stanley

Such a strange problem, because this is FMP and so shouldn't run into that kind of issue, especially as ours are volume licenses and are otherwise working fine. At the same time, it's an FMP software update that kicked off this problem, and this kind of thing does happen. We'll reach out to Claris and get new license certificates... Thanks!

We have just encountered this same error on one of our Windows machines. Was there an official fix for this? I will reach out to our sales rep but am hoping someone here actually got to the root of the problem.

Hi Charles Please reach out to me directly via email: stanley.carswell at telekom.com - because this is a corporate gig, the first step would be to send a resume. As I wrote above, we are considering adding a contractor, and if I can show that there are qualified candidates who fit that profile, then it would strengthen the case to do it that way. Thanks Stanley

FULL-TIME FILEMAKER DEV NEEDED Due to the recent departure of a key member of our FileMaker dev team, we are looking for a full-time dev; the job description follows. This is technically a 9 to 5 office job, but due to COVID-19 there's really no such thing any more, so working remotely is totally acceptable. The team office is in Connecticut, but I'll be honest and say that nobody really goes there any more. You would be working for a global multi-national telecoms corporation, with some responsibility for server and staff support globally; this translates into some flexible/unusual working hours. The job description concentrates on web-based UI/UX because our next major project is to take a very large FileMaker system and convert it entirely to WebDirect, with optimizations for laptop, tablet, and mobile phone. There is some possibility of this being part-time or contract work, although that's extremely unusual for this organization, and I'm not certain that management is actually serious about that. If you're interested, please reach out directly to me with a resume, or with any questions. Cheers! Stanley POSITION TITLE: OSS Software Developer/Designer POSITION PURPOSE: Work with our OSS Network Infrastructure team developing software tools as required, including web sites, FileMaker solutions, and EDIs between systems, concentrating on web-based UI/UX. Provide all levels of support including first-level support, server administration, and emergency support. Write documentation and training materials related to development and admin tasks. Customers are all internal to the corporation, around the world. ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: FileMaker design/development Website and FileMaker WebDirect interface design/development First-level User Support Server/Robot Administration Write Documentation, both internal development docs, and end-user training docs OTHER DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: Seek out new development opportunities within the corporation Keep up to date on the state of the art in FileMaker development and UI/UX QUALIFICATIONS: UI/UX design experience, including practical use of design tools, is required Written composition skills, including illustrated documentation, are required FileMaker development/deployment experience extremely helpful Website design, software prototyping, software testing are all extremely helpful Data API experience, especially data architecture, database schema, and xml, all helpful Being able to act independently and responsibly within a small team is essential EDUCATION: Solid background in software solution development and design Bachelor’s Degree helpful, but not required FileMaker Certification (14 and above) helpful, but not required

Hi Wim Thanks for that info. I'll dig deeper into the API to see what we need to do there. Stanley

Hi Wim Ah, yes, the xml API. Not something I've used very much, I have to admit. The scenario is this: we have an external system (based on who-knows-what, probably SAP) whose admin wants to exchange transaction-based data with one of our FileMaker 11 systems, running on FMS. By this I mean he wants to set it up so that when an order is processed in his system, data is pushed out to our FMP system, and then when that data is modified in a specific way in FMP, we push data back out to his system. Normally when we do this with external systems, we use a file-exchange process, where we dump data for individual transactions into separate xml files on an SFTP server, where the receiving system is responsible for picking up the data and then moving the xml files to an archive. I like this because it leaves such a clear audit trail, and because the raw data is always there for debugging purposes. However, this time, the other side wants to send everything via HTTP Post, as I wrote before. Before I go any further, can you clarify something for me: is FMS and the xml API capable of encryption (as in HTTPS?) Any other advice on where to begin with this whole thing is much appreciated. Thanks Stanley

Hi All: I have recently had a query from a colleague where he wants to exchange data with FileMaker Server via HTTPS Post of xml data. Has anyone been able to set something like this up, as a two-way data exchange? I imagine that it might not be possible via HTTPS, but perhaps as HTTP? Any suggestions are welcome, as I have not seen any evidence that this is possible. Thanks in advance Stanley

Incrementing '00001' when it is defined as a text field will maintain the formatting. This is commonly done when creating serial numbers that need leading zeros for padding (because, for example, that format is required for export or whatever.) Cheers Stanley

Hi Yianibb: You need FileMaker Pro 12, which is the client version. See here: http://www.filemaker.com/products/filemaker-pro/?homepage=fmp-product-line You can download a free 30-day trial from FMI which will let you edit your file. Cheers Stanley

Hi wvms: You should be able to stop the server from the command line (using Terminal on the Mac). I barely ever use the command line so I won't give you faulty instructions here. Use of the command line is very well documented though, and it's a great way to steer around the Admin Console and its quirky behavior. Cheers Stanley

I have a second server running on the same switch, which does not have the same problem. When this has occurred (it's only been twice so far) I have not had the same issue with the second server. However, I have not really compared their configurations too closely. Thanks for the SSL thing - yes, we are using SSL!

Hi All I posted this on TechNet, but want to try you guys as well. We have a very busy production server running FMSA9 on Windows Server 2003 (yeah, go tell it to our IT department) and twice this week users have lost the ability to acquire the server. What we see is this: Users with no files open on the server cannot see the server. Users with any file open on the server can see all the files on the server. Users with any file open on the server can work as normal. Admin can run the console remotely (but a bit slow). Admin can RDC into the server normally. Rebooting the server solves the problem, but this is happening during the middle of the day, with most users unaffected, so that's not a great solution. Has anyone seen this before? I have a vague recollection of having a similar problem years ago, but can't recall if that was on 5.5 or 7 or what. Any hints appreciated. Thanks Stanley

Hi Krea: What probably happened is that the serial number field you can see was created after some records already existed, and thus those records don't have serial numbers. I will assume that your serial number is being used as a primary key for relationships, meaning you cannot simply replace all the numbers with new numbers. However, if that is NOT the case, you can write a simple looping script to set new serial numbers. Although FileMaker does have an internal record ID, it's not available to you, so you will need to assign the missing serial numbers yourself. Depending on the number of records, you can either do that manually or via a scripted process. If you script it, you could just find a 'hole' in your numbering (or, if your numbering begins with 1 and goes up from there, create a 'hole' by changing what the next value for the field will be, increasing it by enough to give you values to assign to your existing unserialized records. So, if you have 1000 records, and 900 of them have serials going from 1 to 900, you would set the next value of your serial field to 1001, then assign (via a looping n=n+1 and SetField script) the numbers 901-1000 to the unserialized records. HTH Stanley

Hi genr8er I wouldn't even explore the possibilities. FMP 5 and CDML are so old that you'll no doubt run into all sorts of compatibility issues, even if you do find a browser/OS combination that looks like it works okay. Instead, you should try to use the client's request for a web front end as leverage to get them to upgrade the whole solution. Just my five cents' worth. Stanley

Oh yeah. Basic implementation's not a problem. Fitting it into our solution (which is extremely convoluted) will take a bit of labor, but not that big a deal, really. Thanks to all, and I'll post how it turns out... Stanley