Wednesday, June 11, 1997

Web For Thee?

Editor's NOTE: This is a moldie oldie that I pulled from a text dump archive. None of the links will work anymore (or 99% won't) - but the names and companies have NOT changed.

Unless you've been living in a cave for the past year (and you haven't, since you've found THIS page!) you've probably run into web sites that were powered by FileMaker Pro.

Yes, yes, yes, I know... this one is not (yet!).

Anyway, now Claris has a Powered By FileMaker Pro site (that we created for them) that itself is powered by FileMaker Pro.

You can search for sites, link to them, and learn all the "dirty little secrets" about each site - such as number of hits, CGI they use, type of server, hardware configurations, the works.

Now, this is really neato! Can you imagine how powerful you web site/intranet/extranet would be if you could simply use the data that already exists in your database(s)? Yes, I'm sure you can.

Would it save you time? Yes. Would it save you money? Yes. It is fairly easy to do? Yes. Why then, doesn't every user of FileMaker Pro have their sites/intranets/extranets powered by FileMaker Pro?

Ummmm - here's some of the reasons people have shared with us over the past month or so:

  • Can serve on Macintosh only

  • Maintaining a server is a hassle

  • Don't have enough bandwidth

  • Don't want to buy a dedicated (Mac) server

  • Company "standardized" on Windows

  • What's a Web Server?

  • Many more excuses... (MINE included)

For those of us folks with a great excuse NOT to create a Powered By FileMaker Pro site/intranet/extranet - check out those companies (big and small) that DID take the plunge:

  • 20th Century Fox

  • American Computer Exchange

  • Numerous Big-Time and Ivy League Colleges

  • DuPont (Confidential Intranet)

  • Lockheed Martin

  • And many, many, more

If you don't want to go through the hassles of having your own full-time connection to the Net, and/or don't want to maintain a server, and/or don't want the basic "hassles" - use an ISP who does.

There are a number of ISPs that will host your FileMaker files using a variety of CGIs (i.e. Lasso, WEB FM, and Tango) - who will do all the maintenance, keep the network up and going, and handle all the "yucky" stuff. Best of all - pricing starts at about $50 per month.

How do you find them? Simply scoot on over to your favorite search engine - where you'll find your entry into dynamically created pages, personalized pages, up-to-the-minute information and more - are just a few clicks away.

P.S. Yes, we ARE working on getting THIS site "wired" - watch this space!

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