Changes to PHP Installations with FileMaker Server

Earlier this year Claris announced that they were deprecating the bundling of PHP with FileMaker Server and would no longer be installing PHP with future versions of FileMaker Server for macOS and Windows. This impacts anyone who is using the bundled version of PHP on their FileMaker Server for use with Custom Web Publishing and the FileMaker PHP API.

With a number of recent releases of FileMaker Server this has now been completed as follows:

Windows: starting with the FileMaker Server 19.2.1 update PHP is no longer installed with FileMaker Server for Windows – you should preserve your existing PHP installation first by backing up the PHP folder and restoring it after the upgrade is complete. See the Claris Engineering Blog link below for instructions on installing PHP on Windows as well as a link to a Powershell script for automating this.

macOS: starting with version 19.4.1, FileMaker Server no longer installs a PHP engine on macOS. FileMaker Server upgrades will not remove a previously installed PHP engine, but new installations will no longer provide PHP.

We provide PHP files for use with Webhooks with most of our FileMaker integration solutions, including:

• fmSMS: used for receiving incoming messages and delivery status updates
• fmMMS: used for receiving incoming messages and delivery status updates
• fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition): used for receiving updates to Contacts and Invoices
• fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition): used for receiving notifications for new orders, customers and updated orders
• fmEcommerce Link (Shopify Edition): used for receiving notifications for new orders, updated orders or cancelled orders
• fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition): used for receiving notifications for completed/signed documents

We generally provide 2 versions of these php files:

1. for use with the older FileMaker PHP API
2. for use with the newer FileMaker Data API

The FileMaker Data API is the newer replacement for the older PHP API and requires FileMaker Server v17 or later. Existing PHP files for both APIs will continue to work but if you are setting up a new FileMaker Server for Windows or macOS that does not have PHP installed you have a few options:

1. install PHP for Windows Servers (see links below)
2. host the PHP file on another web server running PHP (you will need to include the PHP API files if you are using the older PHP API) and make any adjustments to the hostname to point to the FileMaker Server
3. change from using the FileMaker PHP API to the Data API and also host the PHP files on another web server running PHP and make any adjustments to the hostname to point to the FileMaker Server

We’ve been hosting our PHP webhooks files on Amazon Lightsail for a number of years, but any web server running PHP will do the job.

You can get more information on the changes to PHP Bundling at the following links:

• PHP bundling deprecation and removal from FileMaker Server (Claris Engineering Blog)
• FileMaker Server 19.2.1 Release Notes
• FileMaker Server 19.4.1 Release Notes
• PowerShell script for installing PHP on Windows (Soliant)