FileMaker, Salesforce Integration - Get the Best of Both the Worlds

First things first, why do we need the integration at all? Direct integration between FileMaker and Salesforce allows developers to use the best capabilities of both the platforms. It keeps the data clean, information secured, and enables streamlined workflows.

Precisely, businesses are extremely interested in integrating the two. However, it is not an easy process. Therefore, most of them relent to moving some of their existing processes to Salesforce, instead of moving everything in one go.

Step-by-Step Method of Integration

There are different ways of integrating the two and here, we would discuss the challenges that one has to face in each of the steps.

1. The improved “insert from URL” script step can communicate with Salesforce. However, the lack of ability to set headers, although being able to post, means the step cannot be used to communicate with Salesforce.
2. The second option is following these steps. FileMaker> AppleScript > Curl > FileMaker. However, the major challenge it faced was a lack of stability.

Don't forget to check out: Apex Integration in Salesforce - The Developer Guide

The Good News!

FileMaker recently announced an improvement to their WebViewer component that makes the integration easy and the communication between FileMaker and Salesforce easy through Oauth.

The JavaScript loaded as part of the web page can now communicate with FileMaker via the FMP URL syntax.

1. Start with reading up on OAuth

FileMaker developers must read the OAuth, followed by developing a free Developer Salesforce Org. Once that is done, go to Setup>Create>Apps. Right at the bottom of the page, click on the “New Connected App”. Then enter the name, email address, and API name. In OAuth Setting, set up the app and once that is done, set up the app in the following way:

This will land you on the detail page, where you have to furnish all the data such as consumer number, the consumer secret, the callback URL to keep them for later reference.

2. A screen will open where the user is able to authenticate Salesforce. This would require you to feed the programmers credentials to gain access to this page:

This page is redirected to the redirect _uri page from where the token can be scraped. This data needs to be URL decoded. Following this, Salesforce sends “!” as part of the token that appears as %25.  It is important to note here that the token left here could cause damage.

Check out an amazing Salesforce video tutorial here: Salesforce Integration Tutorial | Integrate Salesforce with Apps | Salesforce Training

Salesforce Interaction

FileMaker app makers can now interact with Salesforce with the correct header information. JavaScript comes in handy here. A “set webviewer” step can set a data URL with the entire webpage that needs to be loaded, alongside JavaScript that needs to run.

The End Result

With Salesforce and FileMaker integration, data can be managed easily.

Logging into OAuth User-agent Login webviewer, the token and the refresh_urlcan be retrieved. This allows users or developers to make any request to Salesforce with correct permission settings.