Conceptual Overview

Web Services Manager exposes your FileMaker scripts as SOAP Web Services. You use a FileMaker-based control panel to configure which scripts should be exposed, how parameters should be passed to them as input, and which fields will be returned as the output.

Once you have installed and configured Web Services Manager, any SOAP compatible software (such as Java, .NET, PHP, Ruby, Python, C++, or FileMaker itself using the Nexus Web Services plugin - http://www.fmnexus.com/products/webservices/ ) will be able to trigger FileMaker scripts without having to know anything about FileMaker Pro. The SOAP Web Services published by the Web Services Manager are indistinguishable from any other SOAP server.

Web Services Manager is designed with performance and scalability in mind. It triggers scripts by communicating directly with the FileMaker Web Publishing XML gateway, bypassing intermediary layers such as the FileMaker PHP API or FX.PHP. Because of this, there is no maximum limit on the number of records that can be returned by the FileMaker script.

System Requirements

• You must be running FileMaker Server or Server Advanced with version 9 or later.
• The Web Publishing Engine must be enabled

Installation

1. Deploy the 'Web Services Manager.fp7' (or Web Services Manager.fmp12) and 'WSM Examples.fp7' (or WSM Examples.fmp12) files onto your FileMaker Server, as you would any normal FileMaker database.
2. Open the database 'Web Services Manager' as a guest of the FileMaker Server. The username and password are user/pass. You will need to change the password to something else; be sure to keep a record of the new password.
3. After you change the password, edit the 'websvcmgr.php' file and change line 10 of that file to reflect the new password.
4. Copy the 'websvcmgr.php' file into your Web Server document root, where you would normally put PHP files for use with the Web Publishing.
   • On OS X, this is '/Library/FileMaker Server/HTTPServer/htdocs' for FileMaker Server 13 or later, and '/Library/WebServer/Documents' for older versions.
   • On Windows, this is 'C:\Program Files\FileMaker\FileMaker Server\HTTPServer\conf' for FileMaker Server 13 or later, or 'C:\Inetpub\wwwroot' for older version.
5. Be sure that any databases you use for web service publishing have the fmxml and fmphp extended privileges enabled.

Upgrading Web Services Manager

1. Open the 'Web Services Manager.fp7' in FileMaker Pro on your own computer. Log in with 'user' / 'pass'
2. Change the password to whatever password you have set up for Web Services Manger on your server.
3. Select the 'Import' button on the dialog that comes up, and fill out the address of the server where Web Services Manager is currently running, the username (always 'user'), and password.
4. After a few seconds, you should get an 'Import/Update successful' message. It is now safe to close the Web Services Manager file on your server (be sure to keep a backup copy!) and replace it with the files on your desktop that you just imported into.

Follow the steps in the 'Getting Started' tab to start using Web Services Manager. Start with the section 'Required configuration'.