Siri Shortcut in Claris FileMaker 19
Every time I arrive home my lights come on automatically thanks to Siri Shortcuts. Siri Shortcuts have quickly become one of my favorite additions in the last few years and if you’re an iPhone user and you haven’t checked them out, you should! When I discovered that Claris FileMaker 19 brought the ability to tie database scripts into Siri Shortcuts I was thrilled. The possibilities are endless.
According to Apple, Siri Shortcuts, “let you quickly do everyday tasks, and with the apps you use the most — all with just a tap or by asking Siri.” You can tell Siri what phrase you would like to pair with your favorite actions, like “remind me at work” to create reminders that will be triggered by the location you enter for work or “play classic rock” to open your music app of choice and navigate to your ‘classic rock’ playlist. You can also automate actions to be performed as the result of other actions, like turning your lights on or off when you arrive or leave your home at a certain time of day.
With the release of Claris FileMaker 19, Siri Shortcuts can now access your FileMaker scripts and help to automate actions you take in Claris FileMaker Go. This can include things like pulling a report based on a phrase you set up:
“Hey Siri, pull the sales report.”
… or asking Siri to create a new invoice, contact or record of any kind.
Easy as Pie
Here’s how to do it:
- Using Claris FileMaker Pro 19, open the solution that contains the script that you want to use with Siri Shortcuts and open the Script Workspace.
- Right-click on the script in the Script Workspace and click on “Enable Shortcut Donation”. When this setting is turned on for a given script, a microphone icon will appear next to the script.
- Open the same solution file using Claris FileMaker Go 19 from your iPhone or iPad.
- Open the Siri Shortcut app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Create a new Siri Shortcut, and when asked to select an app, select FileMaker Go 19.
- You can now select the donated script and assign a name to that action.
7. You could further automate this new Siri Shortcut to occur at a certain time of day, or even at the location of your choice, and then you’re finished!
Things to Note
It’s worth noting that a script that is enabled for Shortcut donation will be available to all Claris FileMaker Go users who open that solution, but that each iOS device will need to be set up separately. Fortunately, you can share shortcuts between devices. You will also need to make sure that the fmurlscript extended privilege is turned on for any privilege set that you want to be able to use with Siri Shortcuts. Finally, you will need to Go to Settings > Shortcuts and switch Allow Untrusted Shortcuts to on.
This new feature is really only limited by your imagination. I can’t wait to see all of the creative ways that users and developers are able to automate tasks in different solutions and to make their lives a little bit simpler and more excitingly automated!
About Skeleton Key
Skeleton Key develops apps on the Claris FileMaker platform making them easy-to-integrate, easy-to-use, and quick to build and deploy. Our team of experts takes a comprehensive consulting approach to focus on learning how your organization operates. With deeper insights into the way your team works, we’re able to create an ideal solution built around your operations while forming a partnership founded on trust and transparency. We hope you found this content useful and we would love to hear from you if we can be of any further assistance.
