Simon Brown

We are pleased to announce the release of bBox version 1.05, which adds the following new features: Ubuntu ARM binary schema change notifications (requires FileMaker Server 21.1) DuckDB integration bBox is a free utility plug-in for Claris FileMaker. Supporting both macOS & Ubuntu Linux, it has functions to help you work with Python, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, AppleScript, Bash/Zsh/sh, XPath, and DuckDB. Also included is a demo file that has over 220 examples of how you can put bBox functions to work for you. See the blog post at https://blog.beezwax.net/bbox-1-05-for-filemaker-now-available/ or the product information at https://www.beezwax.net/products/bbox for more details.

I could be mistaken on this, but I think uploading a database using FMP never works unless using a signed certificate.

bBox is a FileMaker plug-in providing easy integration with shell, AppleScript, Python, and Ruby scripts. Freely available with a comprehensive demo file. This version adds the following: bBox_PythonEvaluate function for quick call-backs from FileMaker "no wait" mode for Bash, Curl, and sort functions function descriptions (FileMaker 15 only) now with over 160 examples in demo file Requires FileMaker 12 or higher and Mac OS 10.7 or higher. The majority of its 34 functions are server-side and CWP compatible. Details and download at: https://beezwax.net/products/bbox.

@xochi, A question about this: Did you create the CSR in Server.app? Otherwise, it seems like you'd have a problem with Apache being unable to provide the needed pass phrase w/o some additional changes.

I think you need to update your OS. In particular, there have been problems with the resolver functionality (DNS) in Yosemite, which didn't really get better until after 10.10.3. Best to disable the Fusion drive if present as it doesn't really help FMS much and may reduce the system's reliability. Most FMS servers would be better off with an all SSD based system anyway. Also (and probably not likely in your case), if this system is Internet accessible, I've found that systems that have the standard SSH or SMB ports accessible can get pounded so relentlessly by hackers that it can make a system seem unresponsive, so a network scan to audit what ports are open might be in order.

Related to this, there are some circumstantial indications that you may have CSS issues if you edit a layout in FMP 14 that is hosted via WebDirect on FMS 13.

My recollection is that you'll need to re-key the certificate if it is in SHA-1 format, as FMS 14 requires the site's cert to be SHA-2 encoded.

David, I haven't seen that issue. Admittedly, don't edit script schedules that often though. Have you checked the file for issues with FMP's Recover option? I wonder if something isn't tweaked in your file. Have you checked for any helpful messages in the FMS Event or Access logs? As for the Admin Console issues, I definitely *have* seen that. It seems to largely revolve around problems with the files used as flags to signal which FMS components have started, and launchd (used to start various daemons) not starting up FMS components as expected. Sometimes the firewall/security mechanisms have also been involved. First thing you could try. In the Terminal, type: fmsadmin restart adminserver Then note the commands output and anything logged in /Library/FileMaker Server/Logs or /var/log/system.log. Simon

Speaking more generally on this issue, and maybe not so much to the original question… There is a bit of a shift however now with the advent of FMS 13. There are now at least five ways that a script could run on the server instead of the client: PSOS WebDirect server schedule CWP XML With Perform Script On Server being perhaps the biggest change. FileMaker's recommendations for WebDirect also require a generous number of cores (is this mainly because of script or UI overhead?). With PSOS, we have already hit situations where developers are pushing a servers CPU to the max. Not to say that disk speed isn't still very important, but it does mean we may need to think differently now when spec'ing hardware.

According to the PHP documentation you should be able to find it here (and was present on a OSX system that I checked): For IIS (Windows): [drive]:Program FilesFileMakerFileMaker ServerWeb PublishingFM_API_for_PHP_Standalone.zip where [drive] is the drive on which the web server component of your FileMaker server deployment resides. For Apache (OS X): /Library/FileMaker Server/Web Publishing/FM_API_for_PHP_Standalone.zip Simon.

bBox is a FileMaker plug-in providing easy integration with shell, AppleScript, Python, and Ruby scripts. Freely available with a comprehensive demo file. This version adds the following: offset parameter for bBox_FileRead new bBox_FileSymLink function new bBox_FileWrite function Requires FileMaker 11 or higher and Mac OS 10.6 or higher. Most functions are server-side and CWP compatible. Details and download at: http://beezwax.net/products/bbox.

I read an interesting analysis of SSD's in server environments (ArsTechnica?) and it had an interesting point to consider: when SSD drives fail, they can do so very suddenly and without warning. Additionally, recovering any data from a bad SSD can be much harder. Reliability issues should mostly be an issue of the past, and now are, at the least, least somewhat better than a spinning disk drive, but there hasn't been enough time yet to say this definitively. Upshot is, you probably want to RAID a pair or more of SSD's, and/or be extra careful with your backups. Simon.

