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Building Effective Web
Portals with Claris FileMaker
Welcome to
presented by

Our Mission
To make organizations more efficient and
effective through digital transformations while
offering superior service and exceptional
expertise.
Who We Are
DB Services is a Claris Platinum Partner and
FileMaker Growth Partner of the Year for 7
consecutive years. We’ve worked with hundreds
of clients large and small to develop efficient,
low-code custom apps.

Presenter
● 6 years at DB Services
● Purdue Graduate at IUPUI
● Avid music listener and record
collector with over 500 in collection
● Learning Japanese as a second
language
About Me
Devin Drake
Senior Technical Consultant

Today’s Agenda
● Self-Service Stats
● Portal Use Cases
● Customer WebDirect Portal
○ Benefits & considerations
○ Demo
● Custom Client Web Portals
○ Benefits & considerations
○ Demo
● Q&A

The Importance of Self-Service
● 81% of customers attempt to take care of themselves before reaching out to a
company representative.
● 67% of customer prefer self-service over speaking to a company representative.
● Increases customer retention, reduces customer calls and resolution time.
● Provide 24/7/365 sales and support tools to your customers.
● Ability to add AI integration tailored to your customers needs.
● Customer portals give market advantage and increases customer retention.
● Increase the value of your organization.
Document 360 - 2025 Data: Key Self-Service Stats Emphasizing Its Importance

Self-Service Portal Use Cases
● Customer self-service portal: view orders status, update account
information, document uploading, submit support tickets, and itinerary
management.
● Internal employee portals such as CRMs, time tracking, project details, and
asset management.
● Field service application for technicians.
● Event registration and management.
● Data collection for customers, employees, vendors, or research
participants.
● Simple reporting for live data and quick insights.

Poll: Are you currently using WebDirect?

Claris FileMaker WebDirect Introduction
● Introduced in FileMaker 13, allows users to access a FileMaker
application via web browsers.
● Utilizes Vaadin web framework to serve your FileMaker
application as HTML pages.
● Often deployed as opposed to installing FileMaker Client.

Claris WebDirect - Requirements
● FileMaker Server Requirements:
○ Web Publishing Engine must be configured and enabled.
■ Java must be installed on the server, which is no longer distributed with FileMaker Server.
○ Claris FileMaker WebDirect must be enabled.
○ Both done in the admin console.
● FileMaker Application Requirements:
○ Must configure FileMaker WebDirect Settings from File > Sharing. This allows you to determine
who has access to the file via WebDirect (All users, users of a specified privilege set, or no users)
● FileMaker Account Requirements:
○ FileMaker accounts must have the fmwebdirect extended privilege active on their privilege set.

Claris FileMaker WebDirect - Beneﬁts
● Easy setup, very minimal requirements that are easy to
conﬁgure beforehand.
● Minimal web development required to get your current FM Pro
application to display on web.
● Low-code and faster development.
● WYSIWYG
● No client installation required.

Building Effective Web Portals with Claris FileMaker

Client WebDirect Portal - Demo

Ready to take your FileMaker application
to the next level with WebDirect?
Schedule a consultation with me!

Claris WebDirect - Considerations
● High compute needs compared to non-WebDirect
deployments.
● Multi machine deployment for larger user bases.
● No source code control.
● Additional licensing may be required.
● There are design considerations as certain things that can be
done for FileMaker Pro cannot be done for FileMaker
WebDirect.

Poll: Does your company currently use a web
portal? (Choose all that apply.)

Custom Client Portal Introduction
● FileMaker Data API was introduced in FileMaker 16, allowing for
data to be brought back and forth to a FileMaker Application
via a restful API. This allows for easier integration with FileMaker
from custom web applications.

Customer Web Portal - Requirements
● Hosting Requirements:
○ Must have your web application hosted and accessible via the web
■ Common services are AWS Amplify, Azure’s App Services, Cloudways’ application
hosting.
○ Utilizes FM Data API in it’s backend.
○ Sensitive data stored in a secrets manager or environment variables.
● FileMaker Server Requirements:
○ Must enable FM Data API on the Admin Console.
○ Must have an SSL certificate installed.
○ Must configure access to allow traffic from the site to get to the server.
● FileMaker Account Requirements:
○ FileMaker accounts must have the fmrest extended privilege active on their privilege set.

Custom Client Portal - Beneﬁts
● Highly customizable, full control on UI/UX and functionality.
● Responsive design ensures smooth UI/UX on any platform.
● Able to leverage a variety of open source technologies.
● Scalable solutions which can grow with your org.
● Integrate with multiple systems.
● Full control and ownership of application.

Custom Client Web Portal - Demo

Ready to take your FileMaker application
to the next level with a custom web app?
Schedule a consultation with me!

Custom Client Portal - Considerations
● Pro-code vs. low-code.
● Higher upfront investment.
● May require additional infrastructure/architecture.

Claris Engage
MARCH 25-26, 2025
(OPTIONAL TRAINING DAY MARCH 27)
DATES
APPLE AUSTIN CONFERENCE CENTER
LOCATION
Register now!

Join Us Next Time
Website
JUNE/JULY 2025
Topic TBD
service@dbservices.com
Email Address
dbservices.com
Interested in consulting on your web app?
Contact us today for a free consultation!

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Building Effective Web Portals with Claris FileMaker

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