Chapter 2: Installation

Installation

  1. Drag the "WEBFM" folder into the root directory of your web server application.

  2. Open the "WEBFM" folder. Locate the plug-in file "WEB·FM 4.0" and drag it into your web server "Plug-ins" folder.

  3. Restart your web server software. You should see "WEB·FM" listed in the status window as a loaded plug-in service. If a message instead says "the plug-in is out of date and cannot be used", you are using an incompatible version of the web server software and should upgrade.

    I M P O R T A N T If you do not have your web server software running, the next steps cannot take place.

  4. Open the database file "pi_admin.fm" (Admin Database). It should open to a "file folder" style screen.

  5. Enter your registration serial number in the serial number field. If you are evaluating WEB·FM and have not purchased it yet, you won't have a serial number.

  6. Click the "Security" tab at the top of the screen and enter an Admin Username and Admin Password for both the "DEFAULT" database and the "PI_ADMIN.FM" database.

    N O T E Normally, the username and password you choose is the same username and password you chose for the web server "pi_admin" security realm.

  7. For PowerPC Web Servers only:
    After you have entered your chosen Admin Username and Admin Password, click the Update button. In the dialog that appears (pictured below), choose your web server application and click OK. WEB·FM will then update the settings file in the "FM Prefs" folder with new preferences. The web server should display a message "The settings have been updated successfully".

    NOTE If the dialog pictured below does not appear, make sure that AppleScript is installed and enabled, and that the scripting addition "Choose Application" exists in the system's Scripting Additions folder.

    For 68K Web Servers only:
    After you have entered your chosen Admin Username and Admin Password, select the "ExportÉ" command from the Script menu. In the dialog that appears (pictured below), save the "WEB·FM Settings" file in the "FM Prefs" folder in the Plug-ins folder, replacing the previous settings file. Restart your web server software.

  8. Close the "pi_admin.fm" database file. This database may remain open and is web enabled for remote administration, but for extra security make sure a security realm for "pi_admin" exists.

Verifying Installation

When installation of WEB·FM is complete, it's a good idea to make sure configuration was successful. To test WEB·FM you must access documents through your web server (http://), not directly from the hard drive (file:///). This means you must have your machine acting as a web server, and you must enter in your web browser a URL location beginning with "http://".

T I P If this is your first time dealing with web server software, read the side bar "Testing Your Forms."

To test installation:

  1. Make sure your machine is running as a server using WebSTAR or another W*API 1.1 compatible Mac OS web server.

  2. In the "EdExpert" folder, open the "EdExpert.fm" database with FileMaker Pro.

  3. Using a web browser (such as Netscape 4.0) access the "EdExpert" example on your machine by entering a URL location similar to:

    http://your.domain.com/webfm/edexpert/

  4. Make a selection from one of the pop-up/pull-down menus and submit the search form. A "hit list" of found records should return with links to more detailed information. The FORM contents submitted by the web browser and received by the web server were used by WEB·FM to query the "EdExpert.fm" database. WEB·FM returned the found set of records as HTML.
Tip If large amounts of garbled text and HTML are returned to the web browser, this means WEB·FM did not load properly and the web server returned the raw database file directly from disk.

TESTING YOUR FORMS

After installation and configuration of WEB·FM, it's wise to make sure installation was successful. To test WEB·FM you'll need to access your FORMs through your web server. Since you also need to have the server software running to complete the installation, this is a good time to read this and follow these instructions.

The most convenient way to test your FORMs is to have your own machine act as a server. One way to do this is to simply launch your server software. On a corporate LAN this is normally very easy. If you use a modem let it connect to your ISP. However, if you are going to spend hours at a time developing and testing, you will tie up your ISP connection long past what is reasonable. The better way to test is to fake your machine into serving itself. An excellent source of information on how to do this is provided by StarNine, authors of WebSTAR, at . Under support, they have a fact sheet entitled, "WebSTAR: Pre-Installation Issues."

Here are the basics: Open the TCP/IP control panel. Go to Configurations, duplicate your configuration, renaming it accordingly and change "Connect" from whatever it is to "AppleTalk (MacIP). "Configure" should change to "Using MacIP Manually". Assign an IP Address of 192.168.0.2 and close TCP/IP. Now when you start your server software it won't try to dial. It will simply accept the IP address as the one you entered. You'll see your IP number selected. If you are not running Open Transport, do the same type of thing in the TCP control panel you have. If you are on Ethernet or such refer to the web server docs or experiment.