Automating import of Custom Functions, Tables, or Scripts?

[Cristos Lianides-Chin]

I haven't found anything that would enable automated import/creation of Custom Functions, Tables, or Scripts. Does anyone out there know if such functionality is available in any existing plugins?

If not, does anyone know if that's even possible to do with a plugin? I looked through the docs at http://www.filemaker.com/help/12/fmp/html/create_db.8.51.html and the Plugin SDK from http://www.filemaker.com/support/technologies/ but wasn't sure if access to FileMaker classes is limited just to the definitions in those header files.

Thanks!

~ Cristos

[Todd Geist]

Sadly all you can do is automate the UI.  There is no API for such a thing :-(

Todd

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Todd Geist

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[Darren Burgess]

Fmpro Migrator is a product that performs specific UI automation as Todd suggests.  I used it to consolidate a 20 file solution into a 1 file solution.  Works well and I believe it uses Quick Keys scripts to automate the repetitive UI tasks.  Not sure that this product is what you are after, but it does illustrate that what you desire is possible if you go outside of the FM app to use third party tools ( or roll your own)

https://www.fmpromigrator.com/

Darren Burgess

[Cristos L-C]

Thanks for the info, Darren & Todd. Some quick research suggests that AppleScript could be used to script the GUI in FileMaker pretty extensively; vbscript doesn't look quite as flexible on Windows. Does anyone know of a Windows alternative (or even better, a cross-platform method)?

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[Daniel Smith]

http://ahkscript.org/ for Windows. I've done some of it here: https://github.com/dansmith65/FileMaker-Automation. Although that code was written for FileMaker 11.

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[Cristos Lianides-Chin]

Dan, those look pretty great! Do you still find them useful?

I'm trying to conceptualize some ways to make installing an mFM module a "one-click" (more or less) experience. Since FileMaker can execute AppleScript, and AppleScript can call menu items and click buttons in any Mac application, it seems like that might be doable. (Potentially a lot of work, but at least possible).

From looking through your scripts, Dan, it looks like AHK has pretty much the same capabilities in Windows. Is that an accurate assessment? Is it possible to pass parameters to an AHK script from within FileMaker?

If it is possible, I could see going two ways:

1. You import the "OneClick Install" module into your own mFM module, and adjust the parameters to pass it (if needed). So you click a button in any given module to run its internal "one-click" installer.
2. The "OneClick Install" module is a standalone mFM module that you add to your own solution; you then pass it parameters to identify another module to install.

Option 1 seems a lot simpler to build initially...option 2 starts to touch on a Package Management system, which looks like a concept that was discussed a while back in this group but hasn't come back up recently (based on a quick archives search). I'm in favor of starting small first, to see if the methodology makes sense for a FileMaker environment.

Is anyone else working on similar projects? I'd be happy to contribute to an existing project (rather than starting from scratch) if there is one out there.

Thanks,
~ Cristos

[Daniel Smith]

I almost forgot to reply to this...

AppleScript can call menu items and click buttons in any Mac application, it seems like that might be doable. (Potentially a lot of work, but at least possible).

Be aware that scripting an interaction with a user interface is tedious and difficult to account for all possibilities, therefore is inherently error-prone. I'll give one example of what I'm referring to from my own experience with AHK in Windows:
The active window can change while your script is running (like antivirus software telling you it's starting as scan, to give one example) if the active window changed right after you tested if the correct window was active, but before you clicked a button in that window, then the button click could have been sent to the wrong window.

it looks like AHK has pretty much the same capabilities in Windows. Is that an accurate assessment?

yes, I think so.

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