Developer’s Guide

Writing external function plug-ins 10-5
Using external functions in a calculation
Once your external function plug-in is installed, enabled, and
configured (optional), users can access the functionality that your
plug-in provides. They do this by selecting the external functions in
the Specify Calculation dialog box when they are defining a
calculation field.
Using the Full Example plug-in’s external functions
To use an external function provided by the Full Example plug-in in
a calculation field, do the following:
1. Install the Example.fmx file (Windows) or Example Plug-In file
(Mac OS).
FileMaker Developer 5 > FileMaker Pro APIs > External Function Plug-in >
Full Example > Code Warrior Pro Example > Example Plug-In (Mac OS)
FileMaker Developer 5 > FileMaker Pro APIs > External Function Plug-in >
Full Example > Microsoft Visual C++ Example > Example.fmx (Windows)
See “Installing, enabling, and configuring FileMaker Pro plug-ins”
on page 10-4.
2. In the Application Preferences dialog box, select Full Example to
enable the plug-in, and click Configure.
The configuration dialog box that appears depends on how the plug-
in source code was written—for example, this Full Example plug-in
displays a dialog box for formatting number strings.
3. Click OK to use the default format.
4. Click Done to close the Application Preferences dialog box.
5. In FileMaker Pro, choose File menu > Define Fields.
6. Type a name for the new calculation field in the Field Name box.
7. For Type, select Calculation, and click Create.
8. In the Specify Calculation dialog box, choose External Functions
from the View pop-up menu.
9. Double-click an external function in the list that begins with the
function prefix “Xpl” to add it to the formula box.
Dialog box that appears when you
configure the Full Example plug-in