FileMaker Admin API Authentication Issue

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Now that the FileMaker Admin API is a standard feature in FileMaker Cloud for AWS 1.18 and FileMaker Server 18 and no longer a trial* I’ve been incorporating certain parts of the Admin API into client solutions. For example it is often helpful to see how many users are logged into your solution and get a list of their Account Names without having to use the Admin Console, or provide non admin users with access to the Admin Console.

I recently encountered an issue when calling the List Clients endpoint to see who was currently connected to a particular FileMaker solution. It was generating a 1627 error (Authentication failed) when performing the Insert from URL script step. This was strange as the same script had been working successfully earlier in the day and in previous days. I double checked the credentials for the server that were being used in the API request and they were correct, and verified these by logging into the Admin Console.

I was a bit puzzled at this stage and ran through the script once more with the Script Debugger. I was saving the response from the Insert from URL script step into a local variable, and upon further examination I noticed this was recording the following response from the Admin API:

{
"response": {},
"messages": [
{
"code": "956",
"text": "Maximum number of Admin API sessions exceeded"
}
]
}

There were no other Admin API sessions in use at this point – the Admin Console wasn’t being used – which further confused things. Logging in to the Admin Console again I could see that the list of connected clients wasn’t correct. If you’ve been using the FileMaker Server Admin Console for a few years now you’re probably familiar with this situation and the need to periodically restart the Admin Server via the following command line interface command:

fmsadmin restart adminserver

Once the Admin Server had restarted I tried the Admin API request to list the currently connected clients and it was successfully this time, so the authentication error was misleading in this case. If you encounter this error and you’ve verified the credentials are correct I would just go and restart the Admin Server on the FileMaker Server using the command line option above.

* the FileMaker Admin API was a trial feature in FileMaker Cloud 1.17 and FileMaker Server 17 and that trial period will expire on September 27, 2019 after which the API will cease to operate

FileMaker 18 Certified Developer

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Databuzz is pleased to announce that Andrew Duncan recently passed the Developer Essentials for FileMaker 18 Certification Exam and is now FileMaker Certified in v8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. FileMaker 18 Certification is the official credential offered by FileMaker, Inc.

FileMaker Certification is your validation that you are hiring an experienced FileMaker professional who has technical knowledge of the complete FileMaker product line and has passed the “Developer Essentials for FileMaker” certification exam. Being a certified developer demonstrates to clients, peers and management that you’ve achieved an essential level of knowledge, experience and skills in developing on the FileMaker Platform.

JSON Calculation Function Improvements in FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced

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As part of the compatibility testing of our products for the FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced release we were keen to test to see if there were any improvements to the performance of time consuming operations, such as downloading large sets of Orders from WooCommerce or Shopify, that involve parsing lots of JSON data.

We had been alerted to some JSON calculation function performance enhancements included with FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced so we set about running some tests with WooCommerce and Shopify and were pleasantly surprised to find out that the promises were true. In scripts such as this example:

where an initial set of JSON data representing a bulk group of Orders is retrieved and stored in a FileMaker variable, then each Order is parsed out in a looping script using the JSONGetElement function we’re seeing improvements of up to 50% from FileMaker Pro v16 and17.

If you’re using any of our products that use native FileMaker functions, such as fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) and fmEcommerce Link (Shopify Edition), we recommend using FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced to take advantage of the speed increases when downloading or uploading.

FileMaker Inc. releases FileMaker 18 Platform

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FileMaker Inc. today released the FileMaker 18 Platform with new versions of FileMaker Pro Advanced, Server, FileMaker Go, FileMaker WebDirect and FileMaker Cloud for AWS. As with previous releases the FileMaker 18 platform has a number of new features for both customers and developers alike. This releases marks the fifth annual release that started with v14 with all new versions shipping in May each year.

