Many Windows applications use the ActiveX Automation protocol to expose their object models for external control.
ActiveX Automation support in FileMaker Pro Advanced allows you to open and close FileMaker Pro Advanced database files, toggle the application's visibility, and run FileMaker Pro Advanced scripts.
FileMaker Pro Advanced is an automation server. The objects FileMaker Pro Advanced exposes for automation can be accessed by any ActiveX client or Automation controller, including as Visual Basic and other similar programming tools.
The primary benefit of ActiveX Automation in FileMaker Pro Advanced is the ability to initiate FileMaker Pro Advanced scripts from outside of the FileMaker Pro Advanced application.
For example, with FileMaker Pro Advanced ActiveX Automation and Visual Basic you can create your own application (with its own interface) and drive multiple applications to accomplish a task. For example, you could define a window in Visual Basic that has one button that says, "Get today's sales data." The procedure for "Get today's sales data" would open a FileMaker Pro Advanced file and, by calling a FileMaker Pro Advanced script, find and export all of that day's sales data. The Automation procedure would then start up Excel and graph the exported data.
•To allow other applications to access a FileMaker solution with ActiveX Automation, the user's account access must have the fmextscriptaccess extended privilege enabled. See Editing extended privileges for a privilege set.
•To implement ActiveX Automation with FileMaker Pro Advanced, you need to be proficient in a programming language such as Visual Basic or C++.
•For more information about scripting with ActiveX Automation, search the FileMaker Knowledge Base.