Passing auth in Open File script step?

[kfutter]

I'm currently building what amounts to an FM portal file, containing buttons that open various files on our FMSA8 server. This is to help simplify staff access to our databases, but I'd like to be able to pass the username and password to the file on the server in the script. Currently it just pops up the usual authentication dialogue box, which I'd prefer to avoid. Sure, I could set the files to use a certain account automatically, but I'd rather not, as some of them behave differently depending on the login, and I prefer the flexibility of a scripted solution.

Anyway, I've found no way of doing this so far - is it even possible? If so, can someone tell me how?

Cheers,

Kevin

[Matt Klein]

Hi Kevin -

What about using a certain account to use automatically when opening the file and then run a script in each file that includes the "Re-Login" script step? You could pass the account and password in the script parameter.

[kfutter]

I'd considered that, but it actually reduces the flexibility, since I want to be able to customise the opener buttons to different accounts for different users. I'm also trying to avoid having too many databases having auto-login enabled, for security reasons.

Anyway, I've ended up opting for something similar. For the one or two databases where I need this approach, I've set auto-login to a standard data entry account, and then made a re-login script available via the scripts menu for admin users.

But really, why is the ability to pass authentication to a remote file via script missing? Surely this is something you'd want to do regularly with scripted solutions. You can do it with a URL, and you can do it with the Re-Login script step, so I can't see any technical reason for not being able to do it for opening a remote file.

Cheers,

Kevin

[Ender]

I'm having trouble seeing the where the trouble is.

If the originating file is logged in with the same account/privilege set that exists in the destination file, the destination file will automatically login with that account (provided auto-login is not enabled).

I would strongly recommend you do not have your hosted files set to auto-login in the File Options.

[kfutter]

Yes, I've just discovered that FileMaker passes the local file's login details to the remote file, which is something I'm now going to exploit as part of this solution. The original concept was that the opener file would have no login required, but I'll simply set it to auto-login with the required details. The other complicating factor was that the opener file (and it really is just a portal file to other databases) might have 15 or 20 buttons on a layout, all pointing to different files, none of which might necessarily use the same account as the opener file. As it happens, the majority do, so that's all more-or-less sorted.

But I still don't get why this can't simply be solved in a script step. It seems the most straightforward and logical thing to do. All I need is one script step that says "open this file using these credentials". I haven't found a way and I'm assuming from the advice so far that it isn't possible. My point, labouring it though I am, is that it should be.