[FX.php List] need info on perceived and actual strengths and weaknesses of using PHP with FileMaker to build dynamic web sites

[DC]

Tami,

First of all, you don't have to use PHP at all. FMP offers Instant  
Web Publishing (IWP) which is point and click database web serving at  
it's finest. As long as you don't mind accepting loss of control of  
some of the interface choices you can be up and running a database on  
the web in about an hour. It's nice because you make your web UI  
using FMP's layout mode and it just works.

Two things that might influence the decision about using FMP on the  
web (applies to any server-side scripting language you might use PHP,  
ASP, perl, python, ruby, etc...) as opposed to using a more raw open  
source database system:

1) Filemaker offers a built in UI for data entry. If you have people  
in house doing data entry, FMP is great because it is so easy to get  
an interface up and running in a local network. Most other databases  
require you to build interfaces from scratch - I'm thinking of MySQL  
or other UNIX style databases here. Anything for internal use can be  
created using FMP's layout mode (and if you use IWP as noted above  
you can use your FMP layouts on the web).

2) If you go with FMP, you'll have to spend money up front but you  
need comparatively less technical skill to get everything running  
properly serving through PHP on the web. Setting up SQL databases is  
not point and click, but FMP is.

Also, to reiterate other comments... the PHP community and code  
library is VAST - that is worth weighing very seriously.

dan

On Apr 13, 2006, at 11:44 PM, Tami Williams wrote:

> Hello:
>
> I'm trying to find out the strengths and weaknesses of using PHP  
> with FileMaker to build dynamic web sites.
>
> What are the things that bug you about using PHP with FileMaker?   
> What do you like?
>
> What are the things that non-developers/clients think are the  
> strenghts?  The weaknesses?
>
> I'm trying to gather as much information as possible by next  
> Tuesday (4/18/06) so any information you can provide will be  
> greatly appreciated.
>
> If this is the wrong forum for these questions, I apologize.
>
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> "It's better to burn out than to fade away."
>
> Tami Williams
> Creative Computing
> Improve, manage and unify data with custom database and web  
> applications.
> FileMaker and Lasso specialist.
>
> Tel: 770.457.3221
> Fax: 770.454.7419
> E-Mail: tami at asktami.com
> Web: http://www.asktami.com
>
> FileMaker Solutions Alliance Associate | Lasso Professional  
> Alliance Member
>
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