fmSMS Developer License Now Available

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Databuzz is pleased to announce that a Developer License for fmSMS v3 is now available from the fmsms.com website. The Developer License allows FileMaker developers to integrate fmSMS with an unlimited number of their client solutions. fmSMS is completed unlocked allowing developers to either embed or integrate fmSMS into their client solutions – we have an Integration Guide that covers both scenarios.

We now have 3 different licenses available for fmSMS:

  1. Workgroup License: this allows you to use fmSMS at a single Company at one location
  2. Vertical Solution License: this allows you to integrate fmSMS with a single vertical solution that your company sells
  3. Developer License (v3 only): this allows you to integrate fmSMS with an unlimited number of your client solutions

Full details including pricing are available on the fmSMS Purchase page.

Why SMS Marketing is Powerful

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We came across an interesting article this week on the Flying Solo website listing 4 reasons why SMS marketing is powerful. The article is aimed at an Australian audience but the principles apply all around the world. Here are their 4 reasons why SMS marketing is so powerful:

  1. You have permission (an there’s no junk/spam folder on mobile phones for messages to get lost in)
  2. SMS has extremely high open rates (98% of text messages are read by recipients and 90% within 3 minutes of delivery)
  3. SMS gets to the point
  4. Conversion is incredibly high

You can read the full article here. You can get more information about our FileMaker 2 way SMS solution fmSMS on the dedicated fmSMS website.

FileMaker Success Pack Promotion – 10% of Bundle Packs

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FileMaker Inc. have announced a new promotion for the current quarter – you can save 10% when purchasing a 5-Pack or 10-Pack bundle.

The FileMaker Success Pack is a great way to get everything you need to develop and deploy custom business solutions for your team. This bundle includes FileMaker Pro licenses, a FileMaker Pro Advanced license, a FileMaker Server license, and a download of the FileMaker Training Series: Advanced ebook. Save 10% if you act by March 26, 2015. Contact us for more details.

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FileMaker Xero Integration Video Available

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We’ve just published our first video that demonstrates how you can integrate FileMaker with the Xero online accounting software.

You can watch below or directly on YouTube via this link.

Databuzz now Xero Approved Developer

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Databuzz is pleased to announce that we are now a Xero Approved Developer.

xero-developer-logo-RGB

 

Like many of our customers we use FileMaker Pro to run our internal business processes and as a Customer Relationship Management solution – we’re tracking all our Customers, Invoices, Quotes etc in FileMaker. Earlier this year we decided to make the switch from MYOB to Xero for our accounting software – one of the main reasons we switched was the Xero API, which allows us to integrate FileMaker with Xero seamlessly, something we could never do before with MYOB, particularly on the Mac platform.

We love working with APIs and the Xero API  is no different – it’s well documented, has a great previewer feature and let’s us test API calls on a non production Xero file. We’ve performed a number of FileMaker to Xero integrations this year, starting with our own FileMaker CRM. We’ve been able to eliminate the previous double data entry of customers, invoices and payments in both FileMaker and our accounting software. Now we just enter everything in FileMaker and click a button to push the Customer, Invoice and Payment data directly to Xero.

If you would like more information about integrating FileMaker and Xero please visit out FileMaker Xero Integration page or contact us – we’ve built a simple FileMaker CRM database that we can use to demonstrate how you can exchange data between FileMaker and Xero so you can see this in action for yourself.

 

 

fmSMS 10% Off During FileMaker DevCon 2014

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Databuzz will be exhibiting once again at the FileMaker Developer Conference 2014 where will be showing fmSMS v3.5 and how easy it is to send and receive SMS/TXT messages with FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Server, FileMaker WebDirect and FileMaker Go. If you’re attending DevCon make sure you stop by our booth for a demo of how fmSMS works or if have any questions about integrating SMS functionality into your existing FileMaker solution.

We’re also offering a special DevCon discount from now until the 1st August, 2014 – you can get 10% off fmSMS using our special DevCon purchase link at:

http://www.fmsms.com/devcon/

Even if you can’t make it to DevCon in person you can still take advantage of this offer. I look forward to catching up with as many attendees as possible – please stop by our booth and say hello.

Databuzz releases fmSMS v3.5 with FileMaker WebDirect Support

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Databuzz today announced fmSMS v3.5, 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 v3.5 has been updated to support FileMaker Pro v13 and FileMaker WebDirect allowing access via a web browser on a desktop or laptop. fmSMS also includes support for sending messages from FileMaker Go running on the iPad or iPhone. Databuzz will be demonstrating fmSMS v3.5 at the 2014 FileMaker Developer Conference, to be held in San Antonio, Texas from July 28-31, 2014.

