Summary of the common HTML pages to search/create/display/edit records

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

  • search_begin.html -- will display empty form fields and a submit button.
  • search_results.html -- will display a summary (a few fields) of many records.
  • record_detail.html -- will display all fields for one record.
  • new_record.html -- just like search_begin (displays empty form fields and a submit button), except all the fields will be there (like record_detail) and the submit button name is "-new".
  • record_created.html -- can contain anything really. Can be just like record_detail (one could even have new_record just load record_detail and skip this) or just a message that says "record created".
  • edit_record.html -- just like record_detail (in that it displays all the fields) and search_begin (in that it has a form and input fields). Input fields must look like this: <input type="text" name="fieldName" value="[FMP-Field:fieldName]">
  • edit_saved.html -- just like record_created.
See the contents of the Web folder for detailed examples.

Web Folder

Of course, the more complex the database, the more format files you will need. Group format files that do a similar task together by placing them in folders or start them with the same prefix. Name them very carefully, you don't really want to change a format file name and then have to search and replace every other format file that has that format file in a link... 

Types of web format files:
  • Type 1. adding records.
  • Type 2. viewing records.
  • Type 3. edit/deleting records.
Examples:
  • Archived Mail list. (Type 2; records added by a script; type 3 for administrators)
  • Guest books. (Types 1 and 2)
  • Monthly Mail/email/contact lists. (Type 1; Type 2 and 3 for administrators)
  • Searchable personnel directory. (Types 1, 2, and 3)
Recommended HTML form elements:
  • Text area/text input fields - no effort
  • Radio buttons - little effort, requires the CDML tags [FMP-If:field:x.eq.x] x [FMP-Else] x [/FMP-If]
  • Select lists - requires a script on the FMP side (either a calculation field or a script made with the ScriptMaker). Script difficulty: easy (mostly copy and paste once you have it done).
  • Check boxes - similar to select lists, but more complicated (not recommended).
Recommended FileMaker field types:
  • Text, number fields are the best type of fields (global, non-global, or calculation fields).
  • Portals or Repeating fields are not recommended (they do not work well with type 2 or 3 format files.
  • Container fields are not recommended. You do not want FileMaker to serve large files like images or mp3's.