Working with web viewers on layouts

Contents > Creating and managing layouts and reports > Working with web viewers on layouts

Working with web viewers on layouts

Use web viewers to display web pages directly in a FileMaker Pro layout. Web viewers are layout objects that allow you to display information from websites based on data in your database. For example, a web viewer can calculate a URL for a map website based on information in your database's address and city fields. As you browse each record in your database, the web viewer displays a map of the location specified in the current record.

To make it easier for you to create web viewers, FileMaker Pro includes templates for several data-driven websites. When you use one of these templates, you only need to specify the parameters used by the website. You can also create a custom web address for any website.

Web viewers use the operating system's web browser technology, so you can perform many of the same tasks with web viewers that you can with web browsers. You can click links and navigate to pages other than the page the web viewer originally loaded. Web viewers can also display content on websites — such as PDF documents and QuickTime movies — for which you may need to install additional software.

Web viewers are not meant to replace web browsers. For some websites, you may need to open a separate web browser window.

To see examples of web viewers in action, open the Web Viewer Example.fp7 database in the \English Extras\Examples folder where FileMaker Pro is installed. Note that you must have an Internet connection to use this database.

For more ideas on how to use web viewers, see http://www.filemaker.com/support/technologies.

Note Web viewers aren't supported in versions of FileMaker Pro prior to FileMaker Pro 8.5.

More detail about web viewers

Adding a web viewer

Changing a web address

Defining a custom web address

Navigating in web viewers

Troubleshooting layouts with web viewers

Contents > Creating and managing layouts and reports > Working with web viewers on layouts