We all know that Claris has added significant new capabilities in the last several versions of FileMaker Pro for creating custom web applications, especially with the introduction of the FM Data API in FileMaker 16.

With the recent successful production deployment of a new custom web app project, I thought it would be a good time to write a blog post about a couple of web applications we’ve done for clients utilizing FileMaker Pro as the back end database engine.

One of the first questions we’ve learned to ask about FileMaker driven web applications centers around the kind of traffic expected for the site. Is a light load expected? Someone will fill out a form ten times a day for example. Or is a more heavy load expected? Fifteen people will click a button at the same time in a training environment.

Another important consideration is the mission criticality of the web application. Does the app have to be up 24/7 with essentially no down time, ever? This is rarely a bar that FileMaker applications have to be able to get over and if it applies to your web application then very careful consideration of your server environment is necessary. Alternatively, ways to fault-proof your web application should be strongly considered.

Scalability is a third consideration. Is the likely number of users of the app well known and defined? Or is the number unpredictable and you may have to rapidly scale up the capabilities of your server environment to meet unexpected loads?

The application we most recently deployed is for a long time FileMaker client, CEO Update. We have been integrating FileMaker data with their WordPress site and they asked us to help put together a web application that would pull data from their FileMaker app, based on user queries, and would display the resulting financial data in tabular form with selected data visible in sophisticated interactive charts.

In CEO Update’s case, we decided the possible server loads justified using MySQL as an intermediary between the FileMaker application and the web application. This setup also allowed us to allocate development resources strategically. One of our FileMaker developers wrote the code for keeping the MySQL tables updated from FileMaker, while our web developers wrote the code for the web app. The web developers did not have to know anything about FileMaker in this case and were able to use a very standard development stack.

For the deployment environment, we chose Google Cloud Platform (GCP). In this way, any issues on the client’s network, or with their FileMaker implementation, won’t affect their customers ability to interact with the web application. GCP is designed for hosting and provides all of the key elements needed like scalability, security, and easy to manage control of a web application, including CI/CD.

For contrast, another client that we’ve developed a web application for Dr Snip / The Vasectomy Clinic in Seattle and Portland, does not have the same load requirements. Instead of possibly a thousand or more users per hour, the likely load is lower. For this client, we chose to implement their web form application as a FileMaker BetterForms (FMBF) solution. FM BetterForms simplifies the dev ops setup significantly and connects directly to the FileMaker Server database engine via the FM Data API, eliminating the need for the data push to MySQL.

Quite a bit can be accomplished in FMBF without requiring JavaScript skills. However, the DrSnip app has sophisticated conditional data entry, validation, and multiple pages and did involve a fair amount of custom JavaScript, CSS, and HTML work.

In the end, the data from the patient registration forms feeds directly into the DrSnip FileMaker database, eliminating a lot of duplicate data entry and improving their patient intake workflow significantly.

I think these two examples show the ideal circumstances where FileMaker’s web application capabilities shine – our client’s are able to use FileMaker’s rapid low-code development environment to run their business and take maximum advantage of FileMaker’s low development costs while still being able to create public-facing 100% web-standard compliant web applications where need dictates.

If we can help you increase the versatility and productivity of your Claris FileMaker solution by extending it into the world of standards-based web applications, please send me an email!

You can also join our twice-monthly FileMaker FixIt! Zoom sessions to discuss this topic more in depth, or any other Claris FileMaker items you have in mind.