When something unexpected happens, the plug-in will pop up a dialog showing what the error message is. This makes it easy to see what went wrong.
However, in some cases, you (the developer) may prefer to show your own message to the user, or possibly not show a message at all.
In that case, you can call ScribeSetErrorCapture
with a parameter of true. That will suppress the error dialog from appearing to the user.
When you call this function, it is set for that plug-in for as long as FileMaker is running, so if you want to do all of your own error handling, you can just set it to true once in your startup script. However, we recommend only turning it on when your script is prepared to check for errors, and then turning it off after finishing that section.
Whether or not you suppress the error dialogs, a plugin function will return the word ERROR
if something goes wrong. It's a good idea to put your plugin functions in an 'If' statement so that you don't execute a bunch of script steps after something has gone wrong. If you'd like for your script to get the error message, you can get that by calling the ScribeLastError
function.
Here is an example of basic error reporting:
Set Variable [ $result = MyPluginFunction("x" ; "y" ; "z") ] If [ $result = "ERROR" ] Exit Script[ "Error occurred: " & ScribeLastError ] Else ... do more stuff here ... End If
Since the string "ERROR"
evaluates to false when evaluated by FileMaker, and most plugin functions return a 1
when successful, you can chain multiple dependent plugin operations together using the "and"
operator.
However, in this case the result will be a 1
or a 0
, not "ERROR"
. For example:
// chain multiple calls together
// if any of the functions fail, the calculation will
// short-circuit with a result of false
,
// and none of the subsequent function calls will be evaluated.
Set Variable [ $success =
FirstPluginFunction("x") and
SecondPluginFunction("y") and
ThirdPluginFunction("z")
]
If [not $success]
Show Custom Dialog [ "An error occurred: " & ScribeLastError ]
End If
Note: the above only works for plugin functions which return 1
on success! Check the documentation for each function used in this manner.
If a plugin is not installed correctly, calls to a plugin function will return "?". As part of your startup script, you should check for this occurrence and display a warning accordingly that the plugin needs to be installed. Note: when treated as a boolean true/false value, FileMaker will treat ?
as true
.
FileMaker version 11 or higher.
Java Virtual Machine (JVM) version 1.6 or later (32-bit). If you are running a JVM earlier than 1.6, you should upgrade.
Download a JVM from http://www.java.com/en/download/. Apple has a 32-bit version of Java 1.6 here
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572.
If you are not sure what version of Java you have installed, you can do java -version
on the command line in Windows or OS X.
Windows, or Mac OS X version 10.6 or higher.
Note to intel Mac users: running this plugin under Rosetta is not supported. Upgrade to FileMaker 8.5 to run our plugin in native Intel mode.
Drag the plugin from the MAC or WIN folder into your FileMaker extensions, and restart FileMaker.
If the plugin does not load correctly, double-check that you meet the system requirements.
You do not need to do this step unless you plan on using the plugin with Instant Web Publishing with FileMaker Server Advanced. You will need an Enterprise license to use this feature.
For installing into the Web Publishing Engine with FileMaker Server or FileMaker Server Advanced, drag the plugin from the MAC (.fmplugin file) or WIN (.fmx file) folder
into the FileMaker Server/Web Publishing/publishing-engine/wpc/Plugins
folder. If there is no Plugins
folder inside the wpc
folder, then create it manually.
Restart FileMaker Web Publishing, and now the plugins should be ready to go.
The easiest way to test whether the plugin is working is to have a calculation which calls the version function of the plugin, and display that on an IWP layout. If it shows "?", then the plugin is not working. If it shows a number, then the plugin has been installed successfully.
If you are using FileMaker Server 12.0v1 or earlier, you can follow the same procedure as detailed above for custom web publishing. However, in FileMaker Server 12.0v2 and later, the custom web publishing now runs as a 64-bit application, and requires a slightly different location. You will need an Enterprise license to use this feature.
For Mac, the single plug-in file in the MAC directory contains both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. For Windows, look for the plug-in that has the extension .fmx64 and use it in exclusively in custom web publishing.
To install 64-bit plug-ins, install either the .fmx64 or the .fmplugin to the following directory:
FileMaker Server / Web Publishing / publishing-engine / cwpc / Plugins
If it does not exist, create the Plugin folder manually. Restart FileMaker Web Publishing, and then you can then test a script that contains a plug-in and see if it returns the correct values.
