Creating FileMaker plugin

[jalz]

Hi Guys,

Just wondering has anyone created a FileMaker plugin using LIvecode. If you have, have you got a basic template how you got filemaker to talk to LC using the FM plugin calls.

[Mark]

Hi,

All Filemaker plugins must, at least partially, be written in C or C++. You might be able to create a Filemaker plugin that talks to LiveCode, but this will require a Filemaker plugin written in C or C++ to start with.

Kind regards,

Mark

[jalz]

Thanks mark,
Just curious as there was a template I think available in realbasic a while ago. Ive also noticed 24u promoting .net and c# template.

[Mark]

Hi,

Do you have a link to that template?

Mark

[jalz]

Hi Mark,

Sorry, its late (totally forgot about it, but I need to look at creating a plugin now), heres the link - http://www.24usoftware.com/PlugInTemplate . Planning to Link FileMaker to Outlook using c sharp at the moment as we want to extend some of the send email functionality of FM.

[toddgeist]

Hello,

Has anybody made any progress with this concept. I would be very interested in and willing to financially support any project that allowed me to build FileMaker plugins with LiveCode. Is this a possibility.

Thanks

Todd

[Mark]

Hi,

The problem is that you can't just write a plug-in and voilá FileMaker understands LiveCode. Well, perhaps it were possible, but I wouldn't know where to start. I see a few possibilities though. Perhaps Filemaker can talk to LiveCode using sockets or the shell or through VBScript or AppleScript. My problem is that I'm not a Filemaker expert, but I'd think that at least one of these features should be available in FM already.

Best,

Mark

[toddgeist]

Hi Mark,

I don't want FileMaker to understand LiveCode. I want to build FileMaker plugins using LiveCode instead of C++. This has been done a couple of times with other languages like Java. Typically this done through some kind of "bridge" where Functions that are defined in the FileMaker plugin template are mapped to functions in the target language. Thereby exposing these Java functions to FileMaker. There are examples of this in the FileMaker world with Java, PHP, Python, even Lua.

This would probably not need any GUI stuff from LiveCode, at least it would be still be useful without access to the GUI. Some other things that make it easier is that the FileMaker plugin SDK really only handles Strings, there are no Data Types. ( Except you can pull image data back through the API into Filemaker. Passing images from FileMaker through API doesn't work. )

So the problem breaks down to building a bridge that allows The FileMaker api to execute handlers written in LiveCode and return the string results back to FileMaker.

You can almost think of it is a command line app built in LiveCode that would expose its function to the FileMaker plugin API. This could be very useful to me.

Todd

[Mark]

Hi Todd,

Can't FileMaker execute command line utilities?

Best,

Mark

[toddgeist]

not without a plugin or applescript, but that wouldn't be xplat.

Bundling everything into a fileMaker plugin also makes it easy to deploy and update the plugin to FileMaker clients. Since FileMaker manages all that for you.

Todd

[jalz]

Hi Mark and Todd,

Thanks for chiming in this thread. I've been searching around, cant find many good examples out there that don't use c++. Contacted the 24u software guys, as wanted to create a plugin for Outlook. It looks like their template is really suitable only for c++ usage, and I don't think I can cope with that language.

I've found a lua project which seems to 'map' to the 24u template, but it just looks incomplete.

Came across a very old livecode news letter http://newsletters.livecode.com/novembe ... etter3.php - which i think maybe the way to create a bridge with the FileMaker plugin sdk and live code.

[Mark]

Hi,

No, that newsletter won't help. It looks like a Filemaker plug-in is needed to connect FM to LC. LC already has everything it needs to allow for such a connection.

Kind regards,

Mark

[SparkOut]

David Simpson http://www.fmpromigrator.com provides a Filemaker conversion product. Whether this is relevant to the task you're trying to achieve is not clear but at least I believe he is fully conversant with Filemaker structures and requirements. If nothing else, he may be able to offer some insight as to how to proceed. And/or some consultation work, perhaps.

[Mark]

Hi,

This isn't about conversion. They need something quite specific. I think my company could do it, but I'd rather discuss that off-list.

Kind regards,

Mark