Greets, everybody:

I'm building an FMP (Claris) database that'll be housed on FileMaker's/Claris's web-based server (since we don't have in-house servers here where I work.) One of my supervisors asked is if there's any way for the database to integrate directly with other online databases--specifically, Campus Management's web-based Student Information System (SIS)--instead of my having to manually export data from Campus Management to the FMP database for import. 

Admittedly, I'm ignorant as to how this would work--through a plug-in? Using "Perform Scripts on Server" to query Campus Management's server for data? What questions should I ask the IT people at Campus Management so I could possibly get this to work?

Cheers,

Rich

You wouldn't want to use a plugin for this.  Most of these online systems like SIS have APIs that they expose to developers.  FM happens to be extremely good at using those APIs (FM 16+).  Most of these APIs these day use REST, which means that you send and receive Json.

The script step to use here is the "insert from URL" since it supports cURL.  It sounds harder than it is, it's actually very easy (and very rewarding).  Start by asking them about their APIs.

 

A lot depends on how you define "integration". Connecting via an API is not much different from importing the data - you only eliminate the part where you need to export the data from the other system first. A much fuller integration may be possible if you can connect to the other system as an ODBC client application. 

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P.S. If you do connect via an API, ask about getting an XML response. This can be imported directly from the API - unlike JSON that needs to be parsed.

 

Most APIs these days offer functionality over and beyond just moving data.  Once you have the basics of the API connection set up, tapping into the extra functionality is a piece of cake.  In the next few days for instance we'll have a series of blog posts on how to use the Office 365 APIs.  Sure you can get and send email using SMTP natively and through POP/IMAP with a plugin but the APIs offer that and much more.

Access to your OneDrive for instance, or a simple endpoint to convert a Word doc you have there into a PDF... adding data to an Excel sheet without having it on your computer.

Besides that, many providers are actively moving way from old technology and protocols, you won't find many that let you touch their underlying data tables directly through ODBC.  They provide an API so that there is level of abstraction that allows them to change things on their backend.  As a result our integration is more robust.

 

As an aside, it's still being decided whether we'll just download information from Campus Management into the FMP database or make it two way.

I have some experience (ten years ago) with using ODBC to grab data from PowerSchool, another SIS, into our FMP databases--it was pretty easy but as Wim notes, it's old hat.

Edited March 5, 20205 yr by WF7A

It may be old hat, but there is a VERY big difference between working with one set of data or two.