Databuzz 2024 End of Year Xmas Sale – 20% Off All Licenses

The Databuzz End of Year Xmas Sale is now on. We only have one sale each year and for the next 2 weeks you can save 20% on all Product Licenses including:

Use the coupon XMAS2024 at checkout on any purchase and the 20% discount will be applied to your order (excludes Maintenance products). The sale runs until the end of the day on December 31, 2024 (Australian Eastern Daylight Time). Click here to start shopping.

Free trial versions are available for all of our products. You can also get 20% off our custom integration services if you need assistance with integrating one of our products into your existing Claris FileMaker solution.

All our prices are in Australian dollars – if you’re purchasing from outside of Australia you’ll also get to take advantage of the low Australian dollar.

fmMMS Updated for Telstra Messaging API v3

fmMMS, our FileMaker solution that lets you send and receive MMS messages from the Claris FileMaker Platform, has been updated to support the Telstra Messaging API v3. The Telstra Messaging API v2 was switched off on 31 August 2024 and all users should now be using the v3 API.

You can download a trial version of fmMMS to test with the Telstra Messaging API v3 Gateway from the from the Databuzz website. You can try out Messaging API v3 with Telstra’s no-commitment free trial and send up to 100 messages to up to 10 recipients with no time limit, no obligation and no billing information required.

More information on using the Telstra Messaging API v3 Gateway with fmMMS is available on our support site.

fmSMS Updated for Telstra Messaging API v3

fmSMS, our FileMaker solution for sending and receiving SMS messages from the Claris FileMaker Platform, has been updated to support the Telstra Messaging API v3. The Telstra Messaging API v2 was switched off on 31 August 2024 and all users should now be using the v3 API.

You can download a trial version of fmSMS to test with the Telstra Messaging API v3 Gateway from the from the Databuzz website. You can try out Messaging API v3 with Telstra’s no-commitment free trial and send up to 100 messages to up to 10 recipients with no time limit, no obligation and no billing information required.

More information on using the Telstra Messaging API v3 Gateway with fmSMS is available on our support site.


FileMaker Custom Integrations

The Reconnect.Brisbane Claris FileMaker Developer conference gets underway tomorrow in Brisbane and it’s shaping up to be a great conference. With attendees from 9 countries and sponsors from 6 countries it’s going to have a real international flavour this year.

Databuzz is pleased to once again sponsor the Reconnect conference and I’ll be doing a short sponsor presentation where I’ll showcase our FileMaker integration solutions and also talk a little bit about some interesting custom integration projects we’ve worked on over the past year.

In addition to developing our integration solutions we work with customers all around the world helping them integrate their FileMaker solutions with a variety of platforms including:

Over the past 12 months we’ve worked on some interesting and challenging integration projects – here’s a summary of some of these:

Microsoft Office 365 – this integration involved working with the Microsoft Graph API to download emails from Office 365 so these could be viewed within FileMaker. We created a solution to download the emails from Office 365 and view them using a Web Viewer as well as any associated attachments. Webhooks were setup to receive notifications for new messages which triggered a FileMaker Server script to download the new messages.

GitHub – a client was using GitHub, the popular platform for software developers to manage code, version control etc, for tracking issues for their yacht including maintenance tasks. We helped integrate their customer FileMaker solution with GitHub so they could download issues from GitHub, edit these in FileMaker and upload edited issues and new ones with attachments to GitHub.

Amazon Business APIs – we worked with a charter school organisation in the USA to connect FileMaker with the Amazon Business APIs. This involved downloading Products from Amazon in bulk and creating Orders in Amazon and tracking these from FileMaker.

Macquarie Bank DEFT API – a client wanted to integrate with the Macquarie Bank DEFT API to generate welcome emails for DEFT registration, download Direct Debit Authorities, create new payments, search for transactions and more.

Cin7 – a client was using the Cin7 inventory management software and wanted to download sales orders and customers from Cin7 into their custom FileMaker solution for reporting. A FileMaker Server script schedule was created to download new orders from Cin7 weekly and upload those to their FileMaker solution.

If you’re attending Reconnect.Brisbane please come and say hello. Attendees will receive a discount coupon for 20% off all our integration solutions from our online store and one lucky attendee will win a free company license to one of our products as well.

I’ll also be co-presenting the Tips, Tricks, and Opinions you can’t ignore session after lunch on the 2nd day with Nicholas Orr from Goya where I’ll share some of my top time saving tips for faster FileMaker development.

fmSMS Now Supports SMS Express SMS Gateway

fmSMS, our FileMaker solution for sending and receiving SMS messages from the Claris FileMaker Platform, has been updated to support the SMS Express SMS Gateway based in Australia.

The Guni SMS Gateway delivers SMS messages to Australian and and New Zealand mobile numbers – with SMS Express You only pay for SMS. Everything else is free.

You can download a trial version of fmSMS to test with the SMS Express SMS Gateway from the from the Databuzz website. You can signup for a free trial with SMS Express and receive 10 free SMS credits to start testing (no credit card required). More information on using the SMS Express Gateway with fmSMS is available on our support site.

fmMMS Now Supports Sending WhatsApp Messages with the Vonage Messages API

fmMMS, our FileMaker solution that lets you send and receive MMS messages from the Claris FileMaker Platform, has just been updated to support sending messages to WhatsApp users via the Vonage Messages API. This is the second MMS Gateway that you can use to send and receive WhatsApp messages with fmMMS (v1.0 of fmMMS supported sending WhatsApp message using the Twilio Gateway).

