The Claris APAC DevCon for 2019 is on in two weeks at the International Convention Centre in Sydney from 30-31 October. We’re excited to announce that Databuzz will be a conference sponsor this year and I will also be giving a talk on Webhooks and FileMaker.
The APAC DevCon is the largest FileMaker gathering in Asia Pacific and Claris have put together a great program with speakers from all around the world, including new Claris CEO Brad Freitag who will kick off 2019 APAC DevCon with an update of the Claris Business. There will also be a session covering Claris Connect that was recently announced at the US FileMaker DevCon which will be very popular.
You can view the full program and register at the APAC DevCon website – the cost for is only AUD $199 which includes 2 full days of sessions, morning/afternoon tea and catered lunch.
You can catch the Databuzz Vendor Session on Day One at 4pm and my talk on Webhooks – The ABC of Webhooks – is on Day Two at 2.15pm.
If you’re coming to the conference please stop by and say hello. We’d love to demonstrate how you can send and receive SMS/TXT messages using the FileMaker platform and integrate with Xero, WooCommerce, Shopify, DocuSign and more.
The 24th annual FileMaker Developer Conference (DevCon) was held this month in Orlando, Florida and there were some big announcements at the conference. Most attendees picked up on the absence of any FileMaker branding around the conference which led to much discussion about what might be coming in the opening keynote.
In his first opening keynote new FileMaker CEO Brad Freitag shared the vision for the FileMaker ecosystem, reiterating previous statements about the Workplace Innovation Platform and the role of problem solvers within that. Back in March when Brad was announced as the new CEO of FileMaker he said:
Last year, we introduced the Workplace Innovation Platform category. We are accelerating our strategy and will continue to invest in our brand to drive this forward, including considering potential acquisitions
The mention of potential acquisitions caught my attention at the time and in his keynote Brad announced that FileMaker had completed its first acquisition: Stamplay, an Italian company based in Rome that created a sophisticated enterprise platform that provides connectors for 150 cloud services. Stamplay is being renamed as Claris Connect and will allow customers to easily build workflows that connect the cloud services that they use every day, including Dropbox, Slack, Salesforce and more.
Brad then discussed the FileMaker brand and the need to improve the brand, whilst keeping FileMaker as a product in the new multi product company. They had been working with a branding specialist to come up with a new name for the company and that process ultimately saw them turn to their previous company name: Claris. Claris International Inc is the new name for the company – the FileMaker name won’t be going away as that will still be the product name under the Claris umbrella alongside Claris Connect (and other possible additions to the product line in the future).
Many of you will remember Claris from the 1980s and 1990s when they were a multi product company before a restructure in 1998 by Apple saw the company renamed to FileMaker, Inc. as they focussed on the FileMaker product line. You can watch Brad’s Opening Keynote on YouTube and read his welcome message on the FileMaker blog where he discusses these changes in more detail and talks about the goals and visions, including growing the Claris community from 50,000 to 150,000 developers in the coming years.
The following day saw the Product Visionary Keynote where we saw demonstrations of future products by the FileMaker product management team – this is also available to watch on YouTube. I would highly recommend taking the time to watch these and digest the changes that are coming to the company and the product line over the next 12 months. As well as the usual preview of new features coming to the FileMaker Platform we now have a new product to be released in 2020 as well (Claris Connect). You can read more about the future of the Claris Platform in this blog article by Srini Gurrapu, VP, Products & Design at Claris and the rebranding of FileMaker to Claris in this article by Ann Monroe, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Customer Success at Claris.
I spent the rest of the conference at the Databuzz booth demonstrating our integration solutions to attendees – our DocuSign, Xero, and eCommerce solutions for WooCommerce and Shopify were particularly popular. We also launched a new version of our oldest product – fmSMS – at the conference which has been updated to run natively on the FileMaker Platform, and support the Data API for message replies and also the Twilio API for WhatsApp. You can get all the details about v4 of fmSMS here.
We were honoured to be finalists in the annual FileMaker Business Alliance Excellence awards in the Product Innovation category and would like to congratulate all the winners.
The final announcement of DevCon 2019 was that next year’s conference will be held in Nashville, Tennessee and will now be called Claris Engage.
I look forward to catching up again next year at Claris Engage from August 3-6, 2020 at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee. FileMaker Claris have posted a short DevCon 2019 Recap Video (see if you can spot me!) as well as their Introducing Claris video. Here’s some photos I took during the conference:
Now that the FileMaker Admin API is a standard feature in FileMaker Cloud for AWS 1.18 and FileMaker Server 18 and no longer a trial* I’ve been incorporating certain parts of the Admin API into client solutions. For example it is often helpful to see how many users are logged into your solution and get a list of their Account Names without having to use the Admin Console, or provide non admin users with access to the Admin Console.
