Comments on: Stored Calculations and FileMaker Plug-ins

By: Geoff Coffey

Geoff Coffey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:20:33 +0000

@Jason: Unstored calculations are *always* evaluated on the client side, so far as I know. So you will need to put the plug-in on the client machines. You can see this article for help getting plug-ins onto every client.

By: Jason Fleming

Jason Fleming — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:28:23 +0000

Love you website (both content and design). I am curious how UNstored calculations that use plug-ins work in a hosted environment. We have a database of all of our customers (~3000 records). A great deal of our business is repeat customers, but we often end up with duplicates resulting from spelling errors (i.e. ‘Crump’ and ‘Krump’ or ‘Fleming’ and ‘Flemming’). I created a simple plug-in that utilizes Levenshtein Distance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance) to find names with similar spellings. Each customer record has a Match_Field: an unstored calculation that compares the name against a Global_Search_Field using the Levenshtein plug-in. When a customer calls to make a purchase, the end-user enters the customer name in Global_Search_Field and then triggers a script that finds/sorts based on Match_Field. If I enable this plug-in on our server, will the server make the calculations for this find/sort, or will it occur on the client?

By: Geoff Coffey

Geoff Coffey — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 04:49:42 +0000

@deepak: Most any plug-in will work with a database hosted on FileMaker server. But the plug-in needs to be installed on each client computer that uses it. Some plug-ins, though, can be installed directly on the server, and will operate in meaningful ways for all connected clients. In some cases (as this article explains) calculations happen on the server, where a server-installed plug-in is needed. In other cases, they happen on the client where a client-installed plug-in is needed.

In most cases though, plug-ins are used with scripting, and scripts *always* run on the client side.

Hope that clears it up.

By: Deepak Mahat

Deepak Mahat — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:08:08 +0000

Hi, I was wondering what do you mean by plugin compatible with FM Server. Am i right that if a plugin works with FM9 pro advanced, it may not work in FM9 Server??
I have a plugin which has fmx file as plugin file and a dll as support file for it. I want to put them in server and copy it to client, as the client access those database. What will be the quick idea on how to for me in this situation. The plugin is to interact with Microsoft office documents so need to operate in each of client environment.
Many Thanks, Deepak.

By: Jim Randell

Jim Randell — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:45:40 +0000

Thanks Guys !!!

By: Geoff Coffey

Geoff Coffey — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 01:09:49 +0000

@Jim: Thanks for the kind words You’ll have to check with your particular plug-in vendor to find out about server compatibility. In the case of Events (from Worqsmart/Waves in Motion), I don’t think this problem applies because it isn’t used to calculate legitimate stored text values. You might use a stored calculation with Events in some cases, but you don’t actually care about storing the result in the database, so it is fine to add a new field for this purpose. Hope that makes sense.

By: Jesse Antunes

Jesse Antunes — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 01:09:09 +0000

@Jim - Welcome! Glad you like the blog. I’m not really sure I get your question though. If you’re plug-in is registered through the use of a text file or a serial number this problem with stored calculations will affect you. You would have to use the techniques described above to create your stored calc. I hope that helps. If not, just reply again and I will see if I can make any clarifications

By: Jim Randell

Jim Randell — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:29:04 +0000

what if you use a plugin that requires a registration text file, like say Events, is it enough that the client has the plugin registered (and installed)?
(just found your Blog BTW, its fantastic!)

By: Jesse Antunes

Jesse Antunes — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 23:45:49 +0000

@Dwayne - Good question…
You only really need to have the plug-in on the server if you want to define a stored calculations on a served file that already has records in it. The server will use that plug-in to initialize all those stored calcs to the correct value. Once you finish defining your calc you actually won’t ever use that server plug-in again (unless you define another calc of course).

Every other time you execute a plug-in call it actually occurs on the Client (so you need to have installed on the client)

If you want to get around all the hassle of installing the plug-in on the server, just take the file off the server and define the field on a local computer where the plug-in is installed. Then you can just throw your file back on the server and you’re all set.

Hopefully, that cleared things up a little bit.

By: Dwayne Wright

Dwayne Wright — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:29:02 +0000

So you have to have the plug-in installed and enabled on both server and client in order for it work in a served environment? You have to have it installed on the server to perform the calculation and installed on the client machine for the display? Is that correct? Thanks!

(and thanks for the blog by the way!)