Please note that plug-ins do not work with the web publishing engine of the Mac version of FileMaker Server 8.0v4.
You do not need to do this step unless you plan on using the plugin with scheduled script triggering. You will need an Enterprise license to use this feature.
/Library/FileMaker Server/Database Server/Extensions
folder.
On Windows, this is at C:\Program Files\FileMaker\FileMaker Server\Database Server\Extensions
.Configuration -> Database Server->Server Plug-ins
and check the box that says 'Enable FileMaker Server to use plug-ins', and then check the 'enabled' box for this plugin.
Click the 'save' button and wait a few seconds to make sure that the 'enabled' check box stays checked. If it does not, then there was an error loading the plugin and you should contact us for help troubleshooting.
You should now be able to write schedules that trigger scripts which use the plugin.360Works has created an AutoUpdate helper database which makes setting up Auto Update much easier. This file includes pre-configured plugin files which you can place on your server, and an auto-update script for each of our plugins which you can paste into your own solution.
You can get the AutoUpdate360Works file at fmp7://autoupdate.360works.com/AutoUpdate360Works or fmp://autoupdate12.360works.com/AutoUpdate360Works. Follow the instructions included in the file to either host your own Auto Update server or pull the files from ours.
Plugins will run in demo mode until they are registered. While running in Demo mode, the product will run for 2 hours every time you launch FileMaker / FileMaker Server / FileMaker Web Publishing Engine. The 2 hour time limit will reset every time you relaunch FileMaker. There is no expiration date when Demo mode stops working. There are no feature differences between the Demo version and the licensed version.
Once you have purchased the plugin, you can register it with the license key. Once a valid license key is entered, the product will run for as long as FileMaker is running. After FileMaker starts up with the plugin installed, open FileMaker preferences, click on the Plug-ins tab, select the plugin from the list, and click the Configure button. Enter your license key and company name in this dialog. You will only need to do this once on a given machine. Alternately, you can use the registration function to register the plugin during a startup script.
Note that if you are running the plugin with FileMaker Server / FileMaker Web Publishing Engine, you must use the registration function to register the plugin, since there is no preferences dialog on FileMaker Server to enter the license key and company name.
We love to hear your suggestions for improving our products! If you are experiencing problems with this plugin, or have a feature request, or are happy with it, we'd appreciate hearing about it. Send us a message on our website, or email us!
For example, the following report:
additions: 2 214 modifications: 0 0 deletions: 1 47Indicates that:
someText
- initial textotherText
- modified text
verbose=true
" as a custom option to cause modifications to be displayed as a delete then an insert, instead of a modification.
someText
- intial textotherText
- revised textoptions
- optionsScribeDoc*
functions.
containerOrUrl
- container, path (including File URLs), or URL for the file being loaded.args
- optional arguments.tag name
of the Content Control Field as the parameter. Content control fields can only be
created on Office 2007 on Windows, but can be read and written on both Windows and Mac. More information about how to make content control fields can be found here.
A5
".
To specify a sheet other than the first sheet, include the sheet name followed by an exclamation point, e.g. "Sheet 2!BB42
".
To read a range of values as CSV, specify the start and end columns delimited by a colon, e.g. A1:C15
.
Optionally, pass "invert=true"
as an additional parameter to read rows-first instead of column-first.
Optionally, pass "rowSeparator=x"
or "fieldSeparator=y"
as additional parameter to specify custom delimiters.
ScribeDocReadValue("A1:C15" ; "fieldSeparator=|")
To get the maximum bounds of a worksheet, request MaxRow( )
or MaxCol ( )
. Optionally, pass in worksheet=...
as an additional parameter, for example:
ScribeDocReadValue("MaxRow()" ; "worksheet=Second Sheet" )
name
- attribute name to read.The newName parameter tells Scribe what to name the container field value. This can take two forms:
The optional flatten parameter can be used with PDF forms to save a "flattened" version of the form, this would make the form fields unenterable.
The optional type parameter can be set to "file" to explicitly save a file container instead of an image.
PDF Password support (new in Scribe 2.0), pass a "password" parameter to password-protect the saved PDF. You can optionally specify separate "userPassword" and "ownerPassword" parameters.
