We’ve just added support for the Nobel SMS Gateway based in Romania. Nobel provides a high performance messaging solution and can reach over 800 operators in 180 countries across the world.
You can download a trial version of fmSMS to test with the Nobel SMS Gateway from here – please get in touch if you have any questions about using fmSMS with Nobel.
Back in 2018 we wrote about the new version of the WooCommerce REST API – v3 – that was released as part of WooCommerce 3.5. We had planned to let the dust settle for a few months before switching over from v2 to v3 and make this change in 2019. Time got away from us and with WooCommerce 4.0 just around the corner we felt we should make this change now.
We’ve just released an update to fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) – v1.65. In this version we’ve changed the version number of the API that we call from v2 to v3 in the WooCommerce_BaseURL custom function. At this stage we haven’t made any v3 specific changes as these were much smaller in scope than the jump from v1 to v2 of the REST API. The system requirements for fmEcommerce Link (WooCommerce Edition) will change slightly – you will need WooCommerce 3.5.x or later and WordPress 4.4 or later. We do plan on adding support for v3 specific changes in future updates, such as the new reviews endpoint and refunding of line items.
There are also a number of other changes in this update (full list here) including:
The FileMaker Server Data API will replace the current XML and PHP APIs over time so we’re excited to include support for the Data API. Supporting the Data API also means you can now use Webhooks when your file is hosted by FileMaker Cloud for AWS, as well as FileMaker Server v17 or later. We’ve been testing these Data API Webhooks for the past few months with a FileMaker Cloud for AWS hosted solution and the PHP files running on Amazon Lightsail successfully.
The Data API is language agnostic – you can use whichever programming language you prefer here. We’ve gone with PHP for our examples as that is what we know best. Remember when working with the Data API you will need to enable the fmrest extended privilege for the Webhooks Privilege Set:
If you are just looking to use the Data API PHP files make sure you also update the Process Webhooks Order script as this has been updated to work with the Data API version of the Webhooks which work slightly differently to the existing PHP API ones.
Once again this is a free update to all existing customers (simply download using the same link that was on your original order email). If you’re having any issues with downloading the new version please contact us if you need the link to be reset etc.
We’ve just added support for the MessageBird SMS Gateway based in Amsterdam. MessageBird provides global SMS messaging and you can send and receive SMS messages around the world on a platform powered by connections with over 240 carriers in 200 countries.
You can download a trial version of fmSMS to test with the MessageBird SMS Gateway from here – please get in touch if you have any questions about using fmSMS with MessageBird.
We’ve just released another free update to fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition), our FileMaker solution for integrating with the DocuSign eSignature platform. This updates provides additional functionality around DocuSign Templates including:
The new Template Tabs Value field allows you to specify a hardcoded value (e.g. “Acme Inc” for a text tab that users would enter their Company Name into) or a merge field, e.g.:
RequestsContactsContacts::Positionthat will be merged at runtime as the Envelope is being constructed and replaced with the value from that field reference for the current recipient record. We’v also added a Locked field to the Template Tabs table to allow certain fields to be locked or “read-only” to the recipient. You can see the difference in the following screenshots. In the first screenshot we have set the Locked Value to false – the field has the pre-populated value but we can edit this if required:
In the next screenshot we have set the set the Locked Value to true and the field has the blue border and cannot be edited:
Here’s a short video showing the downloading of Template Tabs and Roles and how to use the new Template Tabs Value field to pre-populate custom tabs (you can also watch it on YouTube here):
The full list of changes are listed in the version history here. Existing customers can download this version from the link on your original order email (contact us if you need the link to be reset etc).
We’re pleased to announce that v1.4 of fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) is now available and includes a number of new features, including native support for FileMaker Pro v16 and later. This is a free update to all existing customers (simply download using the same link that was on your original order email).
With the release of the FileMaker 16 platform we got a number of new functions and script steps, including support for working with JSON data and being able to specify supported cURL options with the Insert From URL script step. These new features meant that we were no longer dependent on plug-in functions and we could replace these with native FileMaker features.
We’ve updated all the requests for downloading and uploading to the AccountRight API to use native FileMaker functions and script steps so you no longer need to use a FileMaker plug-in if you’re using FileMaker Pro v16 or higher. This means you can also use fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) on FileMaker Go natively (requires FileMaker Go 16 or higher).
Like our previous updates for native FileMaker functionality for our other products we’ve simply updated the scripts to check which version of FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Go or FileMaker Server is being used and if you’re using v15 or earlier we simply use the previous plug-in functionality, and if you’re using v16 or later we now use native functionality. Everything works exactly the same regardless of which version of FileMaker Pro you’re using, but we can now include support for FileMaker Go as well as having one less dependency to worry about.
This release also includes examples for downloading and uploading Timesheets as well as downloading Payroll Categories, and some example scripts for searching for Contacts in AccountRight by Company/Individual Name and Card ID.
