Databuzz releases fmSMS v3 – rewritten for FileMaker Pro 12

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Databuzz today announced fmSMS v3, an upgrade to their award winning solution that lets you send and receive SMS/TXT messages from within FileMaker Pro.

fmSMS allows you to send an SMS from FileMaker Pro to almost any mobile phone in the world via one of the supported SMS Gateways, reaching over 860 mobile networks in more than 220 countries. SMS is great means of direct communication with customers, staff, suppliers, and students.

fmSMS v3 was rewritten for FileMaker Pro v12 and includes support for sending messages from FileMaker Go running on the iPad or iPhone. Databuzz will be demonstrating fmSMS v3 at the 2013 FileMaker Developer Conference, to be held in San Diego, California from August 12-15.

What’s New in v3

–        rewritten for FileMaker Pro v12

–        reduced the number of files from 3 to 1

–        now uses the BaseElements plug-in

–        simplified licensing: no limit on the number of FileMaker Pro clients

–        includes a license for FileMaker Server

–        FileMaker Go support for sending messages from an iPad or iPhone*

SMS is perfect for appointment reminders, phone messages, promotions, segmented marketing, school absence alerts, and password confirmations. With SMS you can reduce your costs and play less “telephone tag”.

fmSMS works with multiple SMS Gateway providers internationally and supports the following features**:

–        Send single and bulk SMS messages (messages are typically delivered in under 15 seconds)

–        Send long messages (greater than 160 characters)

–        Works with over 30 SMS Gateway providers internationally

–        Delayed Delivery – send a message now for delivery at a future time

–        Alphanumeric Sender ID

–        Delivery Receipts – track the status of sent messages

–        Message Logging – track the history of all sent messages

–        Message templates – create an unlimited number of pro forma templates

–        2 Way SMS – allow recipients to reply to messages and have them appear in fmSMS

“fmSMS is now easier to integrate into a customer’s existing FileMaker solution than ever,” said Andrew Duncan, Director of Databuzz. “We’ve simplified the licensing and included support for the entire FileMaker platform – you can now send an SMS from FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Go or FileMaker Server.”

Availability, Pricing, and Compatibility

fmSMS v3 is available now from the fmSMS website at http://www.fmsms.com. A 14 day trial version is available for both Macintosh and Windows. Workgroup Licenses start at AUD $495.00. fmSMS requires FileMaker Pro v12.

Upgrade Information

fmSMS v3 is a free upgrade for owners of fmSMS v2.

* FileMaker Go support requires the fmSMS file to be hosted by FileMaker Server

** Not all SMS Gateways support all features of fmSMS. Some features might incur additional charges by your selected SMS Gateway. Some features require hosting by FileMaker Server v12 with Custom Web Publishing using the PHP API and a static IP address. See our website at http://www.fmsms.com for more details.

Media/Customer Contact:

Andrew Duncan

Phone: +61 418 468 103

sales@databuzz.com.au

http://www.fmsms.com

http://www.databuzz.com.au

 

About Databuzz: Databuzz is a long standing member is a member of the FileMaker Business Alliance and has been developing and deploying FileMaker solutions for clients in Australia and internationally since 1999. Our clients are individuals, small-medium businesses, government agencies and multi-national corporations. Databuzz was founded by Andrew Duncan, a Certified FileMaker 12 Developer. In 2010 Andrew presented a session at the annual FileMaker Developer Conference on integrating SMS/TXT Message Integration with FileMaker. For more information please visit our website at http://www.databuzz.com.au.

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FileMaker is a trademark of FileMaker, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Databuzz to Exhibit at the 2013 FileMaker Developer Conference

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FileMaker Inc. have recently released the schedule for the 2013 FileMaker Developer Conference, to be held in San Diego, California from August 12-15. We’re excited to announce that we will be exhibiting at the conference for the first time, showcasing fmSMS v3, our 2 way SMS solution for FileMaker Pro.

 

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We’ve completely rewritten fmSMS from the ground up for FileMaker Pro v12, with a number of new features including support for FileMaker Go. If you’re coming to the conference please stop by and say hello and we can demonstrate how you can send and receive SMS/TXT messages using FileMaker Pro.