Updates in the FileMaker 18 Platform include:

  • New user interface for importing data - More easily map imported source data to FileMaker fields using the new Import Field Mapping dialog box. Use type ahead instead of drag and drop for greater efficiency. And specify custom delimiters when importing certain file types.
  • File-based script steps  – Create scripts that read, write, and manage external data files to write log files or export data in a custom format. Replaces the need for many file-based plug-ins.
  • New managed security access - This new privilege set allows developers to offload account access management to other team members without needing to provide full access to any other parts of the file.
  • Manage Security dialog box - The streamlined Manage Security dialog box allows you to be more efficient in managing access to your custom apps.
  • Startup restoration - FileMaker files are now automatically recoverable after a hardware or software crash. The restoration log in FileMaker Server validates database entries when a file is first opened, before client access, and if the file had not been properly closed.
  • Platform parity - The FileMaker Cloud for AWS 1.18 code base supports all of the new features in the FileMaker 18 Platform.

We’re please to report that all Databuzz products are compatible with the FileMaker 18 Platform:

There is a change related to Plug-in security enhancements with FileMaker 18 to ensure your plug-ins come from a trustworthy source before they are automatically loaded by your FileMaker app. Depending on your version of the plug-in used by some of our products this might be an issue the first time you open one of our products in FileMaker Pro 18 – see our compatibility update for further details on how to resolve this issue.

We’ll be publishing more articles over the coming months looking at some of the new features in the FileMaker 18 Platform in more depth – you can subscribe to our newsletter to be notified when they are released or follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

FileMaker 18 Platform Compatibility Update

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The FileMaker 18 Platform was released today and we’re pleased to report that all Databuzz products are compatible with the FileMaker 18 Platform. There is one issue that you may encounter related to the installation of plug-ins in FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced depending on the version of the BaseElements plug-in that you have currently installed.

When opening one of our integration solutions in FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced for the first time you will likely encounter one of the following dialog boxes:

There is a new feature in FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced related to the installation of plug-ins: FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced now notifies you when a plug-in has not been digitally signed by its developer. If Set Error Capture is on when the script runs that attempts to install the plug-in you will see the first dialog box, otherwise you will see the 2nd dialog box.

The Get(LastExternalErrorDetail) function has also changed in FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced and now returns information when plug-ins don’t install or load. For example it will return the following immediately after the Install Plug-In File script step has been performed when attempting to install a plug-in has not been digitally signed by its developer:

Plug-in not digitally signed [filemac:/Macintosh HD/Users/andrewduncan/Library/Application Support/FileMaker/FileMaker Pro Advanced/18.0/Extensions/BaseElements.fmplugin/]

If you see the 2nd dialog box you can simply tick the “Always load this plug-in” checkbox, then click the Load Plug-in button to permanently install the plugin and never receive a warning again each time FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced opens. If you would like to update to a digitally signed version of the plug-in we’ve created a simple FileMaker Pro file that you can download here to install a digitally signed version of the BaseElements plug-in. Just download the file, open with FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced and click the Install button to get the digitally signed version of the BaseElements plug-in.

If you’re already using v4.0.5 or higher of the BaseElements plug-in you will not need to do anything as that version has already been digitally signed.

Apart from the issue installing the plug-in for the first time we haven’t encountered any issues with the following products in our testing with the FileMaker 18 Platform:

fmSMS – we have sent messages from multiple SMS Gateways, received replies, checked Account balances and checked the status of sent Messages successfully.

fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) – we have been able to authenticate, download from Xero to FileMaker and upload from FileMaker to Xero successfully

fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) – we have been able to authenticate, download from WooCommerce to FileMaker and upload from FileMaker to WooCommerce successfully

fmEcommerce Link (Shopify Edition) – we have been able to authenticate, download from Shopify to FileMaker and upload from FileMaker to Shopify successfully

fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) – we have been able to authenticate, download from AccountRight to FileMaker and upload from FileMaker to AccountRight successfully

fmAccounting Link (MYOB Essentials Edition) – we have been able to authenticate, download from MYOB Essentials to FileMaker and upload from FileMaker to MYOB Essentials successfully

We’ve also noticed a nice speed increase when working with the JSON Calculation Functions in FileMaker Pro 18 Advanced which we’ve written about here.

If you encounter any issues with any of our products and FileMaker 18 Platform please let us know. We’ll be writing more articles about some of the new features in the FileMaker 18 Platform over the coming weeks – you can subscribe to our newsletter to be notified when they are released or follow us on Twitter or Facebook.