For example, if you've done a find and replace operation on a Word document and would like to store it into a container field called 'ResultContainer' while retaining the original filename, you would do it this way:
Set Field[ ResultContainer; ScribeDocSaveContainer("") ]
The path parameter tells Scribe where to save the file to. This can take several forms:
The optional flatten parameter can be used with PDF forms to save a "flattened" version of the form, this would make the form fields unenterable.
PDF Password support (new in Scribe 2.0), pass a "password" parameter to password-protect the saved PDF. You can optionally specify separate "userPassword" and "ownerPassword" parameters.
searchText
with replaceText
in the currently loaded document.
Note that searchText
and replaceText
should generally should be short pieces of text,
which only span one line (for convenience... long search strings can be more complicated to correctly enter into FileMaker calculations).
This feature is only available for Microsoft Word 2007 and later (.docx files only).
To replace named form fields or cells in a PDF form, Word Document, or other file, use the ScribeDocWriteValue function instead.
Word documents support image replacement in Scribe 2.0, you can pass a container as the replaceValue, and an image will be inserted into your Word document.
To use this, you must first load a document using ScribeDocLoad.
ScribeDocSubstitute
one or more times, save the modified file using ScribeDocSaveFile.
If you need to substitute many different text occurrences, just call this function once for each term that you want to find and replace.
searchString
- text to findreplaceValue
- text to replace searchString
with. Word documents support image replacement as well.To use this, you must first load a document using ScribeDocLoad.
tag name
of the Content Control Field as the first parameter. Content control fields can only be
created on Office 2007 on Windows, but can be read and written on both Windows and Mac. More information about how to make content control fields can be found here.
To do a find/replace operation on text in a word document, use the ScribeDocSubstitute function.
A5
" as the first parameter.
To specify a sheet other than the first sheet, include the sheet name followed by an exclamation point, e.g. "Sheet 2!BB42
".
Writing a value to a non-existent sheet will generate an error. If you specify a non-existent cell or row, it will be created.
Write images to a PowerPoint file by specifying the sheet number and optional coordinates for the image to add to the PowerPoint presentation. For example, to add an image from a container field to the first slide:
ScribeDocWriteValue( "1" ; MyTable::MyImage ; "x=100" ; "y=200" ; "width="300" ; "height=400" )
ScribeDocWriteValue("newPage()" ; "2" )
ScribeDocWriteValue("addImage()" ; my::imageContainer ; "page=2" ; "x=100" ; "y=100" ; "width=300" ; "height=400" )
ScribeDocWriteValue("addText()" ; "Hello, PDF!" ; "page=2" ; "x=200" ; "y=500" )
ScribeDocWriteValue
one or more times, save the modified file using ScribeDocSaveFile.
name
- field / cell to write tofmValue
- data to writefile
.
Unlike ScribeFileAsText, this only returns unique names, and strips out common "stop words" like "a", "and", "the", etc.
This can reduce storage requirements if you are performing text searches against the contents of files, but don't need the extracted text to be human-readable.
file
- file or container field to extract index fromfile
.
For binary file document formats such as Word, PDF, etc. this attempts to return a human-readable presentation of the document. XML documents are returned as-is. Any unrecognized file will have its raw text contents returned (see optional parameters to customize this).
You can pass in optional additional parameters to customize the behavior of this function. A list of customizations follows:
Here is a list of supported file types for reading text from:
file
- file or container field to extract text fromhighlightPattern
in text
.
Unlike the substitute
function, this is case-insensitive by default.
The highlightPattern function supports regular expression patterns.
Using the flags
optional parameter, you may set the following options, each of which influences the way patterns are matched.
Example of a highlight operation to match the string "file://" at the beginning of each line of a return-separated list.
Set Field [ Globals::highlighted_text = ScribeHighlight( "file://temp/doc.txt" & ¶ & "file://documents/doc.txt" & ¶ & "http://my.site.com/home" & ¶ & "ftp://my.ftpsite.com/upload" ; "^file://" ; "flags=multiline" ) ]This matches "file://temp/doc.txt" & ¶ & "file://documents/doc.txt"
colorRGB
, styles
, and size
.
Consult the Filemaker TextStyleAdd
and TextColor
documentation for more details about named Filemaker text styles and colors.
