Archive for category: Databuzz

Databuzz 2025 End of Year Xmas Sale – 20% Off All Licenses

/0 Comments/in , /by

The Databuzz End of Year Xmas Sale is now on. We only have one sale each year and for the next 2 weeks you can save 20% on all Product Licenses including:

Use the coupon XMAS2025 at checkout on any purchase and the 20% discount will be applied to your order (excludes Maintenance products). The sale runs until the end of the day on December 31, 2025 (Australian Eastern Daylight Time). Click here to start shopping.

Free trial versions are available for all of our products. You can also get 20% off our custom integration services if you need assistance with integrating one of our products into your existing Claris FileMaker solution.

All our prices are in Australian dollars – if you’re purchasing from outside of Australia you’ll also get to take advantage of the low Australian dollar.

Databuzz 2024 End of Year Xmas Sale – 20% Off All Licenses

/0 Comments/in , /by

The Databuzz End of Year Xmas Sale is now on. We only have one sale each year and for the next 2 weeks you can save 20% on all Product Licenses including:

Use the coupon XMAS2024 at checkout on any purchase and the 20% discount will be applied to your order (excludes Maintenance products). The sale runs until the end of the day on December 31, 2024 (Australian Eastern Daylight Time). Click here to start shopping.

Free trial versions are available for all of our products. You can also get 20% off our custom integration services if you need assistance with integrating one of our products into your existing Claris FileMaker solution.

All our prices are in Australian dollars – if you’re purchasing from outside of Australia you’ll also get to take advantage of the low Australian dollar.

Databuzz 2023 End of Year Xmas Sale – 20% Off All Licenses

/0 Comments/in , /by

The Databuzz End of Year Xmas Sale is now on. We only have one sale each year and for the next 2 weeks you can save 20% on all Product Licenses including:

Use the coupon XMAS2023 at checkout on any purchase and the 20% discount will be applied to your order. The sale runs until the end of the day on December 31, 2023 (Australian Eastern Daylight Time). Click here to start shopping.

Free trial versions are available for all of our products. You can also get 20% off our custom integration services if you need assistance with integrating one of our products into your existing Claris FileMaker solution.

All our prices are in Australian dollars – if you’re purchasing from outside of Australia you’ll also get to take advantage of the low Australian dollar.

Databuzz 2022 End of Year Xmas Sale – 20% Off All Licenses

/0 Comments/in , /by

The Databuzz End of Year Xmas Sale is now on. We only have one sale each year and for the next 2 weeks you can save 20% on all Product Licenses including:

Use the coupon XMAS2022 at checkout on any purchase and the 20% discount will be applied to your order. The sale runs until the end of the day on December 31, 2022 (Australian Eastern Daylight Time). Click here to start shopping.

Free trial versions are available for all of our products. You can also get 20% off our custom integration services if you need assistance with integrating one of our products into your existing Claris FileMaker solution.

All our prices are in Australian dollars – if you’re purchasing from outside of Australia you’ll also get to take advantage of the low Australian dollar.

AutoEnter Live Logo

Join us at the AutoEnter Live 2022 Virtual Conference

/0 Comments/in , , /by

We’re pleased to announced that Databuzz will be a sponsor at the upcoming AutoEnter Live: a 2-day virtual conference for the Claris Community on July 19 & 20. This event is free to attend and is being hosted by Proof+Geist and Soliant Consulting. You can get more information and register for free on the AutoEnter Live website. With Claris Engage 2022 unfortunately cancelled for the third year in a row due to the pandemic this should be the biggest virtual Claris conference of the year.

This is our first time exhibiting at a virtual conference and we’re looking forward to connecting with the Claris developer community again. Unfortunately for us the timezone difference isn’t great for an Australian based business with sessions starting at 1am our local time. I’m currently deciding whether to stay up all night or try and get some sleep and get up early in time for the last Expo break each day. I’m working on some demo recordings for each of our products that we can hopefully show on demand in our virtual exhibitor booth as well as live demos.

The conference schedule is now available with some great speakers and sessions lined up. Claris has also recently joined as a sponsor and will also have a virtual booth as well as providing speakers for the usual under-the-hood sessions that we would typically see at Claris Engage. We look forward to connecting with you either at our virtual booth or in the Discord chats. If you have anything you would like to see demonstrated please get in touch.

Claris FileMaker Conferences Are Happening Again in 2022

/0 Comments/in , /by

It’s been almost three years since I was last able to attend a Claris/FileMaker conference in person. Databuzz has been exhibiting at the annual FileMaker Developer Conference, now called Claris Engage, since 2013 and I really miss the annual coming together of the Claris FileMaker community from all corners of the globe. With Claris Engage 2022 unfortunately cancelled for the third year in a row due to the pandemic a number of community-led virtual and in-person events are being organised for the Claris Community this year. I can’t wait to re-connect with the community at some of these.

This week the dotfmp conference is underway in Berlin – it’s definitely a conference I would like to attend at some stage in the future.

We’re pleased to announced we’ve signed up as a vendor at the upcoming AutoEnter Live – a 2-day virtual conference for the Claris Community on July 19 & 20. This event is free to attend and is being hosted by Proof+Geist and Soliant Consulting. You can get more information and register for free on the AutoEnter Live website. It should be the biggest virtual Claris conference of the year.

In October another PauseOnError event is happening – FileMaker Summer Camp 2022 – in Georgia, USA. You can get more information on their website here.

