Handling Historical Data with FileMaker and AWS Athena, S3 & Serverless

In this blog post, we will explore a solution for optimising a FileMaker app that handles large amounts of data. We will address the challenges of data storage, file corruption, and performance degradation when dealing with historical data.

By leveraging cloud storage and serverless computing, we can offload and query this data efficiently, ensuring better performance and scalability.

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FM-DiSC: Handling Historical Data with FileMaker, AWS Athena, S3, Serverless

Fabio Bosisio from Beezwax demonstrates handling historical data in a Claris® FileMaker® solution, utilizing a combination of AWS services including AWS Serverless, AWS S3, and Amazon Athena’s Interactive SQL. Use cases include archiving, data mining, and reporting.

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dotfmp: Python + Claris® FileMaker® | Historical Data & AWS Athena/SQS/S3 | UX & DX for Great Solutions

Christos Savva, Fabio Bosisio and Vince Menanno from Beezwax present at dotfmp Berlin, 2023.

This week we’re in Berlin… one of the stops on the Road to Claris Engage 2024 …gathering with the developer community, and highlighting innovation for the Claris FileMaker platform development. As conference speakers at dotfmp Berlin (June 1-3), Christos Savva, Fabio Bosisio and Vince Menanno from Beezwax present three sessions:

  • Enhancing FileMaker with Python
  • What do you do with all this historical data in your app? [AWS Athena Interactive SQL / Serverless / S3 with FileMaker]
  • Elements for Building Great Solutions [FileMaker UX & DX]
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Native HTML Email in Claris® FileMaker®

Claris FileMaker has built-in methods to send email in HTML format, using SMTP protocols. I’ll cover what this means, how to use this functionality, and use FileMaker to send basic HTML email.

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End to End Web Integration for Claris® Platforms

Alec Gregory from Beezwax presents at the Claris Beyond Meetup.

Let’s talk about building web UIs, JavaScript functions and new integrations for Claris FileMaker and Claris Pro. Learn how you can manage various stages of the web integration process with the open source bzBond.

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DIGFM December 2022 – Script Transactions in Claris FileMaker

Vince Menanno from Beezwax presents at DIGFM.

Let’s talk about Claris® FileMaker® and script transactions in FileMaker 19.6!

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Beezwax Sponsors EngageU: The Biggest Claris® FileMaker® Developer Conference

Christos Savva and Vince Menanno Present Rapid Serverless Integrations and FileMaker Native Script Transactions

This week, Nov 13-15, we’re in Malmö, at EngageU. It’s the biggest Claris / FileMaker Developer community event worldwide in 2022. In fact, EngageU promises to be the largest in-person Claris Community event in Europe, ever!

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Rome FileMaker® Week: Docker, Node-RED, Native Script Transactions and a Chatbot

Vincenzo Menanno and Fabio Bosisio from Beezwax present at Rome FileMaker Week.

This week we’re in Italy… formazione, condivisione e ancora divertimento [training, sharing and more fun] …with the focus on innovations in Claris® FileMaker platform development. As realtori [conference speakers] at Rome FileMaker Week (October 6-8), Vince Menanno and Fabio Bosisio from Beezwax present three sessions:

  • Local FileMaker Development with Docker and Node-RED
  • The New Horizon: Native Script Transactions in FileMaker
  • Chatbot
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CQDF Montreal 2022 – Claris FileMaker

La 7e Conférence québécoise des développeurs FileMaker (CQDF) 2022: les 15 et 16 Septembre 2022 à l’Auberge Saint-Gabriel, Montreal. Vincenzo Menanno, Beezwax, présente “Le nouvel horizon | Transactions de script natif” avec Claris (FileMaker) Pro.

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A fast, flexible Tableau Connector for FileMaker

Building a custom Tableau® Connector for Claris® FileMaker® enables faster, more reliable and more flexible connections between Tableau and FileMaker datasources, compared with the legacy Web Data Connector.

For a number of Beezwax client projects, we’ve installed and deployed a Tableau Connector (aka “TACO”) for FileMaker. The TACO was built using the Tableau Connector SDK (provided by Tableau) to connect to datasources on FileMaker Server. The TACO method uses JDBC rather than the FileMaker Data API for the connection between FileMaker and Tableau, and in our testing the performance of data extracts was up to 10 times faster.

