Scanning barcodes from FileMaker Go

FileMaker Go 1.1.1 supports a new fmp7script URL scheme that allows communication with external iOS apps. Thanks to a tip from Jeremy Bante at Kyo Logic, I found a free iOS app that can scan barcodes and works with this new feature in FileMaker Go. The app is pic2shop from Vision Smarts. This article shows you how to integrate FileMaker Go with pic2shop to scan barcodes.

Integrating FileMaker Go with pic2shop requires just two scripts. The first script – “Open pic2shop app” – uses the Open URL script step to launch the URL, which opens the pic2shop app and asks it to scan a barcode. A FileMaker calculation for the URL looks something like this:

Note that the callback parameter in the URL has to be encoded. Without the encoding, the URL would look like this:

When pic2shop receives this URL, it will scan a barcode and return the result as a script parameter to the “Scan” script in the hibernated FileMaker Go file that sent the URL. The second script – “Scan” – takes over from there and processes the scanned value. Click here to download a sample file that demonstrates how this works. The file can be copied to your iPhone or opened remotely as a guest. Be sure to install the free pic2shop app before opening the file in FileMaker Go 1.1.1. (Click here for an unzipped version of the sample file.)

More info

More information on the fmp7script protocol can be found here: http://help.filemaker.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/7786/kw/fmp7script Developer information for pic2shop can be found here: http://www.pic2shop.com/developers/developers.html