I recently encountered an issue when calling the List Clients endpoint to see who was currently connected to a particular FileMaker solution. It was generating a 1627 error (Authentication failed) when performing the Insert from URL script step. This was strange as the same script had been working successfully earlier in the day and in previous days. I double checked the credentials for the server that were being used in the API request and they were correct, and verified these by logging into the Admin Console.
I was a bit puzzled at this stage and ran through the script once more with the Script Debugger. I was saving the response from the Insert from URL script step into a local variable, and upon further examination I noticed this was recording the following response from the Admin API:
{ "response": {}, "messages": [ { "code": "956", "text": "Maximum number of Admin API sessions exceeded" } ] }
There were no other Admin API sessions in use at this point – the Admin Console wasn’t being used – which further confused things. Logging in to the Admin Console again I could see that the list of connected clients wasn’t correct. If you’ve been using the FileMaker Server Admin Console for a few years now you’re probably familiar with this situation and the need to periodically restart the Admin Server via the following command line interface command:
fmsadmin restart adminserver
Once the Admin Server had restarted I tried the Admin API request to list the currently connected clients and it was successfully this time, so the authentication error was misleading in this case. If you encounter this error and you’ve verified the credentials are correct I would just go and restart the Admin Server on the FileMaker Server using the command line option above.
* the FileMaker Admin API was a trial feature in FileMaker Cloud 1.17 and FileMaker Server 17 and that trial period will expire on September 27, 2019 after which the API will cease to operate
https://www.databuzz.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/databuzz-logo-small-300x88.png00Andrew Duncanhttps://www.databuzz.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/databuzz-logo-small-300x88.pngAndrew Duncan2019-08-26 07:53:292019-08-26 07:57:17FileMaker Admin API Authentication Issue
Orlando, Florida – August 06, 2019 – Databuzz today announced fmSMS v4, an upgrade to their award-winning solution that lets you send and receive SMS/TXT messages from the FileMaker Platform.
fmSMS allows you to send an SMS from the FileMaker Platform to almost any mobile phone in the world via one of the supported SMS Gateways, reaching over 1,000 mobile networks in more than 220 countries. SMS is a great means of direct communication with customers, staff, suppliers, and students.
fmSMS v4 was rewritten for the FileMaker 18 Platform and includes support for sending messages from FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Go, FileMaker WebDirect, FileMaker Server and FileMaker Cloud for AWS. Databuzz will be demonstrating fmSMS v4 at the 2019 FileMaker Developer Conference, to be held in Orlando, Florida from August 5-8.
What’s New in v4
rewritten for FileMaker Pro v18
runs natively on FileMaker v16 or later and no longer requires a FileMaker plug-in
updated to support the latest API for each supported SMS Gateway
simplified the setup to make integration into existing solutions much faster
added support for receiving messages using the FileMaker Data API using FileMaker Server or FileMaker Cloud for AWS*
Send Messages to WhatsApp Users using the Twilio API for WhatsApp
SMS is perfect for appointment reminders, phone messages, promotions, segmented marketing, school absence alerts, and password confirmations. With SMS you can reduce your costs and play less “telephone tag”.
fmSMS works with multiple SMS Gateway providers internationally and supports the following features**:
Send single and bulk SMS messages (messages are typically delivered in under 15 seconds)
Send long messages (greater than 160 characters)
2 Way SMS – allow recipients to reply to messages and have them appear in fmSMS
Works with over 50 SMS Gateway providers internationally
Delayed Delivery – send a message now for delivery at a future time
Alphanumeric Sender ID
Delivery Receipts – track the status of sent messages
Message Logging – track the history of all sent messages
Message templates – create an unlimited number of pro forma templates
Send Messages to WhatsApp Users using the Twilio API for WhatsApp
“fmSMS now runs natively on the FileMaker Platform and is even easier to integrate,” said Andrew Duncan, CEO of Databuzz. “We’ve added support for receiving incoming messages for the FileMaker Data API and FileMaker Cloud for AWS and you can now send messages to WhatsApp users using the Twilio API for WhatsApp.”
Availability, Pricing, and Compatibility fmSMS v4 is available now from the fmSMS website at https://www.fmsms.com. A 14 day trial version is available for both Macintosh and Windows. Company Licenses start at AUD $495.00. fmSMS requires FileMaker 16 Platform or later.
Upgrade Information fmSMS v4 is a free upgrade for owners of fmSMS v3 who purchased a license on or after January 01, 2019. All other owners of fmSMS v2 or later can upgrade for 50% off the current price – please contact Databuzz to obtain a discount coupon to use when purchasing fmSMS v4.
requires hosting of supplied PHP files to process the incoming messages
** Not all SMS Gateways support all features of fmSMS. Some features might incur additional charges by your selected SMS Gateway. Some features require hosting by FileMaker Server with Custom Web Publishing using the PHP API and a static IP address, or a web server running PHP for FileMaker Cloud for AWS. See our website at https://www.fmsms.com for more details.
