How do I share my database

Questions
1

I keep building databases to track things I am interested in and want to share them with the community but I struggle with how to do this. I know some of the options like web direct, exporting and importing, etc. But I am hoping there is another options out there.

Currently I have done a mix depending on the data and size of the audience. I have tried web direct on some, I have posted screenshots, uploaded data to google maps, remote access from FileMaker go. I know below I say I want free but if the paid service was good enough or had the right plan I would consider paying.

Criteria

  • Must be free I am doing this for fun not work

  • Updates should be automated. Again this is for fun not work. I want my cake and eat it too.

  • Would love to keep some of the same dynamics of a database. Searching filtering etc.

Some examples of databases I would like to share.

  • I am following Pantheon Rise of the Fallen and I have made a databases that tracks a couple things like location of pledges, total pledges, games pledged players liked in the past, etc.

  • I invested in KCS an exchange token for KuCoin and made a database that tracks the Bonus they pay out to KCS holders and the variables that effect how much the bonus is.

  • Empires & Puzzles. I know I know it is a crappy pay to win phone game. This one has all the heroes and maps and more.

2

All of the cool sharing is done with FMS and that's a commercial product. The cheapest way in is probably a Cloud account.

Github and Bitbucket provide a lot of services, including web sites. Some very cool things are being done there, and you get it for free if you allow your code base to be public. FMP will output your data in any shape you like, especially if you export XML with XSLT processing. Top of mind is exporting compact data to JSON for consumption by javaScript. Also, generating marked up text into HTML.

3

I do have FMS but I am not using the cloud services it is all local. Are you aware of any guides or articles that would help me learn more about these options? If I switch to the cloud will I really have better options?

I wonder how much of my frustration is my own technical limitations. I have done some test in XML exports for example and while it worked I would have been unable to complete it without a lot of trial and error. JSON is amazing but for some reason I still really struggle with it. I find this extra frustrating as it seems like it should be easy but my brain just seems to just not want to learn JSON. I have not looked into marked up text into HTML yet.

4

Well if you have FMS then you have the capacity to do sharing via FMP, WebDirect, Go, xDBC and any of the API, either oData or the Data API.

Claris FileMaker Cloud (CFMC) is a FMS running on linux hosted in the cloud. You won't have better options than hosting FMS yourself. You'll have the same options for publishing, and less options for server management. It's in the cloud and the cost at entry level is not much more than the licensing for FMS.

WebDirect gives you almost exactly the same app experience as you get in FMP. I think it's amazing but the use case for it is constrained. It's not high volume solution, but if you have a small team it can be a complete solution.

All of the other options require you to play Mr Potato Head with your data. If you have some PHP, Python, Javascript skills you can get your data online easily using the API to talk directly to the server.

You can also use export options of FMS to generate data sets - or even fully configured output. This is a static method, because the data is no longer live, but has a lot of uses. I suggested using JSON because it's so commonly used in web apps. JSON straightforward, you probably just need to do a project with it to get some muscle memory. CSV, Tab, Excel are all common data formats that other programs will consume.

Formatting exported XML with XSLT is mind-bending. You can do anything with it. Beverly Voth's book FileMaker Pro 6 Developers Guide to XML/XSL is still a great introduction. Here's a link to an article she wrote to export via XML/XSLT to Excel.

3 Likes
5

Thank you for the detailed responses. You have given me a better understanding of my options and some that I need to read up on more.