Guide to Updating Plug-ins

Chapter 1
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How automatic downloading works 7
How automatic downloading works
Auto Update ensures clients have current plug-ins by addressing two situations:
1 The client is opening your database for the first time, and the plug-in that the database requires doesn’t
exist on the client computer.
1 The client has opened your database previously, but has an outdated version of a required plug-in and
needs an update.
The following sections describe the general sequence of events when a plug-in is missing from or out of date
on the client computer.
When the required plug-in is missing from the client computer
The client starts FileMaker Pro and attempts to open your database hosted by FileMaker Server. Scripts,
which you have defined in your database, run the external functions for Auto Update in the following order:
1. The external function FMSAUC_Version runs, returning the name and version of the Auto Update plug-
in available on the FileMaker Pro client computer. If plug-in information isn’t returned, it is assumed that
the plug-in is missing from or disabled on the client computer.
2. The external function YourPlugIn_Version runs, returning the name and version of the client computer
plug-in that will be used in the database. If plug-in version information is not returned, it is assumed that
the plug-in is missing or disabled on the client computer.
3. The external function FMSAUC_FindPlugIn runs, searching the server AutoUpdate folder and the server
default database folder for the plug-in versions. The function returns a string, delimited by spaces, that
lists all available plug-in versions.
4. The string is searched for the version returned by the YourPlugIn_Version function. If no version
information is returned by YourPlugIn_Version, it is probably because the version on the server is greater
than the version of the plug-in on the client computer.
5. If the option to return the latest plug-in version is enabled, the external function FMSAUC_UpdatePlugIn
places the required plug-in into the current user’s FileMaker Extensions folder as follows:
When starting, FileMaker Pro first loads the plug-ins stored in the current user’s FileMaker Extensions
folder. If a particular plug-in is not found in that folder, FileMaker Pro searches for that plug-in in the
Extensions folder for the FileMaker Pro application.
On this operating
system:
The plug-in is stored in this folder:
Windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Local Settings\Application Data\FileMaker\Extensions\
Windows Vista C:\users\user_name\AppData\Local\FileMaker\Extensions\
Mac OS X Macintosh HD/Users/user_name/Library/Application Support/FileMaker/Extensions/