What’s New in v3.5

  • updated for FileMaker Pro v13
  • added support for FileMaker WebDirect
  • expanded supported SMS Gateways to over 50 providers internationally
  • added support for the new Perform Script On Server script step (requires FileMaker Server v13)
  • bulk SMS in FileMaker Pro v13 now uses the new List of summary field for faster performance
  • updated for FileMaker Go v13*

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 50 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, FileMaker WebDirect or FileMaker Server.”

Availability, Pricing, and Compatibility

fmSMS v3.5 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 or FileMaker Pro v13.

Upgrade Information

fmSMS v3.5 is a free upgrade for owners of fmSMS v2/v3.

* 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/v13 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 13 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.

Andrew Duncan to Present at FileMaker DevCon 2014 Custom Web Publishing User Group

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Databuzz is pleased to announce that Andrew Duncan will be presenting at the FileMaker DevCon 2014 Custom Web Publishing User Group in San Antonio, Texas. Andrew’s session will be on Surviving a Security Audit – how to best prepare for a security assessment of your FileMaker PHP web application. Andrew will demonstrate some of the top issues to be aware of and how to counter those and protect your FileMaker PHP web application.

The details for the 2014 Custom Web Publishing User Group meeting are:

DATE: Monday, July 28

TIME: 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. (before the 6:30 keynote)

ROOM: Iris

Check out the CWP User Group at FileMaker DevCon 2014 for more details – hope to see you there.

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The session slides and files are now available for download. If you have any questions about these please ask them in the comments below.

New fmSMS Website Launched

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In preparation for the launch of a new version of fmSMS at the upcoming FileMaker Developer Conference we’ve just updated the fmsms.com website – we hope you like the new design. We’ll be updating the main Databuzz website next week as well with similar changes.

Our new website is much more friendly on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets which now account for over half of Internet traffic. We’ll be adding some new videos next week that demonstrate the main features of fmSMS.

Just a reminder that Databuzz will be exhibiting at the 2014 FileMaker Developer Conference in San Antonio, Texas from July 28-31, 2014. We’ll be demonstrating how you can use fmSMS with FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Go and FileMaker WebDirect to send and receive SMS/TEXT messages with the FileMaker platform. We hope to see as many of you there as possible and look forward to answering your questions about FileMaker and SMS integration.

Getting the IDs for a Filtered Portal

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One of my favourite features of FileMaker Pro v13 is the new “List of” summary type option, which is used for creating a return-delimited list of non-blank values in a field. For example if you wanted a list of all Customer IDs for your found set of records you can now simply reference a Summary field that uses the List of type option:

List of Summary Field Type

 

I’ve found the performance to be excellent and it can now replace the use of Custom Functions, looping scripts etc that were previously used to generate a list of IDs for a found set of records. We’ve also another great use for it – in conjunction with filtered portals it can be used to get the IDs for the currently filtered portal records. This makes it simply to filter a portal, get the list of filtered IDs which can then be used in a multi-key relationship to group those filtered records for further processing.

Portal filtering was introduced in FileMaker Pro 11 and lets developers easily filter a portal by simply editing the portal setup – you don’t need to add unnecessary clutter to your relationship graph to support portal filtering. However one of the limitations with portal filtering is that the results of calculations are based on the full set of related records, not just the records in the portal that are currently filtered. This means that you can’t simply use functions like the List function to return a list of all the Customer IDs that are currently filtered as it will return a list of all Customer IDs for the underlying relationship used by the portal.

However you can now use the new “List of” summary type field with a filtered portal to quickly get the list of filtered record IDs. You simply need to create a Summary field in your “child” table that you are filtering that is a List of the IDs, then create a script that retrieves this value.

Here’s a screenshot showing a simple filtered portal of Customers by State. When you select a State from the pop-up menu the list of customers changes to match the selected State:

 

Filtered Portals Demo

You’ll notice below the portal is another field that displays the list of Customer IDs for the currently filtered portal records. We’ve added a script trigger to the State pop-up menu filter that checks for any filtered records and retrieves the CustomerIDs for the filtered records by retrieving the value of the List of Customer IDs Summary field. The script has to go to the first row of the portal to establish the correct context first – here’s what the script looks like with the step that gets the filtered IDs highlighted:

Get Filtered Customer IDs

 

You can download this demo file to explore this technique – please post any comments below.