FMGrowler is a Mac OS X plug-in for FileMaker for posting Growl notifications. In addition to posting notifications FileMaker scripts can be run via "callbacks" from Growl when notifications are clicked or time-out.
Version: 1.0.1
Date: March 9, 2010
Price: Free
The best way to find out what FMGrowler does and how it works is to download the plug-in and run the demonstration; it takes only a few minutes although you do need to have Growl installed and running. There's also a practical usage example and, if you've run out things to do on Twitter and Facebook, there are not one, but two, brief promotional videos for your viewing pleasure.
There is also more detailed information on the functions provided by the plug-in.
Note: notifications can also be posted to Growl from FileMaker using AppleScript, although "callbacks" are not supported. For very good examples of how to do this see the Growl Integration video by Michael Gaslowitz, Send messages from FileMaker to Growl from the creative folks at SH Partners or Using Growl without plugins by Adam Varga.
An OnTimer script that polls a to-do list for new items could display a notification advising the user that the new task is available without interrupting their work.
Growl_DatabaseInformation ( "Excellent! More work to do!" )
In order for the notification to stay on the screen, rather than disappear after a few seconds, you can make it "sticky".
Growl_DatabaseInformation ( "Excellent! More work to do!" ; True )
And to display a custom icon for the alert supply a PNG image from a container field.
Growl_DatabaseInformation ( "Excellent! More work to do!" ; True ; Resources::Alert Icon )
A "callback" can also be added so that when the user clicks on the notification a FileMaker script is called that takes the user to the new to-do item.
Growl_PostNotification (
Growl_DatabaseInformationNotification ;
"New to-do Item" ;
"She who must be obeyed has issued instructions" ;
Growl_HighPriority ;
True ;
Resources::Alert Icon ;
Growl_Callback ( "ToDo List" ; "Show New ToDo Item" ; Growl_ScriptPause ; NewToDo )
)
(where NewToDo is a parameter that identifies the to-do list item to be passed to the script "Show New ToDo Item" in the database "ToDo List").
FMGrowler was written using Mac OS X 10.6.1 (Snow Leopard), FileMaker Pro 10.0v3 [Advanced] and Growl 1.2, however, the minimum requirements are:
FMGrowler will not work under Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger) or on machines with PPC processors.
English only: it's the only language I speak, sorry. If you'd like to see a localized version in any of the languages supported by FileMaker and are able to assist with the translation I'd be delighted to hear from you.
FMGrowler does not work as a server-side plug-in with FileMaker Server [Advanced].
OS X only: at the time the plug-in was written Growl for Windows did not offer a C++ API. I'm looking at the GNTP Library as a way of providing support on Windows and also under FileMaker Server, however, it does not offer the exact functionality provided by the OS X Growl SDK.
Please send any feedback, suggestions or bug reports via the Contact form. If you have a suggestion for how this might be improved I'd be very interested in hearing it.
In addition to any bugs etc. I'd particularly like feedback on the notification names (and their associated convenience functions)... are these the right ones? Are there others that should be added?
First and foremost thanks must go to the folks at the Growl Project for Growl itself. FMGrowler uses the Growl SDK which is Copyright (c) The Growl Project, 2004-2009.
Thanks also to Michael Ward of CustoMike Solutions, David Head of uLearnIT, Andrew McCallum of NicheIT, Nick Orr from Goya and Thomas Kunetz of FileMaker for testing and comments.
The Alert, Smiley and Clapperboard icons are public domain images from the Wikimedia Commons or Tango Icon Library.
Copyright (c) 2009, 2010, Mark Banks
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
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© 2009, 2010 Mark Banks. Last modified: March 9, 2010
