Installation

• Remove FileMaker's API For PHP class files (FileMaker.php and the adjacent FileMaker directory) from your project.
• Copy the fmPDA/v1 directory into your project, typically in the same directory where FileMaker's old API resided.
• Wherever you do this:

require_once 'PATH-TO-FILEMAKER-CLASS-FILES/FileMaker.php';

replace with:


require_once 'PATH-TO-FMPDA-CLASS-FILES/fmPDA/v1/fmPDA.php';

fmPDA v1 Overview

• fmCURL
  fmCURL is a wrapper for CURL calls. The curl() method sets the typical parameters and optionally encode/decodes JSON data. fmCURL is independent of the FM API; it can be used to communicate with virtually any host (Google, Swipe, etc.). The fmAPI class (see below) uses fmCURL to communicate with FileMaker's API.
  

  
                          $curl = new fmCURL();
  
                          $curlResult = $curl->curl('https://www.example.com');
                       

  Additionally, fmCURL instantiates a global fmLogger object to log various messages these classes generate. You can use this for your own purposes as well. See any of the example files on how it's used.
  



• fmAPI
  fmAPI encapsulates the interactions with FileMaker's API. fmAdminAPI and fmDataAPI extend this class. You won't typically instantiate this class directly.
  
  fmAPI takes care of managing the authentication token the API requires in all calls. Without your code needing to know, fmAPI will request a new token whenever the current token is invalid. By default, the token is stored in a session variable so calls across multiple PHP pages will reuse the same token. You can disable session variable storage, but you'll be responsible for managing the storage of the token.
  



• fmAdminAPI
  fmAdminAPI encapsulates the interactions with FileMaker's Admin Console API. Use this to communicate with FileMaker Server's Admin Console to get the server status, schedules, configuration, etc.
  

  
                          $fm = new fmAdminAPI($host, $userName, $password);
  
                          $apiResult = $fm->apiGetServerStatus();
                       




• fmDataAPI
  fmDataAPI encapsulates interactions with FileMaker's Data API. The class provides methods for directly interacting with the Data API (Get, Find, Create, Edit, Delete, Upload Container, Set Globals, Scripts, etc.)
  

  
                          $fm = new fmDataAPI($database, $host, $userName, $password);
  
                          $apiResult = $fm->apiGetRecord($layout, $recordID);
                       

  Caution

  • OAuth support is included but has not been tested.
  • The Data API replaces the name of the Table Occurrence in portals with the layout object name (if one exists). If you name your portals on the dedicated Web layouts (you do have those, right?) you've been using with the old API, you'll need to change your code (ugh) or remove the object names.
  • The Data API translates FM line separators from a line feed (\n) in the old API is now a carriage return (\r). If your code looks for line feeds, look for carriage returns now.



• fmPDA
  fmPDA provides method & data structure compatibility with FileMaker's 'old' API For PHP.
  

  
                          $fm = new fmPDA($database, $host, $userName, $password); /* fmPDA instead of FileMaker */
  
                          $findAllCommand = $fm->newFindAllCommand($layout);
                          $findAllCommand->addSortRule($fieldName, 1, FILEMAKER_SORT_DESCEND);
                          $result = $findAllCommand->execute();
                       

  Remember, wherever you did this:

  $fm = new FileMaker(...);

  replace it with:
  

  $fm = new fmPDA(...);

  
  Within the limits described below, your existing code should function as is, with the exception that it's using FileMaker's Data API instead of the XML interface. Not everything is supported, so you may have to make some changes to your code.
  
  fmPDA can also return the 'raw' data from the Data API; if you want to use fmPDA to create the structures for passing to the Data API but want to process the data on your own, set the 'translateResult' element to false in the $options array you pass to the fmPDA constructor. Alternatively, you can override fmPDA::newResult() to return the result in whatever form you wish.
  

  What is supported

  • Get Record By ID
  • Find All
  • Find Any
  • Find (Non compound & Compound)
  • Add Record
  • Create Record & Commit
  • Edit Record
  • Get Record, Edit & Commit
  • Delete Record
  • Get Container Data
  • Get Container Data URL
  • Script execution
  • Duplicate record (The duplicate.php example file shows how to do this with a simple FM script)
  • Uploading a container (this is an extension thanks to the Data API); use fmPDA::newUploadContainerCommand(...)

  What isn't supported

  • List scripts
  • List databases - in v1 or later, use fmAdminAPI::apiListDatabases()
  • List layouts
  • Get layout metadata (some of it is available through an undocumented API)
  • Validation
  • Value Lists
  • Using Commit() to commit data on portals.
  • was made

  Caution

  • fmRecord::getFieldAsTimestamp() (FileMaker_Record::getFieldAsTimestamp() in the old API) can't automatically determine the field type as the Data API doesn't return field metadata. There is now a new third parameter ($fieldType) to tell the method how to convert the field data. See FMRecord.class.php for details.
  
  

  A change you'll likely have to make to your code

  The biggest change is replacing any calls to FileMaker::isError($result) to use the function fmGetIsError($result) as the FileMaker class no longer exists.

  
                          if (FileMaker::isError($result)) {
                             /* Oops. Let's handle the error... */
                          }
                       

  Change it to:

  
                          if (fmGetIsError($result)) {
                             /* Oops. Let's handle the error... */
                          }
                       

  
  If you really don't want to do this (::sigh::), you can change fmPDA.conf.php and modify the following line:
  

  define('DEFINE_FILEMAKER_CLASS', false);

  to:
  

  define('DEFINE_FILEMAKER_CLASS', true);

  This will create a 'glue' FileMaker class that fmPDA inherits from, and you can continue to use FileMaker::isError(). Even so, it's recommended that you should switch to fmGetIsError() in the future to reduce/eradicate your dependence on a class called FileMaker. You'll likely run into conflicts if you do this and keep FileMaker's old classes in your include tree. You Have Been Warned.
  
  

License