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 18 Developer. For more information please visit our website at https://www.databuzz.com.au.
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FileMaker is a trademark of FileMaker, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
https://www.databuzz.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/databuzz-logo-small-300x88.png00Andrew Duncanhttps://www.databuzz.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/databuzz-logo-small-300x88.pngAndrew Duncan2019-08-06 21:14:552019-08-06 21:15:04Databuzz releases fmSMS v4 – Rewritten for the FileMaker 18 Platform
We’re pleased to announce that you can now create Order Fulfillments in Shopify in the latest release of fmEcommerce Link (Shopify Edition). We’ve added the ability to create a Fulfillment record in fmEcommerce Link for one or more Order Items in v1.4 which was released today:
You can enter the Tracking Company (select from a list of known Tracking Companies), Tracking Number and optional Tracking URL and select the Location that the Fulfillment will ship from. Clicking the Upload to Shopify button on this window will create a new Fulfillment in Shopify or update an existing one if you’re making a change to a previously uploaded Fulfillment.
The Fulfillment will be created in Shopify and save you from having to update Orders in both Shopify and FileMaker when it comes to managing Order Fulfillments:
Once again this is a this free update to all our existing customers who can download this version from the link on your original order email (contact us if you need the link to be reset etc). Here’s a video that demonstrates uploading an Order Fulfillment from fmEcommerce Link (Shopify Edition) – you can also watch it on YouTube here:
https://www.databuzz.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/databuzz-logo-small-300x88.png00Andrew Duncanhttps://www.databuzz.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/databuzz-logo-small-300x88.pngAndrew Duncan2019-07-31 01:51:492019-07-31 02:04:32Create Order Fulfillments in Shopify with fmEcommerce Link (Shopify Edition)
Databuzz is pleased to announce that Andrew Duncan recently passed the Developer Essentials for FileMaker 18 Certification Exam and is now FileMaker Certified in v8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. FileMaker 18 Certification is the official credential offered by FileMaker, Inc.
FileMaker Certification is your validation that you are hiring an experienced FileMaker professional who has technical knowledge of the complete FileMaker product line and has passed the “Developer Essentials for FileMaker” certification exam. Being a certified developer demonstrates to clients, peers and management that you’ve achieved an essential level of knowledge, experience and skills in developing on the FileMaker Platform.
The Xero web application has long had the ability to create a Batch Deposit for multiple Invoices and a Batch Payment for multiple Bills, but this hasn’t been available via the Xero API until recently.
The Xero API was recently updated to support creating Batch Payments for Bills and Invoices as well as retrieving Batch Payments. We’ve just released a new version of fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) that also supports creating Batch Payments and downloading them from Xero.
It works the same way as it does in Xero – you first select the Authorised Bills or Invoices that you wish to create a Batch Payment for. You would create a found set by using the FileMaker find/omit commands to generate the found set of record and switch to the list view layout which has the Create Batch Payment – Found Set button:
Clicking this button will create a Batch Payment for the found set of Invoices or Bills and use the amount outstanding as the amount to allocate to each Invoice or Bill:
You can adjust each individual Amount on this screen and select the Bank Account, Date and Reference for the Batch Payment then click the Push to Xero – Current Record button which will upload the Batch Payment to Xero. This also creates a Payment record against each Invoice or Bill so the balance of each of these will be reduced by the allocated Amount.
Here’s a video that demonstrates creating a Batch Payment in fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) – you can also watch it on YouTube here:
Once again this is a this free update to all our existing customers who can download this version from the link on your original order email (contact us if you need the link to be reset etc).
https://www.databuzz.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/databuzz-logo-small-300x88.png00Andrew Duncanhttps://www.databuzz.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/databuzz-logo-small-300x88.pngAndrew Duncan2019-07-10 15:08:172019-07-10 15:08:17fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) Now Supports Batch Payments
One of the limitations when it comes to uploading images for Products using the WooCommerce REST API is that you have to either include a source URL for WooCommerce to download the image from, or include the ‘ID’ for the image from the WordPress Media Library. The WooCommerce API doesn’t allow for files to be uploaded directly from a FileMaker container field, which is where you would typically store them in FileMaker.
We regularly receive requests from customers wanting to know how they can upload files that are stored in their FileMaker container fields for Product Images and have had to regularly break the bad news to them. However we are pleased that we can finally offer a solution to this problem. You can now upload a file stored in a regular FileMaker container field:
and upload it to the WordPress Media Library at the click of a button:
Once it is in the WordPress Media Library you can quickly copy/paste the WordPress ID to a WooCommerce Product Image and upload that to WooCommerce:
We’ve leverage the WordPress REST API, which the WooCommerce API is fully integrated with, as this does allow for media files to be uploaded directly to the WordPress Media Library. We’re pleased to announce that v1.6 of fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) is now available as a free update for all existing customers – we have a page covering all the details of how to install the required WordPress plugin and setup fmEcommerce Link for uploading files directly from FileMaker container fields.