You can get all the details on our version history page – if there are any additional features or examples you would like to see in fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) please get in touch and let us know. If you’re having any issues with downloading the new version please contact us if you need the link to be reset etc.
The Databuzz End of Year Xmas Sale is now on – all Product Licenses are now 20% off, including:
Use the coupon XMAS2019 at checkout on any purchase and the 20% discount will be applied to your order. The sale runs until the end of the day on December 31, 2019 (Australian Eastern Daylight Time). Click here to start shopping. fmSMS licenses can be purchased from the fmSMS website.
Free trial versions are available for all of our products – please contact us to request a trial version.
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 (1 Australian Dollar equals approximately 0.69 US Dollars).
Earlier this month Xero said goodbye to OAuth 1.0a and moved to OAuth 2.0 for a simpler, faster and more secure authentication experience (see our earlier post about this). We’ve been busy working on an update to fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition), our solution for integrating the FileMaker Platform with Xero, which we previewed in an previous post where we discussed the changes and the updates we plan to release as a result of the move to OAuth 2.0.
We’re pleased to announce that v1.97 of fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) now supports OAuth 2.0, so new customers can now create OAuth 2.0 apps for the Xero API and connect them to the FileMaker Platform using fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition). We’ve updated our integration guide and posted a new video showing you how to setup an OAuth 2.0 app. Setting up an OAuth 2.0 app in Xero and connecting this to the fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) solution only takes a few minutes and once you’ve completed the initial authentication everything works the same as before.
We’re working on documenting the process if you wish to convert your existing fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) solution from OAuth 1.0a to OAuth 2.0. There’s no immediate rush as you have until December 2020 to update existing OAuth 1.0a integrations to OAuth 2.0. We’re also working on v2.0 of fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) which will only support OAuth 2.0 and not require a FileMaker plug-in – it will use native FileMaker functions and scripts and will require FileMaker Pro v16 or later.
If you have any questions about fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) and OAuth 2.0 please get in touch or post a comment below.
Xero recently launched a beta version of OAuth 2.0 for the Xero APIs for developers building new integrations. OAuth 2.0 is a replacement for the current OAuth 1.0a which works with various app “types”, including partner, public and private. fmAccounting Link uses the private app type – with OAuth 2.0 the concept of “app types” will be going away and all developers will use OAuth 2.0.
Xero’s OAuth 2.0 implementation is built to the industry standard spec for OAuth 2.0, so if you’ve used it before it will be very familiar (we use this in our fmAccounting Link (MYOB AccountRight Edition) solution for the MYOB AccountRight Cloud).
Last month Xero announced that from 2 December 2019 developers will no longer be able to create OAuth 1.0a apps on the Xero platform and that all new apps will need to use OAuth 2.0. We will be releasing a free update to fmAccounting Link in December that supports OAuth 2.0 – essentially this involves changing how the authentication process works (see preview video below). We will have further details on the changes involved if you wish to update your existing integration when we release this update.
One of the additional benefits of the move to OAuth 2.0 is that we can finally remove the plug-in dependency for authenticating with the Xero API that was necessary when using OAuth 1.0a. This has been the reason why we haven’t been able to release a version of fmAccounting Link that runs natively on the FileMaker 16 Platform or higher without requiring a FileMaker plug-in. There are a number of benefits to removing the plug-in dependency, including faster API request processing and the ability to use other clients like FileMaker Go (without being connected to FileMaker Server).
As part of the migration to OAuth 2.0 Xero have announced that existing OAuth 1.0a apps will continue to be supported until at least December 2020, allowing you sufficient time to migrate across to the new platform. This means by December 2020 you will need to update your integration to use OAuth 2.0.
fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) currently supports FileMaker Pro v12 or higher and the native functions and script steps that replace the plug-in calls were only introduced in FileMaker Pro v16, so we will be releasing 2 updates to fmAccounting Link (Xero Edition) over the next few months:
We will be in contact with all existing customers once we have the first free update available and will have further instructions on our website about how to make the transition to OAuth 2.0. If you would like to see how this will look here’s a preview video showing the changes to the authentication – you can also watch this directly on YouTube here.
We’ve just released another free update to fmEcommerce Link (Shopify Edition), our FileMaker solution for integrating your FileMaker solution with the Shopify platform. This update is mainly concerned with changes that Shopify have made to their API that require integrators to make some small changes to their API requests.
UPDATED 21 March 2020: Shopify have announced that due to the current COVID-19 situation and impact on businesses they have decided to postpone the April 1 version removal to July 1, 2020.
API Versioning: earlier this year Shopify announced that they were introducing API Versioning which allows them to introduce new versions of the API without breaking previous versions of the API. Versions will be released on a quarterly cycle, on the first of January, April, July, and October and are named after calendar dates, such as 2019-04 for the April 2019 release.
