Voice Calling with FileMaker

Since we released v1 of fmSMS many years ago we’ve been approached by customers from all around the world to work on integrations between FileMaker and other APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). Customers love using FileMaker to send and receive SMS/TXT messages, but they have also asked us to help them send faxes, MMS/Picture messages and to make outgoing voice calls from their FileMaker solution.

We’ve done a number of voice call integrations with FileMaker over the years – having FileMaker initiate a series of outgoing voice calls can be useful in a number of situations, including:

  • Alerts: you might not have mobile phone numbers for all your contacts/customers, but if you have a phone number you can call that number to provide an update to important events (e.g. school closures due to snow days)
  • Election Campaigns: we’ve helped one customer initiate a series of campaign calls to voters about upcoming elections (you may well have been on the receiving end of one of these)
  • Appointment Reminders: we helped one customer move away from having administration staff manually phone each customer about their upcoming appointments and having FileMaker generate these calls, saving them 1-2 hours of staff time each day

The process for generating a voice calling campaign works as follows:

  1. you’ll need to sign up for an account with one of the voice calling providers such as Twilio that handle the voice calling
  2. if you wish to have a dynamically generated message that references data from your FileMaker solution (e.g. to have the voice call say “Hello Andrew” instead of just “Hello”) you’ll need a process on your FileMaker Server than can generate the dynamic message for each contact to be called. We use the FileMaker API for PHP to generate these. If you don’t need a dynamic message you could simply hard code the message so it is the same for all recipients of the voice call
  3. a FileMaker script that is initiated either by a user or FileMaker Server that finds a group of records, then loops through each record and makes a request to the voice calling provider to generate a new outgoing call to that contact
  4. if you wish to be notified of the result of each call you can setup a webhook on your server to be notified by the voice calling provider each time a call is made with the result (engaged, answered etc) and the duration of the call

We’ve put together a simple demonstration video showing this in action – you can watch the video inline below or directly on YouTube:

 

If you would like to discuss integrating voice calling into your FileMaker solution please get in touch.

Mapping our Customers

Databuzz might be based in Sydney, Australia but thanks to the wonder of the Internet we have customers all around the world. Managing a diverse customer base can be a challenge at times and we’ve become experts at time zone differences and knowing when is the best time to schedule a demo for customers in Europe or North America.

We love meeting up with our customers face-to-face at the FileMaker Developer Conference every year – it’s usually the only chance we get to meet our non Australian customers in person. Every 12 months or so I like to generate a simple Google Map showing where our customers are located for our various products – it’s quite pleasing to see the pins grow every year and new locations added to the map.

Our FileMaker Xero integration solution fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) is now into it’s fourth year of development and in that time the number of Xero subscribers has grown exponentially. Xero is now reporting a total customer base of over 862,000 subscribers (up from 284,000 in 2014) and is on track to hit the magic million mark some time in 2017. It’s four main markets remain the same:

  • Australia
  • New Zealand
  • UK
  • North America

but it is now seeing growth in new markets such as South Africa, Hong Kong and Singapore. Australia remains the largest Xero market for now, but we can expect to see North America become the largest market over time. Here’s a map showing where fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) customers are located:

As you can see it also reflects the main Xero markets – we’re starting to see more enquiries from Canada, Asia as well as Africa, so hopefully next time we generate this map there will be some red pins in some new countries as Xero grows in other parts of the world.

fmSMS, our oldest product is a truly international product and was designed from day one to work in as many countries around the world as possible – using fmSMS you can send and receive SMS messages via one of over 75 supported SMS Gateways reaching over 860 mobile networks in more than 220 countries. We continue to add additional SMS Gateways each year and now have customers spread out all over the world – here’s a map showing their locations:

We often speak to FileMaker customers who are considering purchasing one of our products from outside of Australia and are slightly concerned that they will be the only customer from their country and will have trouble getting support. We pride ourselves and providing the same great customer service to all our customers regardless of where they are located – and as these maps demonstrate there’s a good chance you’re not our first customer from your part of the world.

fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) Now Supports Jobs

We’ve just finished an update to fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) which now includes examples for working with Jobs, one of the most requested features from our customers. fmAccounting Link shows you how you can use FileMaker to:

  • download Jobs from MYOB to FileMaker (all Jobs or filtered by Start Date)
  • create Jobs in FileMaker and upload them to MYOB
  • update a single Job from MYOB
  • enter a Job against an Invoice Line Item or a General Journal Item
  • download a Job Budget from MYOB to FileMaker and send an updated version back to MYOB

This is a free update for all existing customers. You can view the full release notes on our version history page. If there are other features you would like to see in the core fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) file please get in touch and let us know.

New fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) Videos

We’ve just uploaded a couple of new videos demonstrating how you can work with Prepayments and Overpayments using fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition). In each video we cover:

  • creating a new Prepayment and Overpayment from a Customer
  • allocating the Prepayment/Overpayment to an Invoice
  • refunding the balance of the Prepayment/Overpayment

You can watch these videos on the Videos page or here are the direct links:

Prepayments in fmAccounting Link

Overpayments in fmAccounting Link

fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) Update

We’ve just released our first update to fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) for 2017 – this release provides an alternative method for handling authentication for some servers that may not parse the Authorization header correctly, as well as making the process of working with Product Variations much easier.

The WooCommerce REST API docs mention that some servers may not parse the Authorization header correctly – we’ve never encountered this during the testing and development of fmEcommerce Link but recently a customer contacted us after having trouble getting started with fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition). Upon further investigation we noticed that were receiving the same error each time they attempted to download data from WooCommerce:

{
 "code": "woocommerce_rest_cannot_view", 
 "data": {
 "status": 401
 }, 
 "message": "Sorry, you cannot list resources."
}

After many hours of frustration we stumbled across the suggestion to switch from using HTTP Basic Auth and implemented a change to test this and had immediate success. We’ve decided to add a toggle that users can switch on/off in case anyone else in the future encounters this issue:

We’ve also made it easier to download, update, create and view Product Variations in the fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) file:

and also show which variations were selected when viewing an Order:

This is a free update to all our existing customers – we have a number of items on the list to add, including Refunds (create a Refund in FileMaker and upload to WooCommerce) and download Reviews. If there’s any examples that we don’t currently have that you would like to see please get in touch and let us know.

North West Sydney FileMaker Developer Meetup Dates for 2017

The dates for the 2017 North West Sydney FileMaker Developer Meetups have been finalised so you can lock these into your diary now:

February 24th (Pennant Hills Bowling Club 12:30pm)

May 26th (Pennant Hills Bowling Club 12:30pm)

August 25th (Pennant Hills Bowling Club 12:30pm)

December 6th Xmas Meetup (Sydney CBD 7pm – location TBD – suggestions welcome)

If you would like to join the mailing list just visit the signup page at:

http://databuzz.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=366d1a87399a120a9d438cb56&id=8bb1fea366

We’ll send our reminders before each meeting – anyone is welcome to attend and no RSVP is required

fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) Updates – my.MYOB Login and General Journals

We’ve been busy working on some updates to fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) over the past few weeks. fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) was a popular item during our recent End Of Year sale and we’ve had some great feedback from customers about features they would like to see in future releases.

We’ve just released an updated version of fmAccounting Link  – v1.0.8. As well as the usual bug fixes we’ve added examples for working with the General Journals API endpoint – you can now download, create and update General Journals from FileMaker using fmAccounting Link. We’ve also added support for users that have linked their MYOB Company File User ID to their my.MYOB login – typically this is set using either of the following dialogs in AccountRight:

We couldn’t find anything about working with linked my.MYOB logins in the API documentation and after raising a ticket with MYOB developer support we were informed about the changes you need to make when working with linked my.MYOB accounts. We’ve added a new checkbox to the MYOB Company screen that allows you to flag that you’ll be using a linked my.MYOB login:

which handles the required changes automatically. For existing customers using older versions of fmAccounting Link you can simply disable a single script step to handle working with linked my.MYOB logins – see our FAQ page for details.

We’ve started working on adding examples for working with the JOBS API endpoint and hope to have this completed in the next few weeks. If there are features you would like to se in the core fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) file please get in touch and let us know. You can view the full release notes on our version history page.

