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Troi URL 1.0 [MacUser]
COMPANY: Troi Automatisering	PRICE: $59 25 or more copies $39 per user
RATING:	ISSUE: 18 24 DATE: Nov 02

Verdict: Troi URL 1.0 allows you to 'talk' to Web sites directly from within FileMaker, without the need for a browser

Troi URL 1.0 allows you to 'talk' to Web sites directly from within FileMaker, without the need for a browser. It enables you to both receive and send information to the Web via both http and https requests.

Along with the usual registration commands, Troi URL provides some external functions, accessible from calculation dialogs. The first two, TURL-Get and TURL-Post, retrieve Web pages using the Get and Post methods for submitting information to a specified URL. The pages are returned in plain text, so you see what the Web browser would: pure HTML.

To make this process easier, the documentation and excellent demo files take you through it, and the demo files include a set of scripts for cleaning up HTML tags from the result. However, this is done through the use of existing built-in functionality,

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and not through any plug-in implementation of regular search expressions, which would have been a very nice touch.

One function supplied is TURL-ToHTTP, which is similar to the Web-ToHTTP function included in FileMaker's Web companion. Since Web-ToHTTP is often unavailable, it's a welcome feature for simplifying the creation of calculated URLs.

Under Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X you can submit requests using both http and secure https requests. TURL-SetUserName and TURL-SetPassword, allow you to provide ID information to secure Web domains. Using TURL-SetUserAgent, you can fool sites that show different pages depending on the browser, by making it appear as though a real browser, for example Internet Explorer 5, is making the request.

There are flaws with this plug-in, mainly because of existing restrictions within FileMaker. The limit on text fields means that resulting HTML pages can be no longer than 64,000 characters, while URLs are limited to 32,867. Cookies aren't directly supported, and cross-platform wise, https is not fully supported and there's no dialog. Although it's possible to retrieve Web pages via AppleScript, Troi URL may still be the best bet for a cross-platform solution.

Price: Single user licence $59, 25 or more copies $39 per user, 100 or more copies $19 per user, Developer Distribution licence single platform $229, both platforms $399

By Richard Dyce