Example of a highlight operation to make any occurrences of "atlanta" blue and bold (the default highlight style is bold, blue text):
Set Field [ Globals::highlighted_text = ScribeHighlight(Documents::body ; "atlanta") ]Example of a highlight operation to highlight runs of 1 or more sequential numbers as green italic text:
Set Field [ Globals::highlighted_text = ScribeHighlight( Documents::body ; "[0-9]+" ; "colorRGB=" & RGB(0;255;0) ; "styles=" + Italic" ) ]
text
- The input texthighlightPattern
- the word or regular expression pattern to highlightadditionalParameters
- Additional parameters are specified using a name=value syntax. The parameters colorRGB
, size
and styles
control the look of the replaced text. The parameter flags
controls the way in which pattern matching is performed.highlightPattern
highlighted with the current styles.
""
if there was no error.
Example of a function to extract a return-separated list of numbers from a string.
ScribePatternMatchAll("123 and 5321 are open, but 0121 is closed" ; "[0-9]+") /* returns the following: 123 5321 0121 */
flags
optional parameter, you may set the following options, each of which influences the way patterns are matched.
ScribePatternMatchAll( "Wilhelm¶wilson¶Williams¶Zander" ; "wil.*" ; "flags=includeLineEndings+caseInsensitive" ) ScribePatternMatchAll( "Wilhelm¶wilson¶Williams¶Zander" ; "wil.*" )
text
- input textregex
- regular expression pattern.flags
- An additional parameter used to specify flags that control how pattern matching is performed. To specify multiple flags, separate each with a plus sign (e.g., ..."flags=literal+ignoreWhitespace")
Highlighting style is determined by the three optional parameters: colorRGB
, styles
, and size
.
Consult the FileMaker TextStyleAdd
and TextColor
documentation for more details about named Filemaker text styles and colors.
Backreferences can also be used with the regular expression. Replacement text can use dollar sign syntax ($1, $2, etc.) to refer to these groups.
Using the flags
optional parameter, you may set the following options, each of which influences the way patterns are matched.
Example of simple replace, converting two or more consecutive line breaks to a single line break:
ScribePatternReplaceAll( "Line one¶Line Two¶¶¶Line Three¶Line Four" ; "\n+" ; "ΒΆ" ) // returns "Line one¶Line Two¶Line Three¶Line Four"
Example of a highlighting replace operation, highlighting the literal string "quick" by using styles:
ScribePatternReplaceAll("The quick brown fox" ;
"quick" ;
"quick" ;
"colorRGB=" & RGB(128 ; 128 ; 255) ;
"styles=" + Bold
)
// returns The quick brown fox
text
- The input textregex
- The regular expressionreplacement
- The text to replace the found occurrences withadditionalParameters
- Additional parameters are specified using a name=value syntax. The parameters colorRGB
, size
and styles
control the look of the replaced text. The parameter flags
controls the way in which pattern matching is performed.regex
replaced with replacement
licenseKey
- a valid license keyregisteredTo
- the company the plugin is registered to"ERROR"
on failure.
errorCapture
- set to true to suppress the default popups.This will affect all calls to ScribeDifferencesBetween until you quit FileMaker.
The available styles are:
color
- a FileMaker RGB value (such as 'rgb(255,0,0)' for red) or HTML-style hex value (such as "#FF0000" for red)styles
- Any of the Filemaker style keywords, or -1 to hide text of this type in the diff result.open
- An optional text string appended before an additionclose
- An optional text string appended after an additionThis will affect all calls to ScribeDifferencesBetween until you quit FileMaker.
color
- a FileMaker RGB value (such as 'rgb(255,0,0)' for red) or HTML-style hex value (such as "#FF0000" for red)styles
- Any of the Filemaker style keywords, or -1 to hide text of this type in the diff result.open
- An optional text string appended before a deletionclose
- An optional text string appended after a deletionThis will affect all calls to ScribeDifferencesBetween until you quit FileMaker.
color
- a FileMaker RGB value (such as 'rgb(255,0,0)' for red) or HTML-style hex value (such as "#FF0000" for red)styles
- Any of the Filemaker style keywords, or -1 to hide text of this type in the diff result.open
- An optional text string appended before a modificationclose
- An optional text string appended after a modification