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OData for FileMaker – Examples, Tips and Nuances

This blog post is the second of a three-part series about the FileMaker OData API, introducing a demo file with more than 40 examples plus helpful tips, along with Q&A. Part one of the series highlighted some of the key features of the API which make it an exciting addition to the FileMaker platform. As a follow-up, this post will cover the basics and dig into the nuances of using OData with Claris FileMaker.

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Integrating FileMaker’s Data API and Ruby with the fmrest-ruby gem

We often work on projects that intersect two technologies near and dear to us: FileMaker and Ruby. This allows us to build robust web applications in Ruby on Rails, integrated with data sources from FileMaker solutions. When Claris introduced the FileMaker Data API we were naturally curious to try it out. At the time there was no off-the-shelf Ruby library for us to simply gem install, so we decided to roll up our sleeves and build one. Thus, fmrest-ruby was born.

This article will walk you through setting up and using fmrest-ruby in a Ruby on Rails project. Some level of familiarity with Ruby/Rails and FileMaker’s Data API is advised, although much of the content covered here is applicable to any Ruby project, Rails or not.

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OData for FileMaker – New Player in an Old Game

This blog post is the first in a three-part series about the FileMaker OData API, highlighting key features that make it an exciting addition to the Claris FileMaker platform.

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Using REST and cURL with FileMaker’s Data API

FileMaker 19 introduced a couple of important new features related to using the FileMaker Data API. Here, we’ll cover an overview of the new authorization endpoint, Validate Session, API versioning updates, as well as a new script step, Execute FileMaker Data API.

At the end of this article, you’ll find the demo file for learning more and trying out various REST and cURL functionality with FileMaker’s Data API. Enjoy!

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Using REST and cURL with FileMaker Server 18’s Data API

Well, here we are again! With the release of FileMaker 18 we get the third version of the FileMaker Data API. This version brings an iterative advancement in features while maintaining the core functionality that was introduced with V1 of the API in FileMaker Server 17.

I’m following suit with an iterative advancement of my previous blog posts about the Data API (here and here).

NOTE: We’ve updated this series of blog posts and demo files to cover FileMaker 19:

Using REST and cURL with FileMaker 19’s Data API Continue reading “Using REST and cURL with FileMaker Server 18’s Data API”

Using Siri with FileMaker, via iOS Shortcuts

“Hey Siri…Ask FileMaker…”

This story started when we explored iOS Shortcuts to the FileMaker Data API. As we continue to automate tasks by mixing together iOS apps, content on mobile devices and web APIs plus FileMaker, let’s add to our workflow using one of the most powerful functions available to iPhone and iPad users: Siri.

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iOS Shortcuts to the FileMaker Data API

Shortcuts, on iOS, are a new way to automate tasks by mixing together apps, content on your iOS device and web APIs into custom workflows. Now, via the FileMaker Data API, you can use shortcuts as a way to interact with your FileMaker solutions.

Here’s an example of automatically uploading a photo from your iPhone into a FileMaker container field, via iOS shortcuts to the FileMaker Data API.

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How Transactional is the FileMaker Data API?

I’m always excited each time the FileMaker Platform gets new capabilities. It isn’t just the new features on their own that make things interesting, but what happens to the platform as a whole which provides for some interesting and inspiring innovations. In this case, it is a new way to do transactional record editing in FileMaker. This is the first in a multi-part series on this topic.
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Using REST and cURL with FileMaker 17’s Data API

As y’all probably know by now, FileMaker 17 has been released, including the first production edition of FileMaker Server’s Data API. This API was originally released with FileMaker 16, but only as a “beta”, expiring September 2018. As you might expect, the FileMaker 17 Data API introduces significant changes. This means that any applications written against the FM 16 Data API need to be refactored for compatibility with FileMaker 17. And that’s the work we’re here to do!
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Getting Started with REST and cURL using FileMaker 16’s Data API

If you are FileMaker developer, but new to the notion of web APIs and web development in general, then you might take on a kind of deer-in-the-headlights look when confronted with FileMaker Server 16’s new Data API, aka “REST API”. Fear Not! It really is simpler and more straightforward than you might expect. I like to take the attitude that no skill is difficult, only unfamiliar. With study and repetitive exposure and practice, any skill can be mastered.

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