Design the FileMaker Data API solution

The FileMaker Data API provides a REST API to access databases hosted FileMaker Server or FileMaker Cloud. The FileMaker Data API allows your code to:

• get information about the host; for example, product information and the names of hosted databases. See Get metadata.

• get information about a hosted database; for example, script names, layout names, or layout metadata including field names, value list names, and value list contents. See Get metadata.

• log in or log out of a hosted database. See Connect to or disconnect from a database.

• create, edit, duplicate, delete, or get a record; or get a range of records. See Work with records.

• perform find requests. See Perform a find request.

• set global field values. See Set global field values.

• run FileMaker scripts. See FileMaker scripts and the FileMaker Data API.

• uploading data into container fields. See Upload container data.

• access data in external FileMaker tables. See Log in to an external data source.

• use a different layout for response data when getting a record or a range of records. See Get a single record, Get a range of records, and Perform a find request.

The FileMaker Data API does not support:

• script trigger activation through user interaction. A FileMaker Data API solution can activate script triggers only by running a FileMaker script.

• access to the server machine's file system. For example, the FileMaker Data API does not support the FileMaker Pro function Get(TemporaryPath). This function returns an empty string when used with the FileMaker Data API. Files can be stored in a container field, but there is no access to the server's file system.

The FileMaker Data API returns field data as it is stored in the database, not as it is displayed in FileMaker Pro.