Subtitles of the Movie

In this part two of the movie on FileMaker Server 9, we'll continue with our discussion of what is FileMaker Server, what is FileMaker Server Advanced and why would we want to use either one of them? We've learned that FileMaker Server is a software designed for the safe and reliable hosting of FileMaker Pro files. It can also manage the authentication process for the accounts necessary to access the files and this can occur in lieu of FileMaker Pro file-based authentication. When discussing this, we've got to distinguish very carefully between authentication and privileges. What are the differences in the two? We might have a FileMaker Pro 9 file or a FileMaker Pro 9 Advanced file. Authentication tells us who may access these files, who are valid users of the file or the system. On the other hand, these same files, when we come to discuss privileges, deal with what those valid users may do once they are authenticated and connected. Authentication tells who you are and that you're valid. The privileges tell what you can do or in some instances, what you can not do once you access the files. Accounts can be authenticated by FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Pro Advanced or by FileMaker Server or FileMaker Server Advanced. When using the external accounts on the FileMaker Server, you'll find that it's much easier to manage these all in one place, then in multiple files. You have to enter the account information only once rather than entering it in each of many different files. You can leverage existing IT security assets by using external accounts and you can provide single sign-on capability in the Windows Operating System environment and emulate this to some extent in the Macintosh environment by use of the keychain. Privileges are easily managed with external accounts. If you have some accounts that are on or accessible by FileMaker Server 9, each one of these accounts is in a group. There's a matching group in the FileMaker Pro file and once you're authenticated, you connect to the file based on the matching group and that group is assigned a privilege set. We're all familiar with the privilege sets in FileMaker Pro that contain the rules for what users may do in terms of data access and design and creating and deleting and editing of records, the running of scripts, exporting, printing and a whole host of similar functions, as well as the type of connectivity allowed in the file. So when we look at FileMaker Server 9 and FileMaker Server 9 Advanced, we might ask, what are the differences between the two? In previous versions of FileMaker Servers 7 and 8, all of the Web Publishing and all of the ODBC was in the Advanced version. However, in FileMaker Server 9, several changes were made to this construct. All custom Web Publishing was moved to the standard version. This includes PHP, XML and XML XSLT. In FileMaker Server 9, several items, however, remain the same as they were in prior versions. Instant Web Publishing was retained in FileMaker Server 9 Advanced. If you want to use IWP, you have to use Server 9 Advanced. The ODBC connectivity, where FileMaker is the source of the data, was also retained in the Advanced version. Otherwise, both versions are identical in their features and functionality for hosting files, for making backups, for encryption of data in transit but not of data at rest for the database filtering, which is the challenge to access the server before you can access the file and the external server authentication, which we've just seen. So let's review what we've learned in this movie and the previous one. We've learned about server external authentication and the ease of account management that it provides where you have one instance of the account, rather than having to have it in each file. We've learned that it can leverage IT security assets and provide single sign on in the Windows Operating System environment, a situation that can be emulated on the Macintosh to a degree by use of the keychain. We learned about the differentiation between the two versions of server where Instant Web Publishing and ODBC require FileMaker Server Advanced, otherwise we have the same functionalities in both. More broadly, in these two movies we've discussed what FileMaker Server is and why it should be used, including for the safe and reliable hosting of files, for security and for authentication. two movies we've discussed what FileMaker Server is and why it should be used, including for the safe and reliable hosting of files, for security and for authentication.