Guide to Updating Plug-ins

4 FileMaker Server Guide to Updating Plug-ins
For automatic update to work properly, you must:
1 Install and enable the Auto Update plug-in on each FileMaker Pro client. Set up your database to call the
external functions provided by the Auto Update plug-in. These functions verify the existence and version
of required plug-ins on both the client and server computers and download plug-ins, if needed.
1 Give plug-ins to the FileMaker Server administrator, so they can be placed in the AutoUpdate folder on
the server computer and downloaded as needed. Remind the server administrator to turn on Auto Update
in FileMaker Server. This feature can be enabled in the FileMaker Server Admin Client Connections
Assistant, FileMaker Server Properties (Windows) or
Configure > Clients (Mac OS).
1 On Mac OS, plug-in files must be converted to the .tar format. FileMaker Server will automatically
convert plug-ins to Mac OS clients during download, or you can manually convert plug-in versions to
the .tar file format using the Mac OS tar utility. For more information, see the next section.
Preparing Mac OS plug-in files for conversion to .tar format
Before being con verted to the .tar format by FileMaker Server, Mac OS plug-in files with resource forks
must be processed by software that will preserve the resource fork information.
To prepare Mac OS plug-in files for conversion to .tar format:
1. Install the StuffIt Expander utility on any client computer where plug-ins will be downloaded.
StuffIt Expander is available from www.allume.com.
2. Create an archive for the plug-in using StuffIt. The sitx archive should be re-named
<filename>.fmplugin.tar
3. Place the plug-in archive on the server computer in the appropriate folder. See “Where to store plug-ins
on FileMaker Server” on page 7.
Note StuffIt must be installed on the client computer in order for the plug-in archive to be expanded.
H ow 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1 The client has opened your database previously, but has an outdated version of a required plug-in and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The following sections describe the general sequence of events when a plug-in is missing from or out of date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.