We hope to see as many of you there as possible and look forward to answering your questions about FileMaker and SMS integration.

fmSMS v3 Coming Soon

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We’re putting together the final touches to v3 of fmSMS, our two way SMS FileMaker solution that allows you to send and receive SMS/txt messages from your FileMaker database. With the release of FileMaker Pro v12 we decided to take this opportunity to rewrite fmSMS from the ground up, which has meant the v3 release has taken us a bit longer than we expected. Version 1 of fmSMS was originally created with FileMaker Pro v6, and v2 was developed with FileMaker Pro 9, 10 and 11. With the new v12 file format, plugin installation updates and the ExecuteSQL function we decided that it was a good time to go back to the drawing board and start afresh.

We’re also changing the plug-in we use with fmSMS v3 to the free BaseElements plug-in. The BaseElements plug-in already had a number of HTTP functions which we were able to implement quickly, however it was lacking a function that a number of our customers rely: proxy support. We decided to sponsor the development of this function which was included in the recent v2 release of the BaseElements plugin. The function is called as follows:

BE_HTTP_Set_Proxy ( proxy {; port ; username ; password } )

You can supply the proxy server address, along with the three optional parameters for the port number, proxy server username and proxy server password.

We’ve also reduced the number of files down from 3 to a single file. Using the BaseElements plug-in also allows us to remove any licensing restrictions and to include support for FileMaker Server scripts as standard (previously this required customers to purchase an additional plug-in license). We’ve also included support for additional SMS Gateways around the world, including the USA.

We hope to have the new version ready in a few weeks.

Clickatell 2011 Personalized Priority Messaging Awards

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We’ve entered fmSMS, our SMS/text messaging solution that lets you send and receive SMS messages using FileMaker Pro,  in the Clickatell 2011 Personalized Priority Messaging Awards. We would love to get your support for fmSMS – you can vote for us by clicking on the image below and voting for fmSMS. Just find “Databuzz” in the list of entries (should be #29 – have to scroll down to find it) and click the Vote Now link:

Thanks for your support!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clickatell launches new US small business SMS messaging package

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Clickatell, a global leader in mobile communications specialising in SMS messaging, has launched a new monthly service for US small businesses, starting at just $24.95 per month, which includes a dedicated number and up to 1,000 free outbound text messages per month. Additional outbound text messages are as little as 2¢ per message, and all incoming customer messages are free of charge.

Clickatell was the very first SMS Gateway supported by fmSMS and they have a very comprehensive developer API that allows us to integrate sending and receiving of SMS/TEXT messages from FileMaker Pro (receiving will require hosting by FileMaker Server v9 or higher with Custom Web Publishing/PHP API). This new offer, combined with fmSMS, provides a turnkey solution for US small businesses to be sending and receiving SMS messages from FileMaker Pro in minutes.

According to Clickatell SMS messages have been proven to generate 10x or higher direct response rates than other media, averaging between 15-45 percent versus a typical 1-5 percent for popular forms of direct marketing. Text messaging also has a 5x higher open rate than email (98 percent vs. 20 percent). Text messaging is capable of reaching 91 percent of people and is used by 64 percent of the U.S. population, versus only 26 percent using Twitter and 42 percent using Facebook. In addition, mobile messaging enables much more targeted, personal interaction and receipt notification than popular social media engines.

Click on the graphic below for full details or visit the Clickatell US Small Business website at http://www.clickatell.com/solutions/business/us_small_business.php


International Bulk SMS Gateway: Easy to integate

Databuzz releases fmSMS – Send and Receive SMS/TXT Messages in FileMaker Pro

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Just a quick note to say that we’ve finally got fmSMS out the door. It represents everything we’ve learned in over 10 years of FileMaker/SMS integration. We’d love to hear your feedback – you can download a trial copy now from the fmSMS website at http://www.fmsms.com. We’re already working on some new features and improvements for the next version.

Here’s the official press release:

Sydney, Australia – February 10, 2011 – Databuzz today announced fmSMS, a new solution that lets you send and receive SMS/TXT messages from within FileMaker Pro.

fmSMS allows you to send an SMS from FileMaker Pro to almost any mobile phone in the world via one of the supported SMS Gateways, reaching over 800 networks in more than 200 countries. SMS is great means of direct communication with customers, staff, suppliers, and students.

