Filemaker module in development

Thanks David. Really cool that this is coming together.
I'm not a strong developer, but would be happy to help in anyway I could.

Hi,
We have a version of the Filemaker module that basically works and if anyone is willing to do some testing and provide feedback I would appreciate it. We are working on getting it posted to the modules section of the Drupal site too.

Here's the basic idea of how it works:

• enable module, requires Views2
• under build/filemaker you'll get a configuration screen for adding datasources
• datasources are the full URL used in querying FMS, i.e. "http://web:web@127.0.0.1:8000/fmi/xml/FMPXMLRESULT.xml?-db=MyDatabase&-lay=MyLayout&-findall"
• there are also fields for a human readable name and a machine name to identify your datasource as well as a cache refresh time (minutes)

----
There is some basic error checking here and if you have a bad datasource the datasource entry will still be entered in the database but you will be returned a Filemaker error as well.
----
Once your datasource is configured go to build/views and add a new view
- under "View Type" you should see an entry for your datasource
- build your view as normal
----
What definitely isn't working:

• Search hook has not been finished and your FM View can't see other View fields, so no relationships and no Views with FM fields and CCK fields (for instance).
• Under Site Configuration/Filemaker Settings there is a form for adding in FX settings, but this doesn't actually do anything at this point.
• Filemaker portals are not supported and will break the datasource routine
• Container fields have not been tested but will more than likely break the datasource routine
• Filemaker fields that are named with double-colons (relationship names) will break Views
• Filemaker fields that are named with SQL terms (i.e. Key, Database) will break Views

----
PHP 5.3 is not recommended as it isn't compatible with Views and other parts of Drupal 6.

Depending on your web host you may run into Apache timeouts or MySQL max packet size errors, setting the max packet size to 32M seems to take care of most errors I get on large datasets, upping Apache or PHP timeouts hasn't been necessary yet, but it may.

It's not recommended to run this in a production environment.
Please post feedback to this thread, I'll try to reply but I can't do too much tech support.

You can get the file from my public Dropbox folder until we are up in the modules section:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5054917/filemaker_drupal_module-04052010.zip

Maybe I can use it for a project I'm working on right now.
I have to include a FM-database (parts of it, actually) into a drupal page.
Problem is, it's a special FM-solution based on a very early FM-version and it's NOT the server one.
I wonder if I still can build s.th. on your module. Is there a way to easy change the input of your module from FM-server-URL to a xml-file?
I would appreciate pointing me to the right direction.

Regards,
krabbe

I'll give it a try and get you informed.
Thanx a lot

I haven't test the module. will do that after my new machine come in.

I was wondering how do you get data from FileMaker Pro server? Can we do it through FileMaker CDML query? I think this will be useful to get data from a large/multiple database as would have query it through FileMaker CDML query.

Example:
-db=TestDatabase=XMLFind&-format=-dso_xml&-op=eq&Item=Test123&-max=all&-find

Cheers,
Jeno

Yes, you'll need a newer version of FMS and in the extended privileges allow Access via XML Web publishing for the account you want to use as your web enabled user.

We have several FileMaker dbs that we currently pull data from to our existing website using Lasso, however, we will be moving that site to Drupal in the next month or so and don't want to lose any of the current functionality we have. It would be great if we could talk directly to FMS (11) from Drupal. We don't need to be able to use Drupal's native search functionality for the pages, just display data and in some cases use a form to send data directly to FileMaker. Being an absolute Drupal newbie, your module sounds exactly like what I'm looking for, but I'm just wondering if the development on the module is continuing?

Thanks!

I am getting an error. not sure how to fix it.

array(4) { ["type"]=> int(64) ["message"]=> string(83) "require_once(): Failed opening required './filemaker_table.php' (include_path='.:')" ["file"]=> string(78) "/opt/local/apache2/htdocs/drupal/sites/all/modules/filemaker/filemaker.install" ["line"]=> int(92) } n/a

sorry for not being specified.

-MacPorts 1.9.1 on Mac OS X 10.5.8
-Apache 2.2.15
-PHP Version 5.3.2
-mysql5 5.1.48_0

I was reinstalling the module the second time. (I put in a wrong FileMaker path the first time and it won't allow me to edit, it also prompt me about a time zone error in the php file).

Thanks David.

OK, I've managed to get it working again. I am still seeing the settings I created previously.

warning: strftime(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are required to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier

When I try to delete it, it return me an error:
The requested URL /admin/build/filemaker/1/delete was not found on this server.

Thanks,
Jeno

Hello David,

Sorry for the late reply, I am having some problem rebuilding my system. The mysqld.sock file just doesn't want to stick :(

This is how my system looks like now:
-Macports 1.9.1
-Apache 2.2.15
-PHP 5.2.13
-Mysql 5.1.48

OK, back to the module. I re-look into the settings and I realized I need a way to query the Filemaker database from within drupal.

Where should I put the setting?
Filemaker Settings (under Home › Administer › Site configuration)
Filemaker FX settings (under Home › Administer › Site building › Filemaker)

Also, what would I have to put in as the source in order for me to make query?

This is an example query I would use when using a web browser:
h t t p://user:user@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:xxx/FMPRO?-db=dummy1&-lay=XMLFind&IdNoJob=1234567&-format=-dso_xml&-max=100&-find

For every query, I change the "1234567 to whatever job I want to look at in a web browser. I am wondering what "generic" address I should put in as source to enable me to search job.

Cheers,
Jeno

ahhhh.....thats what I thought. Sorry for being so greedy, maybe I am thinking too far :)

OK, I will play with it during the weekend and see what else can I come out with.

Thanks & Regards,
Jeno

Hi Joe,
I'm sorry I haven't taken the time to write up proper instructions - but I did make a very quick and dirty series of screenshots that will hopefully get you where you need.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5054917/FMP-Views.jpg

• David

step 1: take the url and go to admin/build/filemaker and use it to create a datasource
step 2: go to admin/build/views/add and create a new view with a view type of your datasource (the one you created in step 1)
step 3: using the fields created by your datasource in admin/build/views/edit/your_view_name - select the filemaker fields pulled from your datasource to create your view.

this is what I was trying to illustrate in my image here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5054917/FMP-Views.jpg

let me know what parts are confusing or don't seem to work and I'll do my best to help.

Since you are using MAMP I'm going to guess that you'll need to specify a port to get to the FM server if it's on the same machine, anyway, the best thing to do is to check your URL in firefox and make sure you are getting a valid result. Once you've got that try using the URL in Drupal with a new datasource with a new name - just in case you've got some old temp tables in there still from the failed attempts.

I did a new install of the module, so now when I add the source, I'm getting a page with the following fields:

Label
Name
Source URL
Cache Length (default value = 60)

I created a name and a label and re-entered my URL that gave me the datadump earlier. When I click save, I'm confronted with these errors:

• warning: fopen(h t t p://IPADDRESS/fmi/xml/FMPXMLRESULT.xml?-db=DBNAME&-lay=DBLAYOUTNAME&-findall) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/anaheimoc-sandbox/sites/all/modules/filemaker/filemaker.module on line 190.
• Invalid Filemaker data source: h t t p://IPADDRESS/fmi/xml/FMPXMLRESULT.xml?-db=DBNAME&-lay=DBLAYOUTNAME&-findall

Also, FWIW, the drupal install and the FMSA are on two separate boxes.

Ugh! Thanks!

Sean

Did you ever apply for a project page?

I am looking for a good working FileMaker Module for Drupal