360Works RemoteScripter/Documentation
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RemoteScripter allows you to remotely trigger FileMaker scripts on another computer. It can be triggered either by RemoteScripter running on a different | RemoteScripter allows you to remotely trigger FileMaker scripts on another computer. It can be triggered either by RemoteScripter running on a different | ||
computer, or by an HTTP URL. This plugin can safely be triggered from within the Web Publishing Engine, which makes it an ideal way to trigger non-web-safe | computer, or by an HTTP URL. This plugin can safely be triggered from within the Web Publishing Engine, which makes it an ideal way to trigger non-web-safe | ||
− | scripts on a separate script processing computer. For example, let's say that your | + | scripts on a separate script processing computer. For example, let's say that your WebDirect or IWP application needs to be able to generate |
downloadable PDF's. You would define a script called "Generate PDF" which is designed to be run on a computer running regular FileMaker Pro at | downloadable PDF's. You would define a script called "Generate PDF" which is designed to be run on a computer running regular FileMaker Pro at | ||
IP address 10.0.0.25. It might looking something like this:</p> | IP address 10.0.0.25. It might looking something like this:</p> | ||
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This tells RemoteScripter to trigger the Generate PDF script if it receives any requests on port 4546.</p> | This tells RemoteScripter to trigger the Generate PDF script if it receives any requests on port 4546.</p> | ||
− | On the computer running | + | On the computer running WebDirect, you would have a button that the user clicks on to see the PDF. This button triggers a script which would look something |
like this:</p> | like this:</p> | ||
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end if | end if | ||
− | You could also trigger the PDF generation script directly from a user's browser, without going through the | + | You could also trigger the PDF generation script directly from a user's browser, without going through the web server. Just have a URL that looks like this:</p> |
<a href="10.0.0.25:4645?35">View customer record 35</a> | <a href="10.0.0.25:4645?35">View customer record 35</a> |
Revision as of 20:55, 10 January 2014
360Works RemoteScripter User Guide
RemoteScripter allows you to remotely trigger FileMaker scripts on another computer. It can be triggered either by RemoteScripter running on a different computer, or by an HTTP URL. This plugin can safely be triggered from within the Web Publishing Engine, which makes it an ideal way to trigger non-web-safe scripts on a separate script processing computer. For example, let's say that your WebDirect or IWP application needs to be able to generate downloadable PDF's. You would define a script called "Generate PDF" which is designed to be run on a computer running regular FileMaker Pro at IP address 10.0.0.25. It might looking something like this:</p>
Enter find mode Set field Customer::customer ID to Get(ScriptParameter) Perform find Save as PDF RemoteScripterSetResult("Success")
Now pick a random port number to run RemoteScripter on. We'll pick 4546, but it can be anything that does not conflict with another service running on the same port. You would have a startup script which calls:</p>
RemoteScripterStart(4546, Get(FileName), "Generate PDF")
This tells RemoteScripter to trigger the Generate PDF script if it receives any requests on port 4546.</p> On the computer running WebDirect, you would have a button that the user clicks on to see the PDF. This button triggers a script which would look something like this:</p>
if( RemoteScripterTrigger("10.0.0.25", 4645, Customer::customer ID) = "Success" ) Go to Layout (Download PDF) else Go to Layout (Show PDF generation error) end if
You could also trigger the PDF generation script directly from a user's browser, without going through the web server. Just have a URL that looks like this:</p>
<a href="10.0.0.25:4645?35">View customer record 35</a>
This will trigger RemoteScripter to run the script and return whatever is set with RemoteScripterSetResult().</p>
You can use RemoteScripter to trigger scripts on your clients machines when they click links in a web viewer in your filemaker database. This allows you to design an interface in HTML, Java, Flash, or any language which can be displayed in your web viewer and then still trigger filemaker scripting. You can accomplish this by installing the Remote Scripter plugin on each of your client machines. You can then call the RemoteScripterStart function like in the example above (a startup script is a good place for this) and trigger the script using a link in your HTML to http://localhost:4645. The "localhost" url always points to the machine accessing it, so your users will trigger your script on their own machines when they click the link!</p>
360Works Plugin Setup Guides
See Plugins_101 for Error reporting, installation, registration, and more.
Function Summary
- RemoteScripterBringFilemakerToFront — You may optionally call this function to bring Filemaker to the front and give it focus.
- RemoteScripterGetVersion — Returns the version number of the RemoteScripter plugin.
- RemoteScripterLastError — Returns detailed information about the last error generated by this plugin.
- RemoteScripterLicenseInfo —
- RemoteScripterRegister ( licenseKey; companyName ) — Registers the plugin.
- RemoteScripterSetErrorCapture ( errorCapture ) — Toggles error dialogs on or off.
- RemoteScripterSetResponseHeaders ( header1 = value1 {; header2 = value2 ; ... ) — Allows the user to set the response headers and value pairs for a script by defining them in a string array.