Here’s a video showing the Media file upload from a FileMaker container field in action (you can also watch it directly on YouTube here):
https://www.databuzz.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/databuzz-logo-small-300x88.png00Andrew Duncanhttps://www.databuzz.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/databuzz-logo-small-300x88.pngAndrew Duncan2019-07-02 22:45:372019-07-02 22:45:37fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) Now Supports Media Uploads from FileMaker Container Fields
Sydney, Australia – June 04, 2019 – Databuzz today announced fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition), a FileMaker solution that integrates with the DocuSign eSignature platform.
fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition) is a FileMaker solution that integrates between FileMaker Pro and DocuSign. DocuSign is one of the most popular electronic signature platforms and helps organisations connect and automate how they prepare, sign, act-on, and manage agreements and allows users to sign electronically on practically any device, from almost anywhere, at any time.
fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition) allows you to quickly send electronic signature requests and download the signed version of the document into FileMaker at the click of a button. fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition) is completely unlocked allowing you to integrate it into your existing FileMaker solutions. You can copy and paste examples showing you how to authenticate with the DocuSign API and send signing requests and more at the click of a button.
fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition) features include:
works with FileMaker Pro 16 or later
uses all native FileMaker scripts and functions (no plug-ins required)
completely unlocked for you to integrate into your own FileMaker solution
can be hosted by FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Server
works with Macintosh and Windows
“Many of our customers use the FileMaker Platform to run their business and DocuSign for electronic document signing,” said Andrew Duncan, CEO of Databuzz. “With fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition) you can send document signing requests and downloaded completed documents from DocuSign at the click of a button, without having to give users direct access to your DocuSign account.”
fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition) includes examples for the following DocuSign features:
Send Document Signing Requests: you can use fmESignature Link to send documents that are generated dynamically from a FileMaker layout, from a PDF file stored in a FileMaker container field, or using a DocuSign Template (including support for multiple recipients and roles)
Check Status: check the Status of Sent Requests at the click of a button
Download Completed/Signed PDFs: download the completed PDF file into FileMaker at the click of a button
Download Form Data: download any associated Form Data back into FileMaker at the click of a button
Support for Webhooks: have completed PDFs pushed automatically to FileMaker within seconds of being completed (requires FileMaker Server and PHP Custom Web Publishing)
Support for FileMaker Server Schedules: setup schedules to poll DocuSign every 20 minutes for any new completed agreements (requires FileMaker Server and PHP Custom Web Publishing)
Testing Sandbox support: dynamically switch between the DocuSign Sandbox test environment and the live production environment. You can perform all required tests in the free Sandbox account before switching to your live production account
Availability, Pricing, and Compatibility
fmESignature Link is available in a number of licenses: Company, Product (Vertical Solution) and Developer. It is available now from the Databuzz website at https://www.databuzz.com.au/fmesignature-link-docusign-edition/. Company Licenses start at AUD $795.00. fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition) requires FileMaker Pro v16 or later and a DocuSign account with API access.
Media/Customer Contact:
Andrew Duncan
Phone: +61 418 468 103
sales@databuzz.com.au
AboutDatabuzz: 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 17 Developer. For more information please visit our website at https://www.databuzz.com.au.
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FileMaker is a trademark of FileMaker, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
https://www.databuzz.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/databuzz-logo-small-300x88.png00Andrew Duncanhttps://www.databuzz.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/databuzz-logo-small-300x88.pngAndrew Duncan2019-06-04 01:28:592019-06-04 01:28:59Databuzz releases fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition) – Integrate FileMaker Pro and DocuSign
As part of the compatibility testing of our products for the FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced release we were keen to test to see if there were any improvements to the performance of time consuming operations, such as downloading large sets of Orders from WooCommerce or Shopify, that involve parsing lots of JSON data.
We had been alerted to some JSON calculation function performance enhancements included with FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced so we set about running some tests with WooCommerce and Shopify and were pleasantly surprised to find out that the promises were true. In scripts such as this example:
where an initial set of JSON data representing a bulk group of Orders is retrieved and stored in a FileMaker variable, then each Order is parsed out in a looping script using the JSONGetElement function we’re seeing improvements of up to 50% from FileMaker Pro v16 and17.
https://www.databuzz.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/databuzz-logo-small-300x88.png00Andrew Duncanhttps://www.databuzz.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/databuzz-logo-small-300x88.pngAndrew Duncan2019-05-23 01:39:232019-05-23 01:39:23JSON Calculation Function Improvements in FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced
