Quick Start Guide

To easily implement some ACF functions in your FileMaker application without merging the DevStarter application, follow these steps:

  1. Create a script step: Insert Text.

    • Choose Select, and for the target, check Variable, and name it $$Source, for example.
    • Below the target checkbox, a "Specify..." button appears. that leads to a text dialogue where you can paste in your source code. This preserves the text as-is, without removing any line breaks from it.

  2. Add a second script step, Set Variable, with $res, and set the formula to ACF_Compile($$Source).

  3. Do some error checking of the Result, as shown below.

  4. After running this once, you can implement calculations with your new functions, using ACF_run("FunctionName"; parameters if any....)

The script steps you created need to be run before the functions are called, like in some startup scripts for your application, or before you use the functions in it. The compiled binary is not installed permanently so when you restart FileMaker they are gone, so you need to run the steps again.

Here are the script steps:

Insert Text ( Select; $$Source; 'package bootstrap "Functions to facilitate..."')  
Set Variable [ $res; Value:ACF_Compile( $$Source ) ]

if [PatternCount ( $res ; "=== START ===" )<=0] 
   Show Custom Dialog["Error"; "Compilation error, See the error console"]; 
   // You can use ACF_GetConsoleOutput to see details. 
End If

Images

Here are some images:

Image 1 Image 2 Image 3

Make sure to implement error-checking for compilation without errors.

You can use the DEV-Starter to develop your ACF functions, ensure they compile correctly, and then paste the source code into your target application using the Insert Text script step and the ACF_Compile function.

Upon successful compilation, the ACF_Compile function returns a BASE64 encoded binary output that can be loaded into your application without the need to compile again.

If you plan to write many ACF functions and test long functions, integrating the DEVstarter application into your target is the most efficient workflow.