If you’re still clinging to the SMTP-based authentication of yesteryears for your FileMaker email workflows, let’s talk about why it’s high time for an upgrade. Enter OAuth 2.0, the robust authentication protocol that’s making waves in 2023.
In June of 1974, a pack of gum at Marsh’s Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, was the first item ever scanned. Since then, barcodes have become ubiquitous and have a multitude of applications and uses inside your Claris FileMaker solutions.
When I meet people and tell them I build custom apps in FileMaker, the number of people who recall the platform from years and years ago with a nostalgic smile is impressive. Perhaps the loyalty FileMaker users have toward the platform is an important reason Claris FileMaker has thrived for so long. Along with PowerPoint and Microsoft Word, FileMaker stands with some of the few software applications nearing 40 years old. It has become a software platform that has stood the test of time. But in today’s age, your FileMaker Pro database management system is no longer a stand-alone solution. It needs to become the hub to connect your existing business applications and integrate them with custom solutions in the cloud.
Dr. Snip is a vasectomy clinic that needed a web form for patient inquiries that tied into their FileMaker system. We used FM BetterForms to build a complex Web app very quickly.
There is a category of disagreement on the earth I like to call “Bar Fight Topics”. These are the things that can turn perfectly happy friends and business partners against each other, with the help of a third wheel often known as Jack Daniels.
Due to COVID-19, we recently had to invent a way to sign forms on-site without sharing devices. Part of the conversation went like this:
He thought for a minute and replied, “Here’s what we’ll do. We’ll make a way for a user to sign a form without ever touching the iPad. How about we create a record just for signatures? We can send a link out to the client that will open a WebDirect interface. It would present them their signature record on their own device, and boom! Touch-free signatures.”
“Brilliant!” I said happily. “Let’s go! I’ll grab some pizza.”
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.
With FileMaker 16, Claris introduced the FileMaker Data API into the FileMaker development environment, giving us a powerful new tool for pushing and pulling data in and out of the FileMaker database engine.
