Do I need the Filemaker Web Publishing Engine?

[Riverh]

Hi,

I have followed the instructions in the videos and the Quick Start Guide exactly, and I've been poring over this forum and trying all suggestions, but I still can't connect to my databases with FM Studio. 
I've described my setup below.  My question for today, however, is whether or not I need the Web Publishing Engine on Filemaker Server 9 to be running?  It's not running on the server currently, and I can't even get to it's tab in the Filemaker Server Admin Console.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.


I have Dreamweaver CS3 and FMStudio FX on my workstation mac, which is running OS X 10.5.4, and the Filemaker database is hosted from a server on our company network, G4 with OS 10.4.11.  The server has Filemaker Server 9 (not advanced).  I called in before buying FMStudio and was told that Filemaker Server 9 would work.
For a testing server I'm using MAMP on my local computer, and my site is saved in a subfolder under the htdocs folder.  I have personal web sharing turned off under my computer's preferences, so the Apache server included with the operating system isn't involved.  According to phpinfo, I have PHP version 5.2.5, and cURL is enabled.  I know that the testing server is working because I can load all of the pages in my site, including the ones with .php file types, and the serverTest.php page comes up okay.  Unfortunately, serverTest.php always reports Fail at step 4: Attempting to get server version, with HTTP code 404.

[bandmandq]

Yes, if you are going to use FMStudio, which connects to filemaker over the web, you will need the web publishing engine running.  Not sure why the tab is dimmed to start the web publishing engine.

[Genx]

To answer your question... yes you need the Web Publishing Engine on FMServer9 to be running. You will have to deploy it using the FMServer admin console via directions you can find in the installation guide - the guide is either on your CD or in the relevant installation directory...

The communication between your webserver (MAMP sitting on your Mac) and FMServer is indirect. It looks more like this: User Request -> Mac with apache -> FMServer Web Server -> WPE -> FMServer -> WPE -> FMServer Web Server -> Mac With Apache -> Users browser

[Riverh]

Thanks for the info - it's very helpful.  Obviously not being able to start the web publishing engine is a big issue that I will need to take up with Filemaker. 

However, it's strange that none of the videos or instructions available for FMStudio say anything about needing the Web Publishing Engine.  For someone who's not very familiar with the way computers talk to each (like me), that's an important missing step.

[Genx]

Once again, the Web Publishing engine must be configured and / or deployed before you can start it...

[Riverh]

I was able to start the web publishing engine.  I had to go to the main, overview page in the Filemaker Server Admin Console, and at the bottom right corner of the box with the server status, there's a link, Edit Server Deployment.  That takes you to all the options from when the program was first installed, and you can turn on web publishing and php and all that good stuff.