- RemoteScripterSetResponseHTTPcode ( HTTPcode ) — Allows the user to set the response HTTP code for a script by defining them in an integer.
- RemoteScripterSetResult ( resultText ) — You may optionally call this function with text to return as the result of triggered script.
- RemoteScripterStart ( portNumber; filename; scriptname {; variablePrefix=prefixString } ) — Starts FileMaker listening on the specified port.
- RemoteScripterStop ( portNumber ) — Stops listening on this port.
- RemoteScripterTrigger ( remoteAddress; portNumber {; parameterText ; timeout } ) — Triggers a script on the remote computer running the RemoteScripter plugin.
Function Detail
RemoteScripterBringFilemakerToFront
You may optionally call this function to bring Filemaker to the front and give it focus.
RemoteScripterGetVersion
Returns the version number of the RemoteScripter plugin.
RemoteScripterLastError
Returns detailed information about the last error generated by this plugin. If another plugin function returns the text "ERROR", call this function to get a user-presentable description of what went wrong.
null
if there was no error.
RemoteScripterLicenseInfo
RemoteScripterRegister ( licenseKey; companyName )
Registers the plugin.
RemoteScripterSetErrorCapture ( errorCapture )
Toggles error dialogs on or off. When something unexpected happens, the plug-in will pop up a dialog displaying the error message. This makes it easy to see what went wrong. However, in some cases, you (the developer) may prefer to show your own message to the user, or possibly not show a message at all. In that case, you can call RemoteScripterSetErrorCapture with a parameter of true. That will suppress the error dialog from appearing to the user.
errorCapture
- set to true to suppress the default popups.
RemoteScripterSetResponseHeaders ( header1 = value1 {; header2 = value2 ; ... )
Allows the user to set the response headers and value pairs for a script by defining them in a string array.
headers
- String Array that specifies the headers and value pairs in a string array
RemoteScripterSetResponseHTTPcode ( HTTPcode )
Allows the user to set the response HTTP code for a script by defining them in an integer.
HTTPcode
- integer that specifies the HTTP code that is to be set
RemoteScripterSetResult ( resultText )
You may optionally call this function with text to return as the result of triggered script. If you do not call it, it will return nothing. This is usually called near the end of the triggered script.
RemoteScripterStart ( portNumber; filename; scriptname {; variablePrefix=prefixString } )
Starts FileMaker listening on the specified port. When it gets any request on that port, it will trigger the script. If there are any parameters included in the HTTP request, it will pass these along as script parameters to FileMaker.
The following starts RemoteScripter listening on port 9876. Incoming requests will trigger the Remote Scripter Callback Script
script, passing in any URL parameters as key=value pairs, with the keys containing a $foo_
prefix.
RemoteScripterStart( 9876; Get(FileName); "Remote Scripter Callback Script" ; "variablePrefix=$foo_")
Handling URL parameter data in FileMaker
If the RemoteScripter URL contains key=value data pairs, RemoteScripter will convert the values to the format $key1="value1";$key2="value2"
. This makes it easy to pass the resulting string to the evaluate
and let
functions in FileMaker, which will populate local variables with the parameters from the URL.
For example, an HTML form with inputs for firstName
, lastName
, and notes
will result in the following script parameter being passed in from RemoteScripter:
$notes="testing¶one¶two¶three";$firstName="Sam";$lastName="Barnum"
To convert this to actual variables in FileMaker, use the following functions:
Evaluate ( "Let ( [" & Get(ScriptParameter) & "] ; true )" )
After calling this, you'll have local variables for $firstName
, $lastName
, and $notes
.
Optional parameters
- variablePrefix
- The symbol to use before a variable name, default is "
$
", to facilitate the use ofLet
andEvaluate
. For backwards compatibility with older versions of RemoteScripter (1.6 and earlier), pass an empty string for thevariablePrefix
. To prevent URL parameters from conflicting with variables, use a unique prefix for the variable name.
portNumber
- the port number you wish to use for listening for events
filename
- The name of the filemaker database containing the script.
scriptname
- The name of the script which generates PDFs
options
- The optional variablePrefix. Adds the specified string to the beginning of all converted URL parameter keys.
RemoteScripterStop ( portNumber )
Stops listening on this port.
RemoteScripterTrigger ( remoteAddress; portNumber {; parameterText ; timeout } )
Triggers a script on the remote computer running the RemoteScripter plugin. This waits until the remote computer finishes the script, and returns the result.
remoteAddress
- the hostname or IP address of the machine whose FileMaker instance is running the plugin.
portNumber
- this should be the same port number which was passed to {@link #RemoteScripterStart} by the remote computer.
paramText
- Any arbitrary text to be included as a script parameter. It can be in the form of a single parameter (ie. "John"), or as multiple URL encoded parameters (ie. "firstname=John&lastname=Smith").
timeout
- Number value in milliseconds.