Databuzz releases fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) – Integrate FileMaker Pro and WooCommerce

Sydney, Australia – December 14, 2016 – Databuzz today announced fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition), a FileMaker solution that integrates with the WooCommerce eCommerce platform.

fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) allows you to upload and download data between your FileMaker solution and WooCommerce, the popular plugin for WordPress that powers over 39% of all online stores. fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) removes double data entry and human errors saving your company significant time, money and hassle by automating the exchange of data between FileMaker and WooCommerce.

fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) is completely unlocked allowing you to integrate it into your FileMaker solution. You can copy and paste examples showing you how to authenticate with the WooCommerce API and download Customers, Orders, Products, Coupons and more at the click of a button.

fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) features include:

  • works with FileMaker Pro v12, v13, v14 and v15
  • works with Macintosh and Windows
  • completely unlocked
  • can be hosted by FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Server
  • works with WooCommerce v2.6 or later (HTTPS required)

“Like many of our customers we use FileMaker Pro to run our business and WooCommerce for our eCommerce platform,” said Andrew Duncan, CEO of Databuzz. “We didn’t want to have to manually re-enter Customers and Orders in FileMaker, so we built fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) to streamline our business and now we’re making it available for everyone. With fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) you can push and pull data between FileMaker and WooCommerce at the click of a button.”

fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) includes examples for the following WooCommerce API endpoints:

  • Customers: download and upload Customers
  • Products: download and upload Products
  • Orders: download Orders from WooCommerce (including Order line items)
  • Coupons: download and upload Coupons
  • Tax Rates: download Tax Rates from WooCommerce
  • Tax Classes: download Tax Classes from WooCommerce
  • Categories: download Categories from WooCommerce
  • Attributes: download Product Attributes from WooCommerce
  • Shipping Classes: download Product Shipping Classes from WooCommerce
  • Tags: download Product Tags from WooCommerce

 Availability, Pricing, and Compatibility

fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) is available in a number of licenses: Company, Vertical Solution and Developer. It is available now from the Databuzz website at http://www.databuzz.com.au/fmecommerce-link-woocommerce-edition/. As part of the Databuzz End of Year Xmas Sale all Licenses are 20% until December 31, 2016. Company Licenses start at AUD $495.00. fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) requires FileMaker Pro v12, v13, v14 or v15 and WooCommerce v2.6 or later using HTTPS.

Media/Customer Contact:

Andrew Duncan

Phone: +61 418 468 103

sales@databuzz.com.au

http://www.databuzz.com.au

About Databuzz: Databuzz is a long standing member of the FileMaker Business Alliance. We have been developing and deploying FileMaker solutions for clients in Australia and internationally since 1999. Our clients are individuals, small-medium businesses, government agencies and multi-national corporations. Databuzz was founded by Andrew Duncan, a Certified FileMaker 15 Developer. For more information please visit our website at http://www.databuzz.com.au.

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Databuzz 2016 End of Year Xmas Sale – 20% Off All Licenses

databuzz-xmas-sale-2016

It’s time for the Databuzz End of Year Xmas Sale – All Product Licenses are now 20% Off, including:

The sale runs until the end of the day on the 31st December, 2016 (Australian Eastern Daylight Time).

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 Australia dollar (1 Australian Dollar equals approximately 0.74 US Dollars).

Discounts are applied automatically – no coupons required! Click here to start shopping.

We also have a similar sale on fmSMS Licenses (20% off) – click here to visit the fmSMS website for further details.

fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) Preview Video

Last week we announced the upcoming release of our latest FileMaker integration solution – fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) – and included some screenshots. We’re in the final stages of testing and working on the website product pages etc but I can confirm that v1.0 will have the following features:

  • download Customers, Products, Orders, Tax Rates, Tax Classes, Categories, Attributes, Shipping Classes and Tags from WooCommerce
  • download all Product Details, including Images
  • update existing Customer, Product and Order records from WooCommerce to FileMaker
  • download Orders between 2 dates
  • create/update a Customer record from FileMaker to WooCommerce

Like our other products it will also have these features:

  • will work with FileMaker Pro v12, 13, 14 and 15
  • can be hosted by FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Server
  • works with Macintosh and Windows
  • 100% unlocked for you to integrate into your own FileMaker solution

I’ve put together a short preview video showing fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) in action downloading Products, Orders and Customer data from WooCommerce to FileMaker. You can watch this below or via this link on YouTube: