Filemaker 7 & Leopard

Filemaker cannot share files over the Web because Instant Web Publishing
could not be started".

How do I get rid of this warning everytime I start fmp 7 under Leopard?

Thanks

Re: Filemaker 7 & Leopard

The Wolf wrote:

> Filemaker cannot share files over the Web because Instant Web Publishing
> could not be started".
>
> How do I get rid of this warning everytime I start fmp 7 under Leopard?

You have two choices at present:

(a) Turn off Instant Web Publishing (FileMaker menu > Sharing > Instant
Web Publishing).

(b) Stop using Leopard and revert to Tiger.

It is known that Instant Web Publishing is not compatible with Leopard
in version 8.5 and later, so given your evidence it may not work in 7
either (and by inference, probably doesn't work in any version).

FileMaker Inc. will be fixing it so that it does work in Leopard with
FileMaker Pro 9, but it looks like anyone who is running an older
version and wants to keep using Instant Web Publishing will either have
to pay to upgrade to version 9, or will have to run the database on a
computer with Mac OS X 10.4 or earlier (or in Windows in a virtual
machine under Mac OS X 10.5).

--
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz

Re: Filemaker 7 & Leopard

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Re: Filemaker 7 & Leopard

Martin Trautmann wrote:

> On Tue, 6 Nov 2007 03:08:51 +1300, David Empson wrote:
> > > Filemaker cannot share files over the Web because Instant Web Publishing
> > > could not be started".
> > >
> > > How do I get rid of this warning everytime I start fmp 7 under Leopard?
> >
> > You have two choices at present:
> >
> > (a) Turn off Instant Web Publishing (FileMaker menu > Sharing > Instant
> > Web Publishing).

(Minor error there - Sharing is actually in the File menu, at least for
FMP 9.)

> Why do you need Instand Web Publishing for sharing?

You don't. Instant Web Publishing and FileMaker Network sharing are two
separate protocols.

Instant Web Publishing isn't working with Leoaprd.

FileMaker Network is working fine (at least I haven't heard otherwise).

> It's not a display issue, since it's not much more than a file access via
> the network.

FileMaker Network sharing certainly isn't file access via the network.
The host computer is controlling access to the database file and
supplying or updating information on request by the client computer,
with appropriate protection of records or layouts being modified by
either computer.

If you try to share access to a FileMaker database by using standard
operating system file sharing services, you will corrupt the database
because two copies of FileMaker will be unaware of changes being made by
the other one.

> Leopard does affect proprietary IP transmissions?

No, Leopard has changed something which affects the operation of the
built-in web server in FileMaker Pro which implements Instant Web
Publishing, or FileMaker Pro's interaction with another web server
application which is being used to provide this service (e.g. Apache,
which was upgraded from version 1 to version 2 in Leopard).

--
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz

Re: Filemaker 7 & Leopard

Post removed (X-No-Archive: yes)

Re: Filemaker 7 & Leopard

Martin Trautmann wrote:

> On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 14:14:44 +1300, David Empson wrote:
> > Martin Trautmann wrote:
> > > Why do you need Instand Web Publishing for sharing?
> >
> > You don't. Instant Web Publishing and FileMaker Network sharing are two
> > separate protocols.
>
> Thanks, I did not understand the concept - I do expect either web
> publishing, where data can be fetched via any browser from any web
> server, which may be a Filemaker Database.
>
> "file sharing" meant two Filemaker applications to me, both working on
> the same database file. If I do understand you correctly, this is called
> FileMaker Network sharing and still does work fine.

I haven't tried it myself, but I haven't seen any complaints about it
not working.

> Up to now I learned about Leopards mechanism to sign applications which
> are trusted for network access. Thus I could imagine that this would be
> broken now, if FMP would do a verification of its own app (as does e.g.
> Skype).

This would only be an issue if the Leopard firewall is enabled. I
haven't seen any mention of that being a problem for FileMaker Pro.

> > FileMaker Network sharing certainly isn't file access via the network.
> > The host computer is controlling access to the database file and
> > supplying or updating information on request by the client computer,
> > with appropriate protection of records or layouts being modified by
> > either computer.
>
> Now I'm confused again. Network sharing without network?

Sorry, bad wording. I should have said "... isn't DIRECT file access via
the network."

> sharing does not work as
>
> FMP7a -direct-> .fp7 <-shared- FMP7b
>
> but this way:
>
> .fp7 <-direct- FMP7a <-shared through- FMP7b

Yes, that's correct (the second one).

> Maybe, although it did not feel this way: Whenever I had some most time
> consuming and not responsive FMP job, I still had good access to the
> database via sharing.

The copy of FileMaker Pro which is hosting the database doesn't have to
do a lot of heavy lifting or data processing. It is just delivering or
updating data on request, and enforcing access rules. I expect FileMaker
is multithreaded, and it is able to service requests via its network
protocol even though the local user interface is tied up doing some hard
work.

> Example: long database import to one table, working on another table
>
> > If you try to share access to a FileMaker database by using standard
> > operating system file sharing services, you will corrupt the database
> > because two copies of FileMaker will be unaware of changes being made by
> > the other one.
>
> You will? I guess/hope, it's more a theory, since the first app to use
> should lock the file against other modifications. Usually you will not
> get access, but have to share this file first.

The difficulty is that the file organisation may be too complex for
typical file server protocol locking techniques, which usually operate
on ranges of bytes. If you have to lock large portions of the file, you
won't be able to allow simultaneous access.

FileMaker knows the structure of its own files, so it can implement
intelligent locking mechanisms and ensure the file is updated and
accessed in a consistent manner, no matter which order changes are made.

It also allows better protocols such as fair sharing of access to
resources if there are multiple clients attempting to access locked
resources at the same time. A typical file server locking protocol may
only allow random retrying which would be inefficient and potentially
unfair.

Another factor is that FileMaker probably does it this way on purpose,
so it can enforce licencing restrictions. Trying to implement shared
access to a file via standard protocols could potentially allow an
unlimited number of clients to access the file (poorly).

> > > Leopard does affect proprietary IP transmissions?
> >
> > No, Leopard has changed something which affects the operation of the
> > built-in web server in FileMaker Pro which implements Instant Web
> > Publishing, or FileMaker Pro's interaction with another web server
> > application which is being used to provide this service (e.g. Apache,
> > which was upgraded from version 1 to version 2 in Leopard).
>
> I feel it's not good, but to expect that this may have been broken.

I don't know enough about how Instant Web Publishing is implemented to
be able to explain this further. All I know is that Leopard broke it,
apparently for all versions of FileMaker Pro (though I've only seen
definite confirmation for 8.5 and 9.0, and rumours for earlier
versions).

Other client/server applications seem to be working fine, so I'm at a
loss to explain why FileMaker's web server was so badly affected.

It might be something as simple as it was using a framework which was
implemented in older versions of Mac OS X, deprecated in Tiger and which
is no longer available in Leopard (or which has changed significantly).
If so, this is the sort of thing which Apple _might_ fix with a Leopard
update, but don't count on it.

--
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz

Re: Filemaker 7 & Leopard

Martin Trautmann wrote:

>
>> If you try to share access to a FileMaker database by using standard
>> operating system file sharing services, you will corrupt the database
>> because two copies of FileMaker will be unaware of changes being made by
>> the other one.
>
> You will? I guess/hope, it's more a theory, since the first app to use
> should lock the file against other modifications. Usually you will not
> get access, but have to share this file first.
>


ABSOLUTELY do NOT use system file sharing to share FileMaker files. It
is not a theory it is FM dogma/mantra/mandatory practice/in the FM guides.