CDML tags

By: James Reynolds - Revised: 2006-06-08 devin

CDML stands for Claris Dynamic Markup Language. CDML tags are similar to HTML tags, but serve a different purpose. CDML tags are placed in the format files that are to be served to the web.

There are 3 types of CDML tags: action tags, variable tags, and replacement tags.

Action tags tell the Web Companion to tell FileMaker what to do: find, delete, duplicate, edit, new, etc.,. Every URL/form submission MUST have one action (except for static file requests, which looks like any old URL, i.e. no "FMPro?..." in it).

Variable tags tell the Web Companion how to perform actions. "-db" is a variable that must be defined in every submission that interacts with a database. "-format" must be defined for every submission that will display another web page. etc.,.

Both action and variable tags are either part of the URL (http="FMPro?-db=name&-findall") or are hidden form fields (<input type="hidden" name="-db" value="name">).

Replacement tags are replaced with some sort of text, depending on the tag. The tag "[FMP-Field:fieldName]" is replaced with the contents of a field for a record. It is the most used tag.

Other tags will be replaced with things like the current found count, current record number, current client information, current token, cookies, database information, etc.,. 

For a full definition of the CDML tags, check out the CDML reference that is in the folder "FileMaker Pro 4.1v3:Web Tools".