Comments on: Automate FileMaker Plug-in Deployment with AutoUpdate

By: Ron Greene

Ron Greene — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 17:31:22 +0000

Thanks for the clear and concise post! I’m joining the conversation 4 years late, but how does the example script handle an installed, but outdated version? It looks like it will bail early if any version is installed — not necessarily the desired one. Would, in your example, If [ ( not IsValid ( myplug_Version ) ) or ( ( myplug_Version ) "1.5" ) ] cover this eventuality? Or have I missed something? Alternatively, could you just use If [ ( myplug_Version ) = "1.5" ] followed by Else?

By: Adam Dempsey

Adam Dempsey — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:37:43 +0000

Does anyone know if it’s possible to find out which FileMaker server a FileMaker client downloads it’s plugins from?

I’ve got FMSAUC_FindPlugIn returning versions I can’t even find on our main server so don’t know where it’s finding them!

By: Scott Newton

Scott Newton — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:29:25 +0000

Geoff,

Thanks so much for the practical guide to FMSAUC.

Also thanks to David Graham for his insight into the fact that creating a .tar file can also encapsulate the path.

Geoff – Please consider revising your original instructions in light of this wrinkle – I suffered a “-1″ error for two days (on the Mac only) before I finally found this web page, and then David’s note. Removing the path reference finally fixed the problem.

By: Vaughan Bromfield

Vaughan Bromfield — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:22:21 +0000

The “5″ is an error code returned from the Auto Update plug-in. The error codes are listed in the documentation.

http://www.filemaker.com/es/downloads/fms10_autoupdate_en.pdf

http://www.filemaker.com/downloads/pdf/fms9_autoupdate_en.pdf

Check whether it’s “5″ or “-5″ they are different codes.

Code 5 is “The download file can’t be found in the AutoUpdate folder on the FileMaker Server computer” so I’d get ICT to look at the permissions on the folders on the server and check that the folder names are correct — for some plug-ins the folders need to have different names for Mac and Windows clients (independently of the platform of the server).

By: Caitlin Hickie

Caitlin Hickie — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:24:13 +0000

I have been doing the auto update script side of this – our ICT dept have taken care of the server side part. However I’m getting stuck at the last hurdle – my error is “something unexpected happened 5″. Does the ‘5′ tell me anything?? Thanks.

By: David Graham

David Graham — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:04:33 +0000

@Tom: it’s annoying that FMS doesn’t recognize the AutoUpdate folder if it’s not located in the default Databases location. I can’t fathom why it has to be in the Databases folder to begin with, for two reasons: 1) The contents of AutoUpdate are clearly *not* database files, and 2) we restrict the live databases folder from disk backups, which prevents us from backing up the AU folder.

On a Mac, you can move the AU folder anywhere you want and symlink it into /Library/FileMaker Server/Data/Databases. NB, an alias will not work. I haven’t tried to do the same thing on Windows using a shortcut.

- Dave

By: Jens Rasmussen

Jens Rasmussen — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:52:07 +0000

Thanks, Geoff and David.

One observation I just did is that FMP fetches the plug-ins that are not active. So they can be present in either of the correct folders on the client Mac, but if they are disabled in Prefs, it will transfer them, but they still don’t get enabled.

By: Tom Fitch

Tom Fitch — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:30:32 +0000

I forgot to say, thanks for this article. Love your site!

By: Tom Fitch

Tom Fitch — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:29:18 +0000

A client of ours has their Data folder on the E drive, and FMS is installed in its default location on C drive. For some reason the AutoUpdate folder refuses to work when it’s in \Data\Databases\ on E (or in \Data\Databases\mySubfolder). When I copy the AutoUpdate folder to \Data\Databases\ on C though, it works as expected. Weird.

By: Aaron Gutleben

Aaron Gutleben — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:00:27 +0000

Hi Geoff. I was tasked with implementing the AutoUpdate process a while back and your post was a life-saver. So, I first want to thank you.
As a result of my struggles, I decided to put together a little application to allow me to quickly implement this in any other solution at any time. In addition to plugin management, it also contains a log and some admin prefs which allow the dba to stay on top of any errors that occur. I just released this application free to the community on our blog and wanted to add a link to it here. Here is the link, and thanks so much for your contribution which helped make my application possible:
http://www.soliantconsulting.com/blog/2009/06/autoupdate-assistant/