FMCGIC

FMCGICFileMaker CGI in C by Joerg Richter version 1.0.1 2/4/96 Contents 1.Introduction 2.Database requests 3.Installation 4.Preparation 4.1HTML form 4.2Database fields 5.Running 6.Testing Appendix A.Administrator Access B.Logging C.Customization C.1HTML generation C.2Error messages C.3Logfile D.Version History Used Terms Administrator The Administrator is any party running a Macintosh computer as server in the Internet, installing and providing a FileMaker database along with FMCGIC. This Manual is adressed to administrators. User User is any party using a computer linked to the Internet, accessing the database provided by the administrator on any remote server through a WWW Browser. FMCGIC Manual Page 1 Tue, Nov 22, 2022 1. Introduction FMCGIC is a CGI application (complying with the Common Gateway Interface standard) for Macintosh computers allowing communication between a HTTP Server and FileMaker database program. Using FMCGIC the HTTP Server administrator will be able to display HTML pages in the Internet that are created dynamically by the user's request to the database. After FMCGIC is installed, Internet Users will be able to retrieve information from any database offered on the server through a WWW Browser. FMCGIC features: • Fast—only 1 second average duration for complete database requests • Universal—FMCGIC works with any FileMaker database, also with multiple databases simultanously • Adaptable—multiple page layouts for the pages created by FMCGIC can be defined • User friendly—the user can limit the number of records shown per page. If more records are found, a "Next xx records" link occurs automatically. • Compact—FMCGIC requires 250K memory and 48K disk space (PPC: 384K resp. 64K) FMCGIC was tested with the MacHTTP 2.2 server software. It may work with other servers, but this has not been tested to date. FMCGIC comes in versions for both 68K and PPC Macintoshes. FMCGIC was compiled with Metrowerks CodeWarrior 7 using Grants Framework and AEGizmos (great tools). FMCGIC works similarly to Russell Owen's FileMaker CGI, also a well designed CGI — though owing to its AppleScript nature far too slow for acceptable reply times. A complete database request using AppleScript took 10 to 15 seconds on a Centris 660AV but only one second using FMCGIC. Technically speaking, FMCGIC handles requests originating from a HTTP Server and generates reply pages resulting in HTML text. The current Version of FMCGIC handles three types of server requests, called 'actions'. The first two actions are requests to FileMaker, described in the following chapter 2, "Database Requests". Appendix A, "Administrator Access" deals with the third action. FMCGIC Manual Page 2 Tue, Nov 22, 2022 2. Database Requests A complete database request and FMCGIC's role works a…