So they came up with something even better !

For years we have been able to fill out some options and license information into the Assisted Install.txt file, that sits next to the FileMaker Installer. This is a great way to make the installation process nice and smooth for end users, so they don’t have to input license information etc.

With FileMaker 18, there is now a new option in this file; AI_LAUNCH_CUSTOMAPP setting. You can now fill in the path (local or hosted) to a launch file of your own. That means that you can design a Launch Center for your end users in a FileMaker file, which can open your custom app. In other words, you can now create a nice looking – with your brand and your information – Launch Center experience for end users, where they don’t need to worry about anything other than using your custom app.

The best thing is that when the end user have installed FileMaker Pro Advanced 18 with the Assisted
Install.txt – every time they open FileMaker, it will open your custom launch app.
– or you could also just enter the path to the main custom app, so it will open directly.

While you can just go and fill out the information in this Assisted Install.txt file, we created a small, free and completely open FM App, where you can set the different options and create these setup files from. If you have more than one customer, you are able to use the file as database with Assisted Install options. We also included a custom launch app example for you to get inspired by.

We hope you like this new feature and find the video and tools helpful.

This code is beerware; if you see me (or any other DataManix employee) at the local, and you’ve found our code helpful, please buy us a round!

Distributed as-is; no warranty is given.Use of the material is at your own responsibility. If you use techniques from our solutions, you are welcome to credit DataManix (optional of course).

FileMaker Inc. has just released the FileMaker 18 platform. 

While we are happy to see new features, we still have the challenge that you need 3 interfaces in order to manage your FileMaker Server 18. To solve that, we have created a new version of our highly popular free tool: The missing Admin Tool for FileMaker Server – now for version 18. FileMaker has completely rebuilt the admin API into a version 2. This also means that we have had to rebuild our tool to utilise the new endpoints, options and new features of the admin API v.2.

If you liked our tool for FileMaker Server 17, I am sure you’ll love this new version. You can still get the tool for FileMaker Server 17, if you want. 

The tool is Beerware* and completely open for you to modify, explore the code and build upon. The only thing we ask is that you modify for your own use.

What is this tool?

The FileMaker Server web console was built from scratch for FileMaker Server 17 and has minor enhancements for FileMaker Server 18. While this is a very welcome change with a new and much more stable web console, it also had the consequence that features, we were used to have in the old web admin console of FileMaker Server 16 is now gone from the web admin console. They did not disappear completely. Most have been moved to either the admin API or Command Line Interface.

However, that also means that now you need to use 3 different interfaces in order to manage your FileMaker server. For many people, this is inconvenient and some are not comfortable coding agains the admin API or use Command Line commands. So in order to help our colleagues in the community, we built this tool, that combines all 3 interfaces and some more information on SSL as well.

Speaking of SSL – this is VERY important now. While it is now common knowledge that you should install a custom SSL certificate on your server, with FileMaker Server 17 and 18 this has become even more important. When you install the server, you have 2 options; install a custom SSL certificate or to turn off SSL. That’s right, if you do not install a certificate, all traffic between your server and clients will then be UNENCRYPTED.

In previous versions of the FileMaker Server, FileMaker offered a default certificate for testing purposes. Meaning that you could use that and the traffic was encrypted, though the certificate was un-trusted.

I highly encourage you to watch the videos we have created on the SSL topic and use our free tools to get your custom SSL certificate up and running. This is really important.

We really hope that you enjoy our tool and wish you the best of luck with your development on the great FileMaker platform.

We also have a pro version in the making that will be released shortly, so keep an eye on the page.

* This code is beerware; if you see me (or any other DataManix employee) at the local, and you’ve found our code helpful, please buy us a round!

Distributed as-is; no warranty is given.Use of the material is at your own responsibility. If you use techniques from our solutions, you are welcome to credit DataManix (optional of course).