[FX.php List] dashboard widgets and fx.php

[Bob Patin]

Carl,

That's great! I was able to get it to work too, but not completely to  
my satisfaction yet.

Here's what I did:

I took an HTML page and put a META-redirect in it that redirects to a  
working PHP query on my web server. Then I made sure the output,  
which displays in a table, displays the same size as the widget.

The only thing I haven't been able to figure out is how to put this  
into a scrolling control; do you know how to do that? If so, I can  
make a query work really well.

The 2nd thing I'd like to figure out is how to create records or edit  
existing records thru a widget...

This would be a great thing for FileMaker consultants to be able to  
do for clients; I can think of several great uses for it.

Bob Patin
Longterm Solutions
bob at longtermsolutions.com
615-333-6858
http://www.longtermsolutions.com

   CONTACT US VIA INSTANT MESSAGING:
      AIM or iChat: longterm1954
      Yahoo: longterm_solutions
      MSN: tech at longtermsolutions.com
      ICQ: 159333060


On Feb 15, 2007, at 10:25 AM, Carl Anderson wrote:

> Bob:
>
> I downloaded Dashcode two days ago, and with my admittedly limited
> understanding of Ajax and whatnot, I was able to cobble together a  
> decent
> widget that pulls data via a call to a PHP script on our server.
> (Essentially it's a Web service, but that's a different story.)
>
> Right now the PHP script is doing nothing more than spitting out
> line-by-line sets of data, but that's exactly what I want for my  
> purposes.
> Goals for this week, and the weeks following, are to expand this to  
> allow
> writing to a database as well as more complex formatting.
>
> (Incidentally, it should be easy to write to a database, since it's  
> just
> like connecting to a PHP script.)
>
> -- 
> Carl Anderson
> Technical Support Analyst
> Distance Learning
> Herberger College of Fine Arts
> Arizona State University
> http://herbergeronline.asu.edu
>
>
>> From: Bob Patin <bob at patin.com>
>> Reply-To: "FX.php Discussion List" <fx.php_list at mail.iviking.org>
>> Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 18:26:06 -0600
>> To: Alex Gates <alex at gandrpublishing.com>, "FX.php Discussion List"
>> <fx.php_list at mail.iviking.org>
>> Subject: Re: [FX.php List] dashboard widgets and fx.php
>>
>> Alex,
>>
>> Did you ever get this dashboard widget to work in pulling in records?
>>
>> I'd like to write a few simple widgets; I have 3 projects in mind:
>>
>> 1. I'd like to pull in simple records and display them in a table
>> inside a widget
>> 2. I'd like to be able to write to a database with a widget (long-
>> shot, I know, but one can dream...)
>>
>> To begin with though, I'd love to be able to display records; have
>> you gotten that to work? My tests so far have failed miserably...
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Bob Patin
>> Longterm Solutions
>> bob at longtermsolutions.com
>> 615-333-6858
>> http://www.longtermsolutions.com
>>
>>    CONTACT US VIA INSTANT MESSAGING:
>>       AIM or iChat: longterm1954
>>       Yahoo: longterm_solutions
>>       MSN: tech at longtermsolutions.com
>>       ICQ: 159333060
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jan 22, 2007, at 7:18 PM, Alex Gates wrote:
>>> Hi everyone-
>>>
>>> I managed to get something working today that I was quite pleased
>>> with.
>>>
>>> Most of you probably know that Apple released a beta of Dashcode -
>>> the dashboard widget authoring tool that will be a part of Leopard.
>>> You can download it here:
>>> http://developer.apple.com/tools/dashcode/
>>> (this is a newer version than the Dashcode that was leaked last  
>>> year.)
>>>
>>> There is a template that will allow you to make a widget from an
>>> RSS feed... you can simply enter the URL for the RSS feed and
>>> Dashcode will make everything work for you....
>>>
>>> After a few tests today I was able to display FileMaker data in a
>>> widget using fx.php
>>>
>>> I made a php file that outputs an xml file -
>>> like this:
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> <?xml version="1.0"?>
>>> <rss version="2.0">
>>>    <channel>
>>>       <title>Web Tracker</title>
>>>
>>>       <description>My Web Tracker</description>
>>>       <language>en-us</language>
>>>
>>>
>>> <?php
>>> include_once('FX/FX.php');
>>> include_once('FX/server_data.php');
>>> include_once('FX/FMErrors.php');
>>>
>>> $lookup=new FX($serverIP,$webCompanionPort,'FMPro7');
>>> $lookup->SetDBData('dbfile.fp7','layout');
>>> $lookup->SetDBPassword('xxxxx','xxxxxx');
>>> $lookupResult=$lookup->FMFindAll();
>>> $foundResult=$lookupResult['foundCount'];
>>>
>>> ?>
>>> <?php echo "
>>>       <item>
>>> <title>Found Count:</title>
>>>
>>>          <description>".$foundResult."</description>
>>>
>>>       </item>";
>>> ?>
>>>
>>>  </channel>
>>> </rss>
>>>
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>
>>> I uploaded this file and used the URL to the php page as the .xml
>>> address.  To my surprise, it worked.
>>>
>>> I know this is simply showing the foundcount, but for a beginner, I
>>> was happy.  I'm sure it would be possible to do lots of cool  
>>> stuff....
>>>
>>> As far as I know, it should be possible to take the xml output from
>>> Web Publishing Engine to use for the widget... but I didn't think
>>> about this until after I had done this...
>>>
>>> I'd really be interested in hearing if any of you have made
>>> dashboard widgets from FileMaker data and how you did it..... or if
>>> you have any suggestions as to a better method...
>>>
>>> Alex
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> FX.php_List mailing list
>>> FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
>>> http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list
>>
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