Tag Archive for 'Integration'

Crossing Drupal Street IV

Published on October 10, 2011. 0 Comments

The last couple of installments were about understanding the basics of what makes a Drupal web site.  We covered nodes, views, and plugins, among other things.  We didn’t go unnoticed either.  While at the 2011 DevCon, I was featured on an episode of FileMaker Success Tips.

This week we are going to look at the integration of a Drupal web site and a FileMaker database.  We had a client with a specific need; an art school that offers classes to adults in their community.  They have a FileMaker back-end database that they use for registration and membership.  They also have a web site where people can view class offerings and enroll in classes.  The client would like to create a way to link these two independent databases.

Continue reading ‘Crossing Drupal Street IV’

 
Published in FileMaker, Integration and Tips and tricks by Jerry Salem. Tags: Tags: , , .

Crossing Drupal Street III

Published on June 28, 2011. 1 Comment

This is where it may get hairy…

1490430-Who-needs-pictures-of-cute-kids-1

Compare relationships and querries

During the last episode we learned that Drupal is most powerful when the knowledgeable developer uses plug-ins to extend the abilities of the web site.  Some of the most useful plug-ins are CCK (adds the ability to create custom fields), Fivestar (adds a voting widget to your website) and Views (a powerful way to view data from different nodes).  We used the CCK to create a couple of new fields in the Things content type.

This episode we will show a basic technique to display information.  Lets say you want to see a list of content types.  To use FileMaker-speak, lets say you want to see a list of related records.

Continue reading ‘Crossing Drupal Street III’

 
Published in Integration and Tips and tricks by Jerry Salem. Tags: Tags: , , .

FMPHP: The difference between createRecord() and newAddCommand()

Published on May 19, 2011. 4 Comments

If you’ve been looking at building custom PHP scripts to add records to your FileMaker database, you might have come across the following snippet from the Custom Web Publishing with PHP document:

There are two ways to create a record:

  • Use the createRecord() method, specifying a layout name, and optionally specifying an array of field values. You can also set values individually in the new record object.The createRecord() method does not save the new record to the database. To save the record to the database, call the commit() method.
    For example:
    $rec =& $fm->createRecord('Form View', $values);
    $result = $rec->commit();
  • Use the Add command. Use the newAddCommand() method to create a FileMaker_Command_Add object, specifying the layout name and an array with the record data. To save the record to the database, call the execute() method.
    For example:
    $newAdd =& $fm->newAddCommand('Respondent', $respondent_data);
    $result = $newAdd->execute();

Which is somewhat helpful, but many people wonder what the substantive difference is between these two statements. Continue reading ‘FMPHP: The difference between createRecord() and newAddCommand()’

 
Published in FileMaker, Integration and Tips and tricks by Robin Story. Tags: Tags: , , , .

Please Join us October 26: Integrating FileMaker with Amazon Web Services

Published on October 14, 2010. 0 Comments
Our next Philadelphia FileMaker User Group meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday evening, October 26th 2010 at 6:00 PM.
The meeting will be held at the IT Solutions Fort Washington Office:
+  414 Commerce Dr., Suite 150, Fort Washington, PA 19034
+  Google Map: http://bit.ly/d7L05o
As always, pizza and soft drinks will be provided.
Please  RSVP here if you are planning to attend this meeting.
INTEGRATING FILEMAKER WITH AMAZON WEB SERVICES

With Alan Deffenderfer, CEO, ABD Enterprises

This presentation will provide a brief overview of Amazon Web Services and then focus on performing a REST request to return product data from the Amazon product advertising API.  Amazon API credentials, requirements and limitations will be discussed as well several strategies for performing a REST request from FileMaker that is AWS compatible.  A use case that employs SmartPill PHP and XML/XSLT will be presented as one way harness and deploy Amazon Web Services in the real world.

About the Speaker

Alan Deffenderfer is CEO of ABD Enterprises, Inc. and has been developing with FileMaker since 2004.  He has been a college professor for the last 14 years and has worked in the book industry since 1993.  He currently uses FileMaker to run his own online book business.

Jason interviewed Alan before the 2009 DevCon recap; you can see the interview here.

Door Prize

We’ll also be giving away a door prize, courtesy of our User Group membership with PeachPit Press.  Assuming we can obtain interesting stuff from PeachPit going forward, this may become a regular thing.

Undercover User Experience Design

Undercover User Experience is a great little primer on UX work, written by Cennydd Bowles and James Box.

About the Philadelphia FileMaker User Group

The Philadelphia FileMaker User Group was founded in 2004 as an initiative by FileMaker Business Alliance Platinum member IT Solutions Consulting.  The group’s goal is to provide an open forum for FileMaker developers and those interested in FileMaker to meet, brainstorm and network.