SMS traffic is growing at an exponential rate – an estimated 2.3 trillion text messages were sent in 2010. One billion text messages were sent in one day alone in Beijing this month on the eve of the Spring Festival, China’s biggest festival. fmSMS allows FileMaker users to be part of this growing and important means of communication.

SMS is perfect for appointment reminders, phone messages, promotions, segmented marketing, school absence alerts, and password confirmations. With SMS you can reduce your costs and play less “telephone tag”.

fmSMS works with multiple SMS Gateway providers internationally and supports the following features*:

– Send single and bulk SMS messages (messages are typically delivered in under 15 seconds)
– Send long messages (greater than 160 characters)
– Works with over 20 SMS Gateway providers internationally
– Delayed Delivery – send a message now for delivery at a future time
– Alphanumeric Sender ID
– Message Logging – track the history of all sent messages
– Message templates – create an unlimited number of pro forma templates
– 2 Way SMS – allow recipients to reply to messages and have them appear in fmSMS

“We’ve been helping customers integrate SMS with their FileMaker solutions for over 10 years,” said Andrew Duncan, Director of Databuzz. “fmSMS can be used as a standalone turnkey solution or can be integrated directly into a customer’s existing FileMaker solution.”

Praise from independent FileMaker developers

“As a vertical solution provider, there is no point in re-inventing the wheel. fmSMS provided us an accelerated learning curve and bolt on schema saving us loads of time in development. A great investment.” Andrew Markham Xercise Pro

Availability, Pricing, and Compatibility

fmSMS is available now from the fmSMS website at http://www.fmsms.com. A 14 day trial version is available for both Macintosh and Windows. Workgroup Licenses start at AUD $495.00. fmSMS requires FileMaker Pro v10 or later.

* Not all SMS Gateways support all features of fmSMS. Some features might incur additional charges by your selected SMS Gateway. Some features require hosting by FileMaker Server v9 or later with Custom Web Publishing using the PHP API and a static IP address. See our website at http://www.fmsms.com for more details.

Media/Customer Contact:

Andrew Duncan
Phone: +61 418 468 103
sales@databuzz.com.au
http://www.fmsms.com
http://www.databuzz.com.au

About Databuzz: Databuzz is a long standing member is a member of the FileMaker Business Alliance and has been developing and deploying FileMaker solutions for clients in Australia and internationally since 1999. Our clients are individuals, small-medium businesses, government agencies and multi-national corporations. Databuzz was founded by Andrew Duncan, a Certified FileMaker 11, 10,9 and 8 Developer. In 2010 Andrew presented a session at the annual FileMaker Developer Conference on integrating SMS/TXT Message Integration with FileMaker. For more information please visit our website at http://www.databuzz.com.au.

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FileMaker is a trademark of FileMaker, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Using FileMaker Plug-ins with Instant Web Publishing

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I normally don’t work with FileMaker’s Instant Web Publishing (IWP), preferring to work with Custom Web Publishing and the PHP API which gives me more flexibility without the limitations of IWP. I was recently working with a client that had deployed an IWP solution hosted by FileMaker Pro (not FileMaker Server Advanced) and wanted to integrate our fmSMS solution, which allows you to send/receive SMS/txt messages in FileMaker. I quickly found a problem though – the plug-in that we use to send the SMS messages was not being recognised by the IWP clients/browsers, despite it working fine in the FileMaker Pro client. The problem took a while to locate but the solution was simple and was not something I could find documented anywhere else so I thought I would write it up here in case this helps someone else out there having the same problem.

As I started to test whether we could deploy our SMS solution via IWP I wasn’t too confident to start with as I wasn’t sure whether plug-ins were supported under IWP in the first place, and had already worked out a backup plan if that was the case. I first checked the FileMaker 11 Instant Web Publishing Guide to see if it mentioned the compatability of plug-ins with IWP, and was encouraged to see the following: “Typically, third party plug-ins can be used for web published databases if they do not attempt to display information to an end-user’s screen, if they do not require direct end-user interaction, if they do not interact with the FileMaker Pro user interface, or otherwise require interaction from end users”. I was bolstered by this as our plug-in doesn’t involve any user interface interaction – it simply communicates with an online SMS Gateway and returns the result into a field via the Set Field script step. As fmSMS is a multi-file solution that was never designed with IWP in mind I decided to create a quick test file with only the basic tables, fields, layouts and scripts necessary to test it under the IWP environment. I made sure all the scripts were IWP compatible, tested it in FileMaker Pro Advanced as the host successfully then was ready to test in IWP.

