FileMaker Web Development and Integration

FileMaker can sit behind a public website, feed a customer portal and exchange data with your accounting or ordering systems. Keene Systems builds those connections with the FileMaker Data API, PHP, WebDirect and Claris Connect, and our developers work on both sides: the FileMaker system and the web application.

A website with FileMaker behind it

It surprises people, but FileMaker makes a capable back end for a website. Customers work in a browser, the site reads and writes FileMaker records, and your staff keep using the FileMaker screens they know.

CitizenPath is an example. Its customers complete USCIS immigration forms through a guided online interview, and behind that PHP website the data lives in FileMaker Pro. Our team assumed responsibility for all development and played a central part in getting the immigration forms onto the site.

Signs FileMaker should be connected

• Staff copy orders or enquiries from the website into FileMaker by hand.
• Customers phone to ask for information that is sitting in your FileMaker system.
• The same customer or invoice is entered in FileMaker and in the accounting system.
• Your FileMaker website was built in PHP years ago and nobody maintains it.
• Field staff write things down and enter them when they are back in the office.

The ways FileMaker connects to the web

• The FileMaker Data API. The current, recommended route. A website or mobile app sends secure requests to FileMaker Server to find, create and update records.
• PHP and Custom Web Publishing. Many established FileMaker websites were built with PHP. We maintain those sites and, when it makes sense, move them to the Data API.
• FileMaker WebDirect. Your FileMaker layouts in a browser with nothing to install. Good for staff and for a modest number of outside users.
• WordPress and other website platforms. A form or a customer page on your site can read and write FileMaker data through the Data API.
• Mobile apps. FileMaker Go for iPhone and iPad, or a custom mobile app that uses FileMaker as its database.

Connecting FileMaker to other business systems

The second kind of integration is between FileMaker and the other software you run. The usual reason is simple: someone is typing the same information twice.

• SQL databases. FileMaker can read and write tables in Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and Oracle as if they were its own.
• Accounting and payments. Invoices, payments and customer records passed between FileMaker and your accounting or payment service.
• Claris Connect. Automated flows between FileMaker and cloud applications such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
• REST APIs. FileMaker scripts can call almost any modern web service, and other systems can call FileMaker.

For the wider picture, see how we handle application integration across a business.

One team for both sides

Integration projects go wrong when the web developer does not understand FileMaker and the FileMaker developer does not understand the web. Our FileMaker Pro developers work alongside web developers in the same team, so one group is responsible for the whole path, from the browser to the record.

How a FileMaker integration project runs

1. We map the data. Which records need to move, in which direction, and how often.
2. We choose the method. Data API, WebDirect, a SQL connection or Claris Connect, whichever fits the job.
3. We build against a copy. The connection is developed and tested without touching live data.
4. We secure it. Dedicated accounts with only the access the connection needs, over encrypted connections.
5. We go live and watch. The connection is switched on, monitored, and adjusted as real use shows what is needed.

The next step is a short, no-pressure conversation. Schedule a FileMaker exploration call or use the form on this page.