Use Filemaker to fill web forms

[legal2justice]

I am trying to fill web form fields in my IE browser, using the fields from filemaker. Is there a way to populate this data into the ACTUAL fields IN the browser. Once I review them on the screen I will manually post each page and apply a script to populate the subsequent page accordingly. Any ideas....

[sky]

I have done this before by using the 'cURL' command line tool...

Sounds like you are on Windows as you are using IE...

On Mac, I would just execute an AppleScript using the 'Perform AppleScript' script step. This AppleScript would perform the terminal command line that executes the cURL command to submit form data based on data provided to it by a calculated field in FileMaker....

Maybe worth looking up some info on cURL, and also how you might be able to execute that on the Windows platform...

There are also FileMaker plugins that would do this such as NetTools ( http://www.acmetech.com/products/nettools/nettools.html )

Hope this helps

[El_Pablo]

You might try iMacros for Firefox or Chrome. This app can do automatic form filling. It also reads in CSV file which you can export from FM.

[Jason Lane]

I have done this before by using the 'cURL' command line tool...

I haven't tried doing this myself, so I could be totally wrong here... Couldn't you basically accomplish the same thing by setting the URL of a Web Viewer object on the FM layout? Something like Set Web Viewer [Action: Go to url...] and specify the same URL you would use in the cURL command? Eg. http://some.site.com/process.php?name=john&title=CEO

Of course, the URL can be a calculated expression.

[Jason Lane]

Sorry, I replied without really thinking about the original poster's specific requirements... To pre-populate a form IN the browser, I can think of a way to do it, but it relies on a few assumptions and knowing a few things about the form/page you are trying to fill out.

Firstly, instead of a Web Viewer, you can just use the Open URL script step to open the URL in your default web browser.

Now, depending on the form you are trying to populate, you might be able to pre-populate it through the URL. For example, by taking a quick look at the source code of google.com I was able to figure out how to pre-populate the search field. For example: http://www.google.com/webhp?q=prefilled

[El_Pablo]

I think this method only works when the form uses the "GET" method.

Using iMacros for Firefox is pretty cool, since you get to see all the automatic form filling. Also, it's free.

[Jason Lane]

Yup, my idea would only work with pages that use the GET method. Otherwise, iMacros sounds like it might work. Maybe some other plugins might server the purpose, too. Some to look at:

http://filemaker-plugins.com/features/network/