As a result of this change they require you to include the API Version in your HTTP request URLs. For example a request to the Orders Admin API endpoint currently looks like this:
/admin/orders.jsonWith API Versioning include it will look like this:
/admin/api/2019-10/orders.jsonTo support API Versioning we’ve added a new custom function – ShopifyAPIVersion – to store the API Version number which can be easily updated over time. We’ve also updated all the URLs that are generated to include this, for example:
$$fmShopifyWebsite & "/admin/api/" & ShopifyAPIVersion & "/customers/count.json"Shopify do allow you to continue to call the Admin API with no version, and they will return with the oldest supported version. However, they strongly recommend that you start including version numbers in order to make your application version-aware and anchor your code to a specific set of features that are guaranteed to behave in the same way for the next 12 months.
If you want to read more about API Versioning we recommend the following Shopify pages:
Deprecation of Page-Based Pagination: as part of the changes to API Versioning Shopify are deprecating page-based pagination and changing to what they call cursor-based pagination. Some customers have already started receiving notification emails from Shopify about these changes warning them to update by April 1, 2020 to avoid breaking changes.
The 2019-07 and 2019-10 Release of the API include these changes and no longer support page-based pagination, and as the API version 2019-04 will be removed on April 1, 2020 you will need to update your requests to support cursor-based pagination before then. We’ve done all the hard work for you so you can copy and paste the changes across to your existing integration or simply download the latest version of the fmEcommerce Link (Shopify Edition) solution if you are using the fmEcommerce Link file without modifications.
A typical page-based pagination request looks like this:
$$fmShopifyWebsite & "/admin/customers.json?limit=" & $limit & "&page=" & $pageYou can see the “page” parameter is specified here – support for this is being removed. Instead you will make an initial request specifying the “limit” as you currently do, and if there are additional pages of results Shopify will let you know by including a response header that looks like this:
Link: <https://acmecorp.myshopify.com/admin/api/2019-10/customers.json?limit=5&page_info=eyJsYXN0X2lkIjoyODYzOTIxMjM0MTIsImxhc3RfdmFsdWUiOjODAwMDAsImRpcmVjdGlvbiI6Im5leHQifQ>; rel="next"If there is another page of results to request you can check for a “rel=”next” value and grab the associated URL to use as the URL for the next request. When there is no rel=”next” Link returned in the response headers you no longer need to make any further requests.
We’ve updated all the scripts that request multiple records from Shopify (Get All Customers, Get All Products etc) that were using page-based pagination to the new cursor-based pagination method. We’ve added a new custom function for the native branch (getNextLink) to capture the “next” URL, and for the plug-in branch we’re using the BE_HTTP_ResponseHeaders plug-in function to do this. We’ve updated these scripts to reference the “next” URL as follows:
and have added an additional variable to store the “next” URL after each request if it exists:
Finally we’ve changed the exit condition for the loop from referencing the page number to the existence of a “next” URL:
If you want to read more about cursor-based pagination we recommend the following Shopify pages:
If you don’t update to the new cursor-based pagination format and make a request to a version of the API that doesn’t support page-based pagination you will get an error like this:
User Customisable Maximum Results Setting: we’ve also added a new field in the Interface table (RecordsLimit) to allow you to specify the maximum number of results to return when downloading multiple records from Shopify. Previously we were hardcoding the $limit variable to 50 which is the Shopify default if no value is specified. They do allow a maximum of 250 which could prove more efficient when downloading large numbers of Orders, Products etc from Shopify:
The full list of changes are listed in the version history here. Existing customers can download this version from the link on your original order email (contact us if you need the link to be reset etc). As with previous updates if you are using one of the Database Design Report analysis tools like BaseElements or FMPerception you can use these to run a comparison report between your current version/integration and the new v1.5 release to identify the changes.
The Claris APAC DevCon for 2019 is on in two weeks at the International Convention Centre in Sydney from 30-31 October. We’re excited to announce that Databuzz will be a conference sponsor this year and I will also be giving a talk on Webhooks and FileMaker.
The APAC DevCon is the largest FileMaker gathering in Asia Pacific and Claris have put together a great program with speakers from all around the world, including new Claris CEO Brad Freitag who will kick off 2019 APAC DevCon with an update of the Claris Business. There will also be a session covering Claris Connect that was recently announced at the US FileMaker DevCon which will be very popular.
You can view the full program and register at the APAC DevCon website – the cost for is only AUD $199 which includes 2 full days of sessions, morning/afternoon tea and catered lunch.
You can catch the Databuzz Vendor Session on Day One at 4pm and my talk on Webhooks – The ABC of Webhooks – is on Day Two at 2.15pm.
If you’re coming to the conference please stop by and say hello. We’d love to demonstrate how you can send and receive SMS/TXT messages using the FileMaker platform and integrate with Xero, WooCommerce, Shopify, DocuSign and more.