Learning Claris FileMaker

Generating PDFs in FileMaker

FileMaker Pro has had the ability to generate PDF documents since version 8, providing basic functionality that has remained largely unchanged since its introduction.

Using FileMaker Pro’s plugin architecture, we can extend this functionality to provide the following enhancements:

• Search PDF document text
• Append multiple PDF documents in non-sequential order
• Add a watermark to a PDF document
• Password protect a PDF document
• Delete pages from a PDF document
• Add clickable “Page Links” to move to different pages throughout a PDF document
• Compress a PDF file to prepare them for transmission over the internet

An intermediate to advanced FileMaker Pro developer can leverage these features to create even more dynamic PDF documents inside FileMaker Pro.

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The Exchange Manipulator SE plug-in connects FileMaker® with Microsoft Exchange Web Services, allowing users to push and pull Contact, Calendar, Task, Mail and Note data from an Exchange mailbox or with public and shared folders in an Exchange environment.

This video reviews the key features and benefits of using the Exchange Manipulator SE plug-in to push and pull data between your FileMaker solution and Microsoft Exchange Web Services and 365 Hosted Exchange.

CNS Menu allows you to place hierarchical menus anywhere on a FileMaker Pro(R) layout.

When a menu item is chosen, the script of your choice is performed.

Menus can have any number of sub-menus and can be displayed with a variety of styles and bullet marks.

Creating menus with CNS Menu can be as easy as handing the plug-in a return-delimited list of menu items to display.

Your menu items can display one value and have a separate value that can be used in your scripts, so the end user can see useful information while the value can be an ID number.

EasyCatalog for InDesign is a Plug-in (for both Mac and Windows) that offers a truly simple, intuitive drag-and-drop interface.

As the name implies, EasyCatalog is easy to set up and use. Simply connect to a datasource, insert placeholders into your document from the EasyCatalog Panel, apply formatting as you usually would to design elements, group related elements together into a “Product Style,” store your Product Styles in an EasyCatalog Library, and then populate copies of your product styles with records from your database.

24U Phidgets Plug-In allows FileMaker Pro to interact with various Phidgets boards to let your solution control physical devices and physical devices to control your solution.

• Read and write RFID tags to track goods, assets and people
• Capture sensor data to collect environmental data such as temperature or force
• Control servo motors to automate moving parts of robots and machines
• Read digital and analog inputs to control your solution by physical controls
• Set digital outputs to switch lights and other electrical devices
• New Display text on an LCD display to create custom user interface such as cashbox
• New Set analog outputs to control electronic equipment

CNS Image is a FileMaker plug-in for working with images stored in container fields or stored on the hard drive.

On the most basic level, you can use CNS Image to Import images from the hard drive into FileMaker container fields and Export images from container fields to the hard drive using hard-coded paths or dialogs.

However, Importing and Exporting images is only the beginning of CNS Image.

The plug-in can do so much more with your images.

You can Rotate images; you can create small thumbnails in your database of a much larger images on the hard drive.

You can split PDFs into multiple images and browse through them all from FileMaker.

You can download images from the internet into a container field; and apply filters like brightness to your images. All of these things and more are possible.

CNS Image is not just for FileMaker Pro either.

Everything that works under FileMaker Pro will also work under FileMaker Server, with the obvious exception of bringing up a dialog for selecting a file to Import or Export.

This means you can use Scheduled Scripts to batch process images at night, or create Instant/Custom Web Publishing/WebDirect solutions that can convert, stretch, crop, and more.

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We wanted to give our clients the ability to use the plug-in directly with Exchange – circumventing the Outlook application altogether.

Similar to Outlook Manipulator, this plug-in can talk with Contact, Calendar, Task, Mail and Note data from any Exchange mailbox or with public and shared folders in an Exchange environment.

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Productive Computing, Inc., a Platinum member of the FileMaker® Business Alliance, is proud to announce the release of the Exchange Manipulator SE (Server Edition) plug-in for Exchange Web Services.

This server-side plug-in connects FileMaker directly to Microsoft Exchange Web Services, allowing users to push and pull Contact, Calendar, Task, Mail and Note data from an Exchange mailbox or with public and shared folders in an Exchange environment.

What is Troi Serial Plug-in?

Troi Serial Plug-in gives FileMaker Pro easy and powerful access to external devices with a serial interface:

• read from and write to the (virtual) serial ports of the computer directly from FileMaker Pro without the need of a separate application
• native FileMaker script triggering, to get incoming data into the database
• “Suspend/Resume Serial Port” script step to temporarily suspend the incoming data stream and resume it when you are interested in the data
• “Wait for Match” function to wait for a specific text before triggering
• the possibility to open an unlimited number of serial ports and to trigger different scripts for different ports

Suggested Uses

• connecting to a modem
• custom switchboard dialing
• caller ID
• credit card swiping
• chip card reading
• data(base) transfer
• send commands to control-units and gather data from them
• weigh goods
• scan goods with a barcode reader
• open a cash drawer
• control the talking fish Billy Bass!

Two Worlds.
Infinite Possibilities.

LiveCode and FileMaker.

The world's easiest data driven app builder meets the world's only native app building platform for everyone.

Some possibilities :

• OAuth2 & Google Drive files
• Dropbox / Web services
• Notification Dialog
• Annotate Image
• Troubleshooting
• PDF selection
• Video Capture

Archiving Email In FileMaker

With FileMaker and an email plugin, tracking and maintaining correspondence from multiple people has become a much easier experience.

No longer will you have to constantly call, email, or meet with people just to talk about what was already discussed with others.

Now a simple search in FileMaker will allow users to catch up and get on the same page quickly.

Email integration is just one more example of how FileMaker can help businesses work in a productive and efficient manner.

... this powerful plug-in provides a bidirectional data exchange between FileMaker® and Adobe® Acrobat Pro. It can:

• Insert or extract data between PDF form fields and FileMaker
• Extract text content and metadata from a PDF document directly into your FileMaker solution, eliminating the need to hand key information
• Once the data is in FileMaker, you can search through a PDF’s content and determine what page of the document the searched content appears on
• Combine and delete multiple PDF documents into a single PDF from within FileMaker Pro
• Insert any number of PDF pages anywhere into an existing PDF document
• Delete individual pages or a range of pages from a PDF
• Browse for a document from inside FileMaker
• Access, open, and save PDFs to file folders

If you are looking for a way to exchange data between FileMaker® Pro and Apple Calendar, then this is the plug-in for you.

The iCal Manipulator provides a bidirectional data exchange between FileMaker Pro and Apple Calendar application using nothing more than FileMaker script steps.

Use the iCal Manipulator to eliminate double entry and directly connect FileMaker Pro with Apple Calendar.