Custom Function Database - Part 2

In the world of software development, you’re basically taking things apart. Adding data here, taking away data there and remixing things. Simply put, it’s all just a matter of how the data needs to be presented to those who wish to see it.

In the first video in this series, we did the data collection and now we need to do something with that data. In most cases, you’re typically going to be parsing data if it’s not in a format ready to be stored. So, we need to parse the custom functions and their details from their source. We’d like to store them in a format which will meet our own objectives.

Fortunately, there are a number of ways to parse data. When it comes to native FileMaker parsing, you’re inevitably going to be using Left(), Right(), and Middle(), functions. But, when you’re working with well structured data, such as HTML, you have to do a bit more work than just using a simple Middle() function. That’s what this video is all about.

AttachmentSize
CustomFunctions02.zip128.64 KB

Comments

Thanks for the video, can you show how to download a file from a site, if one exists in the html?

You can use the Insert from URL script step to grab a file into a Container field.

If you want to grab multiple files then you'll need to get each link. If the links are only relative then you'll need to create the links and download.

Essentially, if you have the path to the file then you can download in a variety of ways. Using the free BaseElements plugin is also a way you can download via curl but the easiest is just to use Insert from URL.

-- Matt Petrowsky - ISO FileMaker Magazine Editor

Hi Matt,
what Sublime Text Theme are you using? It looks nice!

Thank you! Good ole Boxy