More than 2 billion people in over 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends and family and with WhatsApp Business you can communicate directly with your customers. You can send notifications, customer service messages, and essential information your customers need on WhatsApp.

fmMMS supports sending WhatsApp Message Templates using the Vonage API for WhatsApp – being able to send WhatsApp Message Templates is important if you wish to initiate new conversations with your customer.

fmMMS also supports testing using the Vonage Messages API Sandbox – this allows you to test sending WhatsApp messages for free whilst you are developing an integration with WhatsApp. It also works with free trial version of fmMMS.

You can download a trial version of fmMMS to test with the Vonage API for WhatsApp from here. More information on sending WhatsApp message with the Vonage Messages API with fmMMS is available on our support site.

fmSMS Now Supports Sending WhatsApp Templates with the Vonage Messages API

Earlier this year we updated fmSMS, our FileMaker solution for sending and receiving SMS messages from the Claris FileMaker Platform, to support sending messages to WhatsApp users via the Vonage Messages API. We’ve just realised a minor update to this integration to now also support sending WhatsApp Message Templates using the Vonage API for WhatsApp.

WhatsApp divides messages into two different types: Template messages and Session messages. These determine when you can initiate a message to a WhatsApp user.

WhatsApp has a concept of a 24 hour customer care window, during which a business can freely message an end user. The 24 hour window can be initiated in two ways:

  • An end user sends a message to the business
  • A business sends a templated message to the end user. The 24 hour window starts as soon as the end user replies.

Templates must be approved by WhatsApp before they can be used to send messages to an end user. When the 24 hour window expires, a new 24 hour customer care window must be initiated again. Being able to send WhatsApp Message Templates is important if you wish to initiate new conversations with your customer.

You can download a trial version of fmSMS to test with the Vonage Messages API from the Databuzz website. More information on sending WhatsApp message with the Vonage Messages API and fmSMS is available on our support site.

FileMaker Pro 2024 Now Supports Local Notifications

I’ve written previously about generating local notifications from FileMaker Pro (for example when a new incoming SMS has been received) which use AppleScript to create the notifications. The use of AppleScript had a number of limitations: this was limited to macOS users and didn’t support performing a FileMaker script when the user clicked the notification, and also required the fmextscriptaccess extended privilege to be enabled.

In FileMaker 17 Claris introduced the Configure Local Notification script step which allowed you to display a local notification alert on a device when FileMaker Go is either in the background or is not running. The notifications would appear like other iOS notifications on your iPhone or iPad:

The release last month of FileMaker 2024 included a couple of important updates to the Configure Local Notification script step:

  • it now supports creating local notifications in FileMaker Pro (as well as FileMaker Go)
  • it can now display a notification when FileMaker Go is in the foreground (FileMaker Go only) by using the new Show when app in foreground option

This means FileMaker developers can now generate local notifications on both macOS and Windows without needing to use any third party technology such as AppleScript or a FileMaker plug-in. These notifications are great for letting users know when certain processes have finished.

I’ve been using the Perform Script On Server with Callback script step that was first introduced with FileMaker 2023 (v20) a lot recently – it’s a great way to offload long processes to the server and continue to work in FileMaker Pro but also be notified when the server script has finished. Previously I would set my Callback script to use a Custom Dialog box to let the user know when the server script had finished and if there were any errors. With FileMaker Pro 21 I can now change these to use local notifications which are cleaner and don’t require any interaction from the user and allow me to run a script when users click the notification.

On Windows these appear in the bottom right where other Windows notifications appear:

and on macOS these appear in the top right hadn’t corner where other macOS notifications appear:

Here’s a short video showing this in action (you can also watch this on YouTube here):

fmMMS Now Supports Guni MMS Gateway

fmMMS, our FileMaker solution that lets you send and receive MMS messages from the Claris FileMaker Platform, has just been updated to include support for the Guni MMS Gateway based in Australia. With fmMMS and Guni you can send and receive MMS messages to Australian mobile numbers.

You can download a trial version of fmMMS to test with the Guni MMS Gateway from here. More information on using the Guni Gateway with fmMMS is available on our support site.

fmSMS, our FileMaker solution for sending and receiving SMS messages from the Claris FileMaker Platform, has also been updated to support the Guni SMS Gateway.

fmSMS Now Supports Guni SMS Gateway

fmSMS, our FileMaker solution for sending and receiving SMS messages from the Claris FileMaker Platform, has been updated to support the Guni SMS Gateway based in Australia.

The Guni SMS Gateway delivers SMS messages to Australian mobile numbers – their 2000+ customers are increasing sales, improving customer engagement, simplifying customer support and reducing no-shows with Guni’s easy-to-use SMS Gateway & MMS Gateway, 2-way messages, appointment reminders and API integration.

Guni also support sending MMS messages and fmMMS, our FileMaker solution that lets you send and receive MMS messages from the Claris FileMaker Platform, has also been updated to include support for the Guni MMS Gateway.

You can download a trial version of fmSMS to test with the Guni SMS Gateway from the from the Databuzz website. You can signup for a free trial and receive 30 free SMS credits to start testing (no credit card required). More information on using the Guni Gateway with fmSMS is available on our support site.