My first test in IWP returned a “?”, which I know usually means the plug-in was not installed or enabled. However I could see the plug-in listed under the FileMaker preferences and knew it was loaded as FileMaker Pro Advanced was able to run my scripts successfully and return the correct result. I wasn’t getting puzzled at this point and spent a few more hours modifying scripts, creating new plug-in tests to ensure it was loaded but I always ended up with a “?” everytime I called a plug-in function. I gave up for the night and decided to sleep on it.

The next day I started again and continued to get the “?” result no matter what I tried. I was almost ready to give up and pronounce that this plug-in was not compatible with IWP but decided to try one last test. By default I always install (or FileMaker Server installs for me via it’s Auto Update feature) all my plug-ins in the user’s Application Data folder, which is located at the following for each of the supported platforms:

  • Windows XP: C:\Document Settings\User Name\Local Settings\ApplicationData\FileMaker\Extensions
  • Windows Vista/Windows 7: C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Local\FileMaker\Extensions
  • Mac OS X: Macintosh HD/Users/User Name/Library/Application Support

I moved the plug-in from here to the traditional location inside the FileMaker Application folder, which is usually one of these for each platform:

  • C:\Program Files\FileMaker\FileMaker Pro 11 Advanced\Extensions
  • Macintosh HD/Applications/FileMaker Pro 11 Advanced/Extensions

After relaunching FileMaker Pro Advanced and quickly tested everything worked fine I started what was going to be my last test via IWP and it worked! I’m not 100% sure why this is the case as I can’t find any documentation from FileMaker Inc about this but I suspect it relates to the FM Web Publishing application. The FM Web Publishing app is located at either:

  • C:\Program Files\FileMaker\FileMaker Pro 11 Advanced\ExtensionsWeb Support\FM Web Publishing.exe
  • Macintosh HD/Applications/FileMaker Pro 11 Advanced/Extensions/Web Support/FM Web Publishing.app

and it appears that the FM Web Publishing app can only see plug-ins that are also in the FileMaker Pro Application Extensions folder – at least in the case of the plug-in I’m working with, I haven’t tested this with other plug-ins under IWP. If you’re hosting your IWP solution under FileMaker Server Advanced you won’t encounter this as it only applies to hosting IWP solutions with FileMaker Pro/Pro Advanced – you install plug-ins in different locations for FileMaker Server Advanced hosting.

So in summary if you’re working with plug-ins for solutions hosted by FileMaker Pro/Pro Advanced and deployed via IWP and can’t get the plug-in functions to work correctly, make sure you have installed the plug-in in the FileMaker Pro/Pro Advanced Application Extensions folder not in the user’s Application Data folder. Note that if you have the same plug-in installed in both locations the user’s Application Data folder will take preference over the Application Extensions folder so make sure to remove it from the user’s Application Data folder.

Databuzz eNews – July 2010 Released

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We’ve just released our eNews newsletter for July 2010. You can view it online at:

http://www.databuzz.com.au/enews/enews_072010_generic.html

If you want to be added to the newsletter mailing list just leave a comment below and we’ll add you to the list until our new automated subscription service is operational.

FileMaker Announces Schedule for FileMaker Developer Conference 2010 in San Diego

