If you use FileMaker 10 Server Advanced, having Instant Web Publishing (IWP) is a very fast solution to getting your database on the internet. However, there are certain unlisted criteria that must be cleared for online access to work. When creating a FileMaker Pro layout that needs to be displayed in IWP, if 2 portals are sitting side-by-side such that the fields in 1 portal entirely overlap the fields in the other on the horizontal axis, then issues will occur upon selecting any field on that layout in IWP.

The page will attempt to load but nothing will happen and the FM Web Publishing process will start taking up 90+% of the system resources (this must be manually stopped, e.g. through the Activity Monitor on a Mac). In addition, FileMaker’s file hosting is rendered inoperable afterwards. After about a minute from when the browser accessing the file is closed and the FM Web Publishing process is stopped, the client lock on the file disappears.

At this point, on a client, FMP must be restarted in order to re-enable remote access. On a server, internet services must be restarted. After the restarts, everything will be functioning correctly again.

So to avoid this issue, never leave 2 portals side-by-side horizontally on an IWP layout; place them top-bottom instead. Or if you must have a portal on the left and another on the right, position the portal fields so that that they don’t cross the same horizontal axis.

Other issues in IWP also stem from having portals next to fields from related tables on both horizontal and vertical axes. In these positions, there’s thankfully no crash. Instead, certain portal fields that have been marked as enterable in the field behavior instead become inaccessible. It’s sometimes difficult to see which related field is giving the portal trouble but with some re-positioning, it’ll become clear. Once there aren’t any obstacles, the portal field at issue will immediately be accessible again.

Basically, IWP functionality must be treated as a non-trivial project and can’t be assumed to immediately work for all but the simplest databases. Always be sure to test your IWP layouts by making sure each field that should be accessible is in fact available.