Client hardware identification

[Matthew F]

I'd like to allow mobile clients to "register" their devices to allow access to a solution hosted on Filemaker Server.  'Get(SystemNICaddress)' seems to return the address of the server, not the client. Any suggestions for how to uniquely identify clients, or to store a local registration number? I'm looking for a convenient and reliable system, not high security. 

[Ocean West]

Get(PersistentID) Returns text representing a unique identifier of the computer or device on which FileMaker is running. http://www.filemaker.com/12help/html/func_ref2.32.54.html

[Matthew F]

Thanks for your reply.  I tried Get(PersistentID) but, in a Server/Client setup, it returns the same ID for each device.  I assume it is the ID of the server, not the client.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Are you sure that it does that?  Is the calculation unstored?

 

Also, the key word in the definition of Get(PersistentID) is representing. 

 

Steven

[Matthew F]

Thanks for your input. 

 

Changing the calculation from "Not indexed" to "Unstored" now gives me a different ID on different devices. I guess that was the issue.

[comment]

Also, the key word in the definition of Get(PersistentID) is representing. 

 

I wonder what that means. I wish FMI would provide better documentation; as it is now, the only way to find out which parts of the hardware are "represented" in the ID is to take them out and see if the result has changed (assuming only hardware affects the result - we can't even be sure of that).

[Steven H. Blackwell]

What it means is that the Get(PersistentID) result is not a UUID from something on the hardware itself.  It's a hashed result. It still returns the same value for each query to the same machine.  IIRC, they made mention of this at the 2010 DevCon in San Diego.

 

Steven

[comment]

It's a hashed result.

 

Thanks, that's an interesting tidbit. I'd still like to know what exactly defines "the same machine".

[marioantonini]

I know this might be a bit old, but I would like to know if it has been explained somewhere what "the same machine" means?

Specially regarding PCs running Windows.

[mikeym]

I also wouldn't mind knowing more about this function as well. Wouldn't it have to be at least partially hardware based? If not, would wiping a FMP install and re-installing result in a different PersistentID?