Using Web Services

[FileMaker Magazine]

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By Matt Petrowsky

The Internet has definitely changed the world we live in and how people interact with information. Your own FileMaker solution may seem like an island until you throw a web viewer onto the layout.

As soon as you do that, you're thinking about how much easier it would be if you could just "click a button" to interact with the web site being viewed.

Fortunately, in today's Internet world, the interconnection of things is extremely pervasive. There aren't too many solutions which don't provide some type of API where you can connect with and exchange information as desired.

You can even turn your own FileMaker database into a web service which other FileMaker solutions can connect to. Ultimately, the goal is making things happen between various services. In recent versions of FileMaker, new functionality was added. The Insert from URL step allows for POSTing information and interacting with basic web services.

The limitations, however, can be bypassed if you're willing to add a bit more power to your workflow.

In this video, you'll make the best investment you can about getting started and knowing how web services can be used in FileMaker. Whether shortening urls, posting to Twitter or Facebook or connecting to Quickbooks online or Salesforce, you certainly need to know how the connections are made!

External links

Previous video about SOAP/WSDL web services

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