other code book does? The screenshots appear to be a lazy shortcut to providing this. It's extremely annoying.

This IS a good resource. If you plan to learn about the API, it will help. The reasons above are why it gets 3 stars. It would get 5 if the above problems can be resolved.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best PHP resource for FileMaker that I've found, June 18, 2008

By 

Darren Terry (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: FileMaker Web Publishing: A Complete Guide to Using the API for PHP (Paperback)

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Allyson, Stephen and Michael have put together an invaluable resource for putting FileMaker data on the web via PHP. The book is very well written with extremely clear example that are easy to follow. As a bonus, it's also a survey of html and css, too.

If Amazon allowed a 6-star rating, this book would have earned it. Great job, guys!