Another event scheduled for later this year is EngageU which promises to be the largest European FileMaker conference ever. It is an in-person event in Malmö, Sweden and runs from the 13th – 15th of November 2022. Databuzz is also planning to be an exhibitor at EngageU – that will be out first time as an exhibitor since the last FileMaker Developer Conference in August 2019 and the Claris APC DevCon in October 2019, and our first time exhibiting at a European conference.

Talking FileMaker Integrations on the FileMaker Talk Podcast

/0 Comments/in , , /by

I was recently a guest on the FileMaker Talk Podcast hosted by Matt Petrowsky & Matt Navarre talking about FileMaker integrations and connecting FileMaker to the world of APIs. We discussed how I first started working with APIs and how building solutions for Databuzz have turned into products for other small businesses using the Claris FileMaker Platform. You can listen on your podcast player of choice (search for episode 160) or via this Apple Podcasts link:

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/using-data-apis-with-andrew-duncan-of-databuzz/id294672686?i=1000563563921

Databuzz 2021 End of Year Xmas Sale – 20% Off All Licenses

/0 Comments/in , /by

The Databuzz End of Year Xmas Sale is now on – all Product Licenses are now 20% off, including:

Use the coupon XMAS2021 at checkout on any purchase and the 20% discount will be applied to your order. The sale runs until the end of the day on December 31, 2021 (Australian Eastern Daylight Time). Click here to start shopping. fmSMS licenses can be purchased from the fmSMS website.

Free trial versions are available for all of our products – please contact us to request a trial version.

All our prices are in Australian dollars – if you’re purchasing from outside of Australia you’ll also get to take advantage of the low Australian dollar (1 Australian Dollar equals approximately 0.72 US Dollars).

Using AppleScript to Automate Business Workflows

/2 Comments/in , , /by

I was surprised recently to see an announcement about an updated version of the ebook FileMaker Pro Scripting Book with AppleScript (English Edition) and also pleased that others are still using the combination of FileMaker Pro and AppleScript to automated tasks using software that has been around for several decades.

AppleScript is the scripting language created by Apple that lets you directly control Mac apps using instructions written in an English-like scripting language. It was first introduced in 1993 when System 7 was the current macOS operating system. In 1995 Claris (still in its first incarnation under the Claris brand name) released FileMaker Pro v3 which included the Perform AppleScript script step which allowed you to call AppleScript commands from a running FileMaker script.

I’ve drifted in and out of AppleScript development over the years but recently turned to it as a way of automating some repetitive tasks as part of the process of releasing updates to our suite of FileMaker integration solutions. Every time we release an update to a product we have to perform a number of steps which include:

  • making a copy of the master development files
  • opening the new copy and performing a FileMaker script to clear out any test data
  • setting the File Options to use a default login
  • create a .zip file of the new version
  • upload the .zip to our online store via FTP

We also release an updated trial version at the same time which includes the above steps but also some additional steps that involve the FileMaker Pro Developer Utilities to remove admin access to the files.

We were performing each of these tasks manually and sometimes we would get distracted and forget to perform a step or perform the steps in the wrong order and then have to start all over again. The process was very much prone to human error. I wrote last year about how you should Automate What You Hate and this was definitely something I avoided and did not enjoy. After thinking about how I could automate all or parts of this process I knew AppleScript would be the most likely candidate.

For a few months in my spare time I had been developing a FileMaker solution to manage these tasks and automate them but hit a brick wall when I realised that my FileMaker Script, which was using the Perform AppleScript script step, couldn’t call FileMaker scripts as part of the AppleScript whilst the FileMaker script was running. It would generate this error:

"FileMaker Pro 19 got an error: No user interaction allowed." number -1713

After several failed attempts to work around this I abandoned the FileMaker solution and resorted to using AppleScript directly and just running the script manually using the Script Editor application which has worked a treat. I use Panic’s Transmit for handing the FTP upload and that has great support for AppleScript. My AppleScript skills were a bit rusty but thanks to Google and a bit of trial and error I was able to get a working script in a matter of hours.

The process now involves a simple double click to run the script and within seconds the AppleScript performs a series of commands using the macOS Finder, FileMaker Pro and Transmit that is free of any human errors. It now makes releasing updates to our products an enjoyable experience and something we are now likely to do more frequently rather than putting this off.

If you’re using Macs in your business and finding yourself manually performing a series of tasks multiple times it is worth investigating whether this can be scripted using AppleScript. It might not be as exiting as modern API integrations but this venerable piece of technology can still help businesses automate repetitive manual tasks that are prone to human error as we have been recently reminded.

Databuzz 2020 End of Year Sale – Last 2 Days

/0 Comments/in , /by

Just a reminder that our End of Year Sale ends in 48 hours. We only have one sale each year and you can save 20% on all Product Licenses until December 31, 2020 (AEDT), including:

Use the coupon XMAS2020 at checkout on any purchase and the 20% discount will be applied to your order. The sale runs until the end of the day on December 31, 2020 (Australian Eastern Daylight Time). Click here to start shopping. fmSMS licenses can be purchased from the fmSMS website.

Free trial versions are available for all of our products – please contact us to request a trial version.

All our prices are in Australian dollars – if you’re purchasing from outside of Australia you’ll also get to take advantage of the low Australian dollar (1 Australian Dollar equals approximately 0.74 US Dollars).