We hold meetings the 4th Tuesday of every month at 6PM, in the office of IT Solutions Consulting, Inc., at 414 Commerce Drive, Suite 150, Fort Washington PA.  Meetings are open to all, regardless of background and there’s no charge to attend.

Please subscribe to our Mailing List to get announcements on upcoming meetings. The list is set to Announce only, so the volume is typically between one and 2 emails a month.

You can read our blog to get updates and meeting recaps.  Twitter here.  Facebook over there.

We’re also an FMPug Chapter.    Consider membership today, especially if you purchase training, plugins, 3rd party products, or web/filemaker hosting – FMPug membership affords considerable discounts across a range of offerings.

Finally, The Philadelphia FileMaker User Group is hosted by:

IT Solutions Consulting, Inc.

Employee ownership – fueling our innovation, strengthening your business.

http://www.itsolutions-inc.com/

- Learn about IT Solutions in our new Blog and Videos section of our website!

- Follow ITS on LinkedIn and learn more about the company:

IT Solutions Consulting, Inc. on LinkedIn

 
Published in Meeting Announcements and Meetings by Colin Keefe. Tags: Tags: , , , , , , .

Crossing Drupal II

Published on September 17, 2010. 0 Comments

In last week’s episode I mapped out our goal for this series: learn how to understand Drupal from the perspective of a Filemaker developer.

Following our motto of “Shut up and Fix it”,  we’re going to simply create a Drupal web site.  We’ll build a storefront that has products and a small blog attached.  Once that is running, we’ll attach the Drupal site to a FileMaker back end system.  This will allow us to pull product info from the back end system and possibly have users log in and track their orders.  That’s the end state we’ll be working toward in this series.

This week let’s expand our understanding a bit by taking a walk through the Content Construction Kit (CCK).

You’ll remember that last week we learned that a “Content Type” is analogous to a Table.  By default Drupal gives us two fields in each table:  Title and Body.  In order to make a useful database, we are going to need to add more fields to each table.

At its heart Drupal is a Content Management System.   Since the content that Drupal is designed to manage is typically a blog, the default Content Types in drupal are a Page and a Story.

The Page Content Type is normally for info that doesn’t change often, and a Story is typically used for things that change often.  Remember these are only the Drupal defaults; as with Filemaker, you are expected and encouraged to change the setup as appropriate.

We’re going to be using the Story content type for our store blog.  If all you are doing with Drupal is writing a blog, you’re basically done.  Stop reading here!

For this project, however, we plan to do a bit more, so  we’ll need to add some more descriptors into Drupal.

 
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Published in FileMaker, Integration and Tips and tricks by Jerry Salem. Tags: Tags: , , , .

Please Join us June 22nd: Using FileMaker as a SQL Front End

Published on June 17, 2010. 0 Comments
Greetings FileMaker Enthusiasts,
Our next Philadelphia FileMaker User Group meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday evening, June 22nd 2010 at 6:00 PM.
The meeting will be held at the IT Solutions Fort Washington Office:
+  414 Commerce Dr., Suite 150, Fort Washington, PA 19034
+  Google Map: http://tinyurl.com/37mhhh
As always, pizza and soft drinks will be provided.
Please RSVP here if you are planning to attend this meeting:
http://www.fmpug.com/rsvp.php?eventID=1043

USING FILEMAKER AS A SQL FRONT END

Continue reading ‘Please Join us June 22nd: Using FileMaker as a SQL Front End’
 
Published in FileMaker and Meeting Announcements by Colin Keefe. Tags: Tags: , , , , , .

Join us June 30 – "Case Study: FileMaker's ROI for Oncology Services International"

Published on June 9, 2009. 0 Comments

Greetings FileMaker Enthusiasts,

Our next Philadelphia FileMaker User Group meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday evening, June 30th 2009 at 6:00 PM.

The meeting will be held at the IT Solutions Fort Washington Office:

+ 414 Commerce Dr., Suite 150, Fort Washington, PA 19034
+ Google Map: http://tinyurl.com/37mhhh

Please RSVP here if you are planning to attend this meeting:
http://www.fmpug.com/rsvp.php?eventID=870

____________________________________________________________________

Anthony Celini (CAB Inc.): “Case Study: FileMaker’s ROI for Oncology Services International”
____________________________________________________________________

Continue reading ‘Join us June 30 – "Case Study: FileMaker's ROI for Oncology Services International"’

 
Published in Meeting Announcements and Meetings by Colin Keefe. Tags: Tags: , , , , .