A similar (same?) issue occurred to me as well on some WS 2008 based systems (has not occurred for me on OSX). The initially selected file opens fine, but any FMP datasources on the same server can't be found. What worked for me was adding a hosts entry for the hostname as used in the data source (I think the path is something like C:WindowsSystem32driversetchosts). There seems to be something odd about how the data source host names are resolved by FMP, and this fixed it for me. Simon

bBox is a FileMaker plug-in providing easy integration with shell, AppleScript, Python, and Ruby scripts. Freely available with a comprehensive demo file. This version is a bug fix release, primarily for: [*]issues with the bBox_Applescript function when using a handler parameter [*]improvements and fixes to the demo file Additionally, some cases where functions might be given extraneous parameters are now handled more gracefully. Details and download at the usual place: http://www.beezwax.net/download/bbox.

Still adjusting a few details, but this seems to of worked. Just be sure to also do the "optional" steps to modify the file at /Library/FileMaker Server/Admin/admin-helper/WEB-INF/conf/mod_jk.conf. The location of this at first threw me off ("why am I modifying the configuration for the admin console"), but apparently this is what SC usually does.

I haven't tried this, but it seems like you could first export the certificate from a system that has it installed (either using the Keychain Access app or certtool), and then use the the certtool or AppleScript the Keychain Scripting app to install the the cert on each workstation. All sounds easy enough, but the devil will be in the details to get this to work. Someone has bound to of done this before, so maybe some googling will be fruitful, but a quick check on my part didn't find anything useful. Simon.

I recently upgraded a system from OSXS 10.5.8 to 10.6.2, and also an update of FMS 10 to 10.0.2. It had a copy SuperContainer installed, which was probably working, but hadn't tested. I ran the .jar installer with the latest version of SC to update the previous install, which seemed to work. After the updates however, it was not working. I could get to the page to enter the serial, but couldn't access files. In the Apache log I was seeing error messages like this: It then tried to uninstall, but got an "unexpected error" dialog. Same if I tried to update. I then trashed all files in /Library/FileMaker Server/Web Publishing/publishing-engine/cwpe-tomcat/bin/SuperContainer. I then tried running the installer again, but still the "unexpected error" dialog. Here's what I found in the logs: Hoping for some help. Thanks!

New release of the free utility plug-in now available. Changes in this version include: New functions for directly compiling and executing Python scripts Fix for character encoding issue with Euro character in the bBox_PasteboardGet function Fix for Unicode BOM issue on PowerPC based systems Features already included in bBox since version 0.3d: execute shell scripts, with the output returned as the function’s result execute AppleScripts within a calculation, with parameters and the return value as the function’s result get or set raw clipboard (pasteboard) data filter text through grep, the powerful pattern matching command return the current time with milliseconds sort lines of text (optionally allowing you to specify a column or character range) find out what types of data are currently in the clipboard get a file path’s attributes, including type (file or directory), creation date, and POSIX permissions You can download a complete copy of the latest version* at http://www.beezwax.net/download/bbox. *For Mac OS 10.4 - 10.6 only About Beezwax Beezwax specializes in building custom solutions for virtually any use. Find out what Beezwax can build for you. Contact Information Beezwax Datatools http://beezwax.net/ info@beezwax.net (510) 835-4483

Does using do menu menu item "Paste" of menu "Edit" work better? If nothing else, this would remove 3 lines of code. OTOH, is there a reason why you aren't using the Paste script step in FMP?

I'm guessing that the earlier code is opening the file? If so, do you ever close the file that you are reading from? Simon.

First of all, you've got a space on line #1 after the exclamation point. But that probably won't stop your script from executing. There are some limitations to using the osascript command from the Terminal. You might want to take a look at this to get some insight: http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=26334 But I think the main problem is that the script will be running as the "user" fmserver, which is a non-GUI account. You could probably use something like the sudo command to "switch" the terminal session to the logged in user account and execute your script from there. Simon.

Beezwax has a new version of our bBox plug-in, which we are making freely available to all FileMaker developers. Since this is a technical forum, I'll jump straight to some brief facts: What functions does it provide? • execute AppleScripts within a calculation, with parameters, calling handler by name, etc. • execute shell scripts, with the output returned as the function’s result • execute AppleScripts, with parameters passing and return value as the function’s result • filter text through a direct call to grep (no shell intermediate call), the powerful pattern matching command • return the current time with milliseconds • sort lines of text (optionally allowing you to specify a column or character range) • find out what types of data are currently in the clipboard and extract them as text • get path type (file or directory), file size, creation, modification and last date opened, POSIX permissions What can I do with it? • get an XML version of FileMaker script, fields, layout, and table objects in clipboard • extract emails or phone numbers from text • run perl, php, python, or ruby based scripts • check if a file is present • strip duplicate values from a return-delimited list • present a dialog asking user to select a file or choose from a list of values • determine if a needed type of data is in the clipboard • execute a command requiring admin authentication • time execution of scripts down to the millisecond Includes an extensive demo file. Download it or find out more by going to: http://buzz.beezwax.net/2009/03/19/bbox-filemaker-plug-in-easily-add-applescript-shell-grep-and-more-to-your-filemaker-projects Simon Brown Beezwax Datatools, Inc. http://beezwax.net