This project was created as a way to assist version control in FileMaker
Currently, it is meant to be used a reference for implementation within individual solutions. When possible, it will evolve to manage projects as an external tool
Well yes, and no.
FileMaker has very basic version control - It allows saving "clones", design-only data-less copies of solutions; and it allows migration from a live source file to a clone.
Using Git LFS, some version control is possible; still, it leaves much to be desired.
Some FileMaker Version Control systems have worked on XML analysis of FileMaker DDRs, and are implementing diff-viewing, which is great, but it is still under development, and is a diamond-in-the-rough
In the meantime, I want to be able to simply commit the scripts as text into my Git project, to be able to efficiently analyze differences between commits, branches, etc.
This project was created to assist with that - the vision is to be able to simply press a single button to have all scripts generated within the project's scripts directory automatically, along with the FileMaker solution's clone, maybe even automatically committed and pushed if provided with a message.
This project will version-control itself, and the rest of my FileMaker solutions, so I will be interacting with it almost daily
The Save Clone script (cmd-alt-C) is used for version control with use of FileMakerDataMigrationTool.
FileMaker clone files should be committed as Git-LFS objects
The current version also allows copying multiple scripts from the side menu and then running the Commit Scripts script (cmd-alt-S/X) to automatically commit script text and optionally XML into the designated scripts directory.
Within the scripts directory, the solution searches for a file named after the script being committed, and replaces it with the updated version. If no file is found, {scripts}/tmp/ is used.
Requires MBS Plugin
- Scripts cannot share a name with other scripts or script directories
- Currently works on MacOS only
- When multiple FileMaker solutions are open, the wrong Script Workspace would open, avoid that for now. (See #4)
- Most functionality requires a license for the MBS plugin
The Commit Script script uses the MonkeyBreakSoftware plugin, it is not usable without a license.
The license allows lifetime access to all MBS versions up to 1 year after purchase, and can be extended for half price per additional year.
Minimum MBS version required: v10.1
v15.4makes interactions with FileMaker XML objects much simpler, quite amazing to work with!
This repository uses a submodule to store its LFS files, this is unrelated to the project itself and is not required, I have simply chosen to design my project that way, as GitHub allows unlimited repository storage, while Azure allows unlimited LFS storage (or ≤250GB).
Essentially, the only real file of interest to you would be
lfs/script-commit.fmp12, you can find it in the releases page as well. As the project version-controls itself, you can also find the scripts in text/xml format
This project is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0
You may use, modify, and distribute this file under the terms of that license.
Please retain this notice and give appropriate credit.
For any questions or assistance, please open an issue.
For private communications, you can reach me at dev@deanayalon.com