Category: FileMaker Server

Test Driving The FileMaker Server 17 Admin Console

by Christopher Edwards
Posted in FileMaker, FileMaker 17, FileMaker Server, Server Administration

Changes in FMS 17 Admin Console and How We’re Adapting

FileMaker Server 17 introduces a new generation of Admin Console, refreshed, fast, and reliable. If you are familiar with the FileMaker Cloud console, you’ll feel right at home in the new FileMaker Server 17 Admin Console. However, the update also brings some of the biggest changes in administrative functionality in years, perhaps ever.

While FileMaker provides an excellent overview of the differences, here I will highlight changes that affect us most here at Beezwax and some adjustments we’re making to compensate.

Continue reading “Test Driving The FileMaker Server 17 Admin Console” →

Azure AD (Active Directory) Authentication with FileMaker

by Simon Brown
Posted in FileMaker, FileMaker 16, FileMaker Cloud, FileMaker Server, Security, Server Administration

In addition to the more typical external authentication methods, FileMaker supports client authentication using OAuth accounts from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. In this instance, I needed to set up a FileMaker Cloud server to use a company’s directory accounts, which were hosted at Azure. In order to set this up I hit a couple of minor complications, which I’m going to cover here.

Continue reading “Azure AD (Active Directory) Authentication with FileMaker” →

Monitoring FileMaker’s CWP Connectivity

by Simon Brown
Posted in FileMaker, FileMaker 16, FileMaker Server, Monitoring, Server Administration

I needed to set up some monitoring for FileMaker Server that made moderately heavy use of the XML interface for Custom Web Publishing (CWP). The server was mostly working well, but was due for a rebuild, or at the least, an upgrade, but the client wanted to squeeze out one more season before we did this.
Continue reading “Monitoring FileMaker’s CWP Connectivity” →

Logging PSoS Activity: Episode III – Return of the JSON

by Vincenzo Menanno
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker Server, JSON, Logging, Performance, Security

In looking back at our initial approach to logging FileMaker PSoS (Perform Script on Server) activity, I reflect back on a number of times where this has been extremely helpful. If you have come to rely on the benefits of PSoS then you also know some of its challenges — one of the biggest is debugging and monitoring how long sessions take.

Since FileMaker 16 introduced JSON, in new systems we’ve switched over to using JSON as the main way of exchanging data for parameters. Because we also use PSoS in new systems, we updated our method for PSoS Logging and this blog entry talks about the changes we made there and also restates the usefulness of this log.
Continue reading “Logging PSoS Activity: Episode III – Return of the JSON” →

FileMaker Server 16 Gotcha: Get ( SystemDrive ) and Friends

by Darren Burgess
Posted in All, bBox, FileMaker, FileMaker 16, FileMaker Server, Tools & Add-ons

FileMaker 16 has been out for several months, however we wanted to call attention to a change that can effect your application’s use of server side scripting. Recently, we upgraded a client project to FileMaker Server 16, and found that critical functionality had mysteriously broken. After a bit of sleuthing and gnashing of teeth, we found that changes to the output of Get(SystemDrive), when executed server-side (PSOS or via a scheduled script), was the culprit.

Continue reading “FileMaker Server 16 Gotcha: Get ( SystemDrive ) and Friends” →

Removing port 80 and 443 conflict with macOS Server 5

by Simon Brown
Posted in FileMaker, FileMaker Server, Server Administration

Apple’s macOS Server 5.x has a rather different Apache configuration compared to the core macOS setup or those used in previous versions of Server. In particular, an instance of Apache is used as a proxy to any ‘backend’ copies of Apache. Here’s how to work around this…

Continue reading “Removing port 80 and 443 conflict with macOS Server 5” →

Getting Started with REST and cURL using FileMaker 16’s Data API

by Darren Burgess
Posted in FileMaker, FileMaker 16, FileMaker Data API, FileMaker Server, Integration

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.

Continue reading “Getting Started with REST and cURL using FileMaker 16’s Data API” →

Debug Apache on a FileMaker Server

by Simon Brown
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker Server, Logging

Since FileMaker Server version 13, FMS has used its own Apache configuration files on macOS instead of just adding includes to the OS configuration files. Because of this, the technique I mentioned here no longer works for newer systems. This new arrangement has reduced issues for FileMaker Server’s web connectivity.

Continue reading “Debug Apache on a FileMaker Server” →

What’s this "Sign in to FileMaker Server" dialog?

by Simon Brown
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker 15, FileMaker Cloud, FileMaker Server

If you’ve installed the FileMaker Pro client using a “For Teams” license, or as part of your FileMaker Cloud server usage, you may see a new dialog in FileMaker Pro.

