FileMaker 18 File Based Script Steps

FileMaker 18 File Based Script Steps is a major new feature that allows a developer to manipulate files at the system level: Create, read write, and verify –there are a dozen script steps available to the developer. Below is a video of the new features and a link to another post showing a powerful way to put these new tools to good use.

Productive Computing

Productive Computing’s 18 minute video goes into great depth on the new FileMaker 18 File Based Script Steps. Sadly, there is not a free demo file. Happily, the video shows you the script steps and lays out how to use these new script steps in detail:

More than ten new script steps have been added in FileMaker 18 that allow you a great amount of control over the primary aspects many types of files.

Creating, opening, modifying, closing, renaming, deleting, or just gathering some basic information about files can be extremely helpful in the right solution.

However, even though each of those processes sound simple, there are several critical nuances that you will need to grasp before enjoying the benefits of these script steps.

Whenever you are working with files, it is crucial that the process is done correctly or there can be extreme consequences. One small misunderstanding can cause an avalanche of data loss or corruption.

Check out more at Productive Computing’s University.


Imports without Tariffs. Natively, with FileMaker Server. (Free FileMaker Example File at link)

Vincenzo Menanno shares a very powerful way to upload and process files from the desktop to FileMaker Server – without any plugins. If you have ever had to do this (I have), it was not the easiest thing to pull off. I will be using this technique in the future.

FileMaker 18 File Based Script Steps

Combining functions, features, or steps in creative new ways can deliver productive results. I was thrilled to discover in FileMaker 18 that the new file-based script steps give us the ability to perform imports natively on FileMaker Server, with no configuration or changes needed….

If you look up the Help for the ‘Write to Data File’ script step, you’ll see the following mentioned:

The maximum amount of data this script step can write at a time is 64 MB. If the data to write is larger than 64 MB, you can perform this script step multiple times, writing an amount no larger than 64 MB each time.

Write as writes data to the file using FileMaker’s default UTF-16 (little endian) character encoding or UTF-8. If the data source is container data, this option is ignored and data is written as binary.

That is the best part. Because your file is already stored in a container field you don’t have to worry how big it is. It will just work!

Source: Imports without Tariffs. Natively, with FileMaker Server. – beezwax > blog

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