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FileMaker, Inc. have announced the sessions and workshops schedule for the FileMaker Developer Conference 2010, the largest annual gathering of worldwide FileMaker independent and corporate database developers, trainers and users. This year’s conference will be at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, August 15 to 18, 2010.
This year’s conference will feature more than 80 sessions and workshops, the most ever offered, led by recognized FileMaker experts. Key sessions will focus on FileMaker database development best practices and techniques including FileMaker Server configuration, content sharing between FileMaker and Microsoft Office, FileMaker and the Cloud, working with calculations and more. Conference sessions and workshops will also include detailed information about designing databases on a large scale and displaying information through reports.
Databuzz is pleased to announce that Andrew Duncan will be presenting two sessions at this year’s conference. The first session is titled “Integrating SMS/TXT Messaging to Your FileMaker Solution Session” and is part of the Integration/Web stream. In this session attendees will learn how to integrate the ability to send SMS messages directly into your FileMaker solution. The session will cover:
  • what is required to start sending SMS messages from FileMaker Pro – how to use simple FileMaker Pro native technologies to send an SMS (e.g. scripts steps, Script Triggers and Web Viewers)
  • when to consider using external plug-ins instead of native technologies and which plug-ins to use
  • when to consider using a hardware modem and how to configure ESS for this
  • how to receive incoming SMS messages directly into your FileMaker Pro solution
The second session is also part of the Integration/Web stream and is titled  “Building a FileMaker Pro/Custom Web Publishing Solution for Internal and External Users”. Many FileMaker in-house solutions often require limited access by external parties that do not use FileMaker Pro. In this session we will walk you through how to approach the development of a “hybrid” solution that has 2 types of users: in-house staff using FileMaker Pro and external customers/users using Custom Web Publishing. Find out when and how to use the FileMaker API for PHP to give access to external users to your FileMaker solution. Several case studies will demonstrate how these problems have been solved and what lessons we have learned along the way (things I know now that I wish I had known then).

Attendees can save US $200 on the conference price by registering by May 21, 2010. You can get all the details at the DevCon website

Cleaning up Smart Quotes in FileMaker Pro v10

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One of my pet hates is the use of “smart quotes” in FileMaker Pro. Smart quotes are the curly quotation marks and curly apostrophes and are usually entered in 2 ways:

1. the setting for smart quotes is enabled by default for the creation of new .fp7 database files on Mac OS X but not for Windows XP, so anytime you enter an apostrophe or a quote mark you will be using smart quotes.

2. pasting in text from Microsoft Word, which also has a preference setting for smart quotes and which is also enabled by default (you can get instructions for how to turn this off on Windows here)

Here are some examples of how they appear:

Single Left Smart Quote: ‘

Single Right Smart Quote: ’

Double Left Smart Quote: “

Double Right Smart Quote: ”

The smart quotes setting in FileMaker Pro can be found by opening a database file and going to the File menu > File Options, and click the Text tab (note that you must log in using the Full Access privilege set to edit items in the Text tab). Here you can toggle smart quotes on and off- if you enable smart quotes when it was previously off this will only affect new typing as any existing data will not be edited automatically.

For many users smart quotes are not problematic, but when it comes to exchanging data with other database platforms (e.g. SQL) and systems (particularly web based systems) their presence will often cause data exchange processes to break or for text not to be displayed correctly, which means you then have to deal with any smart quotes in your data. I was recently working on submitting FileMaker data to on online system and was required to URL encode my data. Everything was working well until one day data was being truncated for no obvious reason. After many tests I realised that some of the apostrophe and quotation characters were not being URL encoded correctly (I was using this handy custom function to URL encode the data before submitting it via HTTP POST). Once I zoomed in on the text to 400% and changed the font to a sans serif font all was clear – the text was using smart quotes which the customer has enabled as this was the default setting for a new .fp7 file on Mac OS X. I quickly turned that off which meant any new data entered directly into the fields would not be using smart quotes, but all the existing data needed to be cleaned up. I created a new custom function RemoveSmartQuotes (text) which uses one of the new functions in FileMaker Pro v10 to reference a character without having to actually type/enter the character into a calculation.

The following calculation uses the Char function to identify any instances of the single and double smart quotes/apostrophes and replace them with plain (straight) quotes and apostrophes:

Substitute (

text ;

[ Char ( 8216 ) ; “‘” ] ; // left smart quote
[ Char ( 8217 ) ; “‘” ] ;  // right smart quote

[ Char ( 8220) ; “\”” ] ; // left double smart quote
[ Char ( 8221) ; “\”” ]   // right double smart quote

 

)

I’ve dcreate a custom function that uses this calculation that you can copy/paste into your file which should appear shortly on Brian Dunning’s custom function site. This custom function can then be used in a number of ways to clean up text that cannot have any smart quotes in them, for example as an auto enter calculation on a field or in a script that transforms data. If you’re using a version of FileMaker Pro before v10 you simply need to change the use of the Char function with the actual smart quotes themselves and remember to escape the double quotes.