Guide to Updating Plug-ins
Table Of Contents
How automatic downloading works
5
Notes
1
Ask for plug-in by name and version number, separated by a space. because spaces are used as
function delimiters, plug-in names and versions cannot contain any embedded spaces.
1
Do not attempt to use the Auto Update function to update itself, or the environment may become
unstable and crash.
When the required plug-in is out of date on the client computer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, and returning a string that lists all available
plug-in versions.
4.
The string is searched for the version returned by the
YourPlugIn_Version
function. In this case, the
server plug-in version is newer than the client version, so the version on the server is greater than the
version of the plug-in on the client computer.
5.
The external function FMSAUC_UpdatePlugIn runs, placing the required plug-in in the FileMaker
Pro Extensions folder. The out-of-date plug-in is moved to the directory
FileMaker
Pro 7\Extensions\Saved\.
The following illustration shows how you can use the external functions provided by the Auto Update
plug-in with a few standard FileMaker Pro functions to check first the client computer and then the
server computer (if necessary) for a plug-in required by your database.