A case study of integration: FileMaker and Drupal!
Lots of non-technical folks love to use FileMaker; it's a cheap and intuitive alternative to more expensive visual database solutions, like Microsoft Access. FileMaker is the #1 best-selling standalone database for both Macintosh and Windows and has won dozens of awards in the industry.
At Mediacurrent, we recently integrated a client's existing FileMaker database with a freshly-launched Drupal 7 website, and, since not many people have attempted this before, I would like to share our solution with the community. You need this presentation if:
- You use FileMaker and are sick of exporting/importing CSV files.
- You have diehard FileMaker fanboys (and fangirls!) in your organization.
- Your organization's workflow leverages both Drupal and FileMaker, and you find yourself saying, "Gee whiz, it sure would be nice if they could talk!"
In the presentation, I will provide a high-level overview of our solution, and I will also share detailed implementation notes and code in supporting documents. A brief synopsis:
- Drupal → Filemaker: using the WSClient and Rules modules to push data to a FileMaker REST server.
- Filemaker → Drupal: strategies for sending REST requests from FileMaker to Drupal Services.
- Drupal ← Filemaker: pulling data into Drupal via a LIST response from a FileMaker REST server.
For a review of this presentation in two blog posts, check out this post on the Mediacurrent Blog.
About Derek DeRaps
Proudly writing his first "Hello, World!" with BASIC in the 8th grade, Derek went on to study C++ and Java in high school and wrote his first 3D video game at Columbia University. After graduating at the top of his class in Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Derek traveled the length and breadth of the American continent, and he never stopped coding. From a secluded cabin in the wilds of Denali National Park where he assisted climate change researchers, to downtown Santiago where he collaborated with a team of .NET developers, Derek continued nurturing his love of the field.
Derek first bumped into Drupal during his tenure as IT Business Analyst at Georgia Tech, and the connection was undeniable. Normally a skeptic, Derek drank the Kool-Aid® straight from the fire hose and began "Drupalizing" all his client websites with Drupal 6. Now happy to be developing in Drupal 7, Derek continues the Drupal love story with Mediacurrent.