In version 15, FileMaker has introduced a a new user-based licensing model. With FileMaker for Teams and FileMaker Cloud, a license allows use of Server and Client software based on the number of subscribed users.

Continue reading “What’s this "Sign in to FileMaker Server" dialog?” →

Version 0.84 of bBox for FileMaker Now Available

by Simon Brown
Posted in All, bBox, FileMaker, FileMaker 15, FileMaker Server, Integration, Python, Tools & Add-ons

Optimized for FileMaker 15, the new version of bBox includes 160 examples

We are pleased to release another update to bBox, v0.84 of our free utility plug-in to extend FileMaker solutions to other programs, code libraries, and OS X functions including Python, Ruby, AppleScript, Perl, Bash/sh, XPath, and SQLite.

Continue reading “Version 0.84 of bBox for FileMaker Now Available” →

Building Native Mobile Apps with FileMaker Data

by Mary Martinez
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker Server, Mobile Development, Swift, Techniques

Ever wonder how you might be able to create a mobile app with data you already have in your FileMaker solution? I have, too! As it turns out, it’s not too outlandish of an idea thanks to the FileMaker Custom Web Publishing with XML API.

Continue reading “Building Native Mobile Apps with FileMaker Data” →

SSL Certificates with FileMaker

by Simon Brown
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker 15, FileMaker Server, Security, Server Administration, Techniques

Intro: SSL Basics

SSL certificates are a very common way to secure client/server network connections, and the FileMaker platform has made use of them for many years. Starting with version 15 however, FileMaker introduced a number of security changes, in handling SSL and certificates, on both the server and the clients. But where do they come into play, and how might this affect your deployments?

Continue reading “SSL Certificates with FileMaker” →

Performance Optimizations Make Compelling Case for FileMaker 15 Upgrade

by Mark Scott
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker 15, FileMaker Server, Performance, Techniques

Small Gains: Big Impact

In the transit-planning universe, planners and economists often get excited about 5 minutes shaved off of a 30-minute bus ride. The individual rider might shrug at a mere 50 minutes saved per week, but the planners and economists multiply that 50 minutes by the number of people who ride that route during a typical week and see something much bigger.

Continue reading “Performance Optimizations Make Compelling Case for FileMaker 15 Upgrade” →

Speeding FileMaker Performance with Truncate Table

by Jud Wolfskill
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker 15, FileMaker Server, Performance, Techniques, Testing

Managing Data You Use and Throw Out

We develop FileMaker applications because we want a place to store information for the long term. We track events, tasks, contacts, finances—FileMaker can track almost anything. To update information, the application might ingest a spreadsheet.

Continue reading “Speeding FileMaker Performance with Truncate Table” →

FileMaker Log Files: Episode VII – PSoS Awakens

by Vincenzo Menanno
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker Server, Performance, Techniques

Now more than ever we’re relying on Perform Script on Server (PSoS) to maximize FileMaker performance, so naturally a need arose for a way to proactively monitor how many concurrent scripts are being triggered. This type of logging helps us see if we’re reaching our maximum limit, or have a rogue script eating up processing power.

Continue reading “FileMaker Log Files: Episode VII – PSoS Awakens” →

Summarizing FileMaker Server Access.log data

by Simon Brown
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker Server, Server Administration, Techniques

Various times I’ve needed to do some quick summaries of how a given server and its databases were being used. When using Mac OS X, I may use shell commands to get a quick summary of what’s happening on a particular server.

Continue reading “Summarizing FileMaker Server Access.log data” →

What Are Your Imports Waiting For? FileMaker Perform Script on Server – Episode II

by Vincenzo Menanno
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker Server, Performance, Techniques

Introduction

I hope that since our previous blog post you have been exploring the possibilities created by FileMaker’s Perform Script on Server (PSoS). This article is a continuation of the PSoS discussion and includes more cool things you can do with it, specifically running database imports on FileMaker Server.

Continue reading “What Are Your Imports Waiting For? FileMaker Perform Script on Server – Episode II” →

100x Faster – Flight Testing FileMaker Perform Script on Server – Episode I

by Vincenzo Menanno
Posted in All, FileMaker, FileMaker Server, Performance, Techniques

Read the follow up to this blog post at What Are Your Imports Waiting For? FileMaker Perform Script on Server – Part II

Introduction

Since the release of FileMaker 13 we have been exploring a new feature called “Perform Script on Server” (PSoS) and trust me there are many cool things you can do with it. I’m going to describe how PSoS works, how it’s best implemented, and how our tests show PSoS can drastically improve database performance, more than 100x in some situations. However, there are also a number of considerations before you run wild and convert scripts to execute via PSoS. So, I’ll cover these as well.

Continue reading “100x Faster – Flight Testing FileMaker Perform Script on Server – Episode I” →

1 2 3