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DennisBlah

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 5, 2013
485
2
The Netherlands
Hi all, I would like to be able to connect to an filemaker database and run any 'queries' on the database and retreive results in an ... array.
Is this possible? And how?
 

waterskier2007

macrumors 68000
Jun 19, 2007
1,857
210
Novi, MI
From my limited experience with FileMaker, it sounds like you want to set up FileMaker as an ODBC source

and use some sort of library to connect to that source

These are just the result of two quick google searches, but for the second link (the ODBC iOS library) you may be able to find other libraries.
 

dejo

Moderator emeritus
Sep 2, 2004
15,982
452
The Centennial State
Hi all, I would like to be able to connect to an filemaker database and run any 'queries' on the database and retreive results in an ... array.
Is this possible? And how?

Any queries? Are you sure?

For a certain defined set of queries, the common approach nowadays is to add web service abilities to the database and then access it via a RESTful API.
 

DennisBlah

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 5, 2013
485
2
The Netherlands
From my limited experience with FileMaker, it sounds like you want to set up FileMaker as an ODBC source

and use some sort of library to connect to that source

These are just the result of two quick google searches, but for the second link (the ODBC iOS library) you may be able to find other libraries.

Yes I found out its possible to set the database to an web odbc. Still I would not have any idea how I should work around with it

Any queries? Are you sure?

For a certain defined set of queries, the common approach nowadays is to add web service abilities to the database and then access it via a RESTful API.

What do you mean, am I sure?
Actually I would just want to do some select queries.
 

dejo

Moderator emeritus
Sep 2, 2004
15,982
452
The Centennial State
What do you mean, am I sure?

Being able to run any query you could think of versus only a select few requires very different approaches. The former would probably need to be implemented via a direct connection to the database. This can be tricky. The latter can be implemented via SOAP or REST calls and are the much more common approach nowadays. Since you want to do the latter, let's move on to that.

Actually I would just want to do some select queries.
Then I think you should look into setting up your Filemaker database as a web service that you can make REST calls against. Since I don't know much about Filemaker, I'll have to leave it to others as to how this might be done. Although I did find this in a quick Google search on "filemaker rest api": RESTfm
 
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