4.21.20
If you aren’t integrating your FileMaker application, you probably should be.
Many FileMaker licensees and developers suffer from years of bunker mentality. There is a feeling of “dead-end”-ness: once the data is in FileMaker it just never leaves. Solutions never change or get much better. If your data does venture out, it only leaves through a very arduous emailing script, a copy-paste, a drag and drop or my least favorite: on paper. The data gets into FileMaker and stalls there for years. In these situations, even with some really clever ways to ingest data without needing too much work from users, FileMaker can feel like the slowest player on the team especially for one thing in particular: CONTAINER DATA.
If your solution:
- Is more than 2 versions out of date
- Is Hosted 100% on your premises / not connected to the outside world
- Requires a human being to act like a librarian pulling records, pdfs or images for people
- Requires human interaction with other data sources to ingest new data
Then you probably just have a database: I wouldn’t necessarily call it an application.
Yes, of course FileMaker should be seen as the central repository of all information for a healthy business. If all of your data is connected together, you have the opportunity to use that data for a variety of purposes that would be otherwise impossible. However, the use of outside APIs to gather data from your FileMaker databases is a cornerstone of a truly robust FileMaker application. Data must flow both in AND out of your solution AUTOMATICALLY to be the agile teammate you need to keep you from wasting your time on monotony.
If you’re like me, you’re looking for ways to get your data out of FileMaker easily and quickly and put it where it can make you money. It doesn’t do you NEARLY as much good to have your data stuck in a computer. You need to put your data to work for you NOW! Whether it’s creating dynamic content for webpages, sending an image along with a text message, sending a pdf to a secure server or simply pulling a file without calling someone at the office, you need SPEED!!! With all of those needs, I have a hard time understanding why I had such a difficult time finding resources on how to get this one simple task done:
HOW DO I GET MY CONTAINER DATA OUT OF FILEMAKER??
Here’s how.
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UPDATE: July 20th, 2021- IF YOU’RE USING FILEMAKER SERVER 19.3.1 OR LATER, GET THIS ONE TOO!!!