Containers

An overhead photograph of four coworkers using computers at a white, elongated table. It's rectangular but angles at each end, in opposite directions. The chairs are a mix of white, yellow, and dark gray.

Considerations When Implementing Claris FileMaker Cloud

Claris FileMaker Cloud is a cloud-hosted version of the popular FileMaker Pro platform, offering a powerful, streamlined environment for hosting your FileMaker applications without the headaches of managing hardware, software updates, and backups. As you consider moving your solution to FileMaker Cloud (vs on-premise hosting or using a third-party hosting service), there are several factors to keep in mind – both advantages and potential limitations.

Container Data and the FileMaker Data API

Back when I was learning about the FileMaker Data API, I had trouble finding any information on how container data was handled. Oddly, the upload information in the Help documentation seemed far more complete than the download information, especially considering the download information isn’t even it’s own section. It’s a note in the URL And Data Format notes section. In essence, the note is: You will get a URL referencing the location of the container data, which is somewhere on the internet. You’re welcome. I ended up utilizing the Base64 Encode And Decode functions in a way that I’ll forever keep as a tool in my developer’s toolbox. If you’re not familiar with these functions, they easily convert images into text and vice versa.

Importing Containers the FM13.0v2 Way

The added functionality of the FMP URL protocol was reason enough to upgrade, but we were just as excited about the added option to “preserve external container storage” when importing data from containers between FileMaker databases.

Scroll to Top