A Ruby client for FileMaker 18 and 19's Data API using Faraday and with optional Spyke support (ActiveRecord-ish models).
If you're looking for a Ruby client for the legacy XML/Custom Web Publishing API try the fabulous ginjo-rfm gem instead.
fmrest-ruby only partially implements FileMaker 18's Data API. See the implementation completeness table to see if a feature you need is natively supported by the gem.
Add this line to your Gemfile:
gem 'fmrest'
# Optional but recommended (for ORM features)
gem 'spyke'To get a Faraday connection that can handle FM's Data API auth workflow:
connection = FmRest::V1.build_connection(
host: "example.com",
database: "database name",
username: "username",
password: "password"
)The returned connection will prefix any non-absolute paths with
"/fmi/data/v1/databases/:database/", so you only need to supply the
meaningful part of the path.
To send a request to the Data API use Faraday's standard methods, e.g.:
# Get all records
connection.get("layouts/MyFancyLayout/records")
# Create new record
connection.post do |req|
req.url "layouts/MyFancyLayout/records"
# You can just pass a hash for the JSON body
req.body = { ... }
endFor each request fmrest-ruby will first request a session token (using the provided username and password) if it doesn't yet have one in store.
The Data API requires sending a DELETE request to
/fmi/data/:version/databases/:database_name/sessions/:session_token
in order to log out from the session
(see docs).
Since fmrest-ruby handles the storage of session tokens internally, and the token is required to build the logout URL, this becomes a non-trivial action.
To remedy this, fmrest-ruby connections recognize when you're trying to logout
and substitute whatever is in the :session_token section of the logout path
with the actual session token:
# Logout from the database session
connection.delete "sessions/this-will-be-replaced-with-the-actual-token"If you're using the ORM features this becomes much easier, see Model.logout below.
In addition to the required :host, :database, :username and :password
connection options, you can also pass :ssl and :proxy, which are passed to
the underlying Faraday connection.
You can use this to, for instance, disable SSL verification:
FmRest::V1.build_connection(
host: "example.com",
...
ssl: { verify: false }
)You can also pass a :log option for basic request logging, see the section on
Logging below.
:username is also aliased as :account_name to provide cross-compatibility
with the ginjo-rfm gem.
| Option | Description | Format | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
:host |
Hostname with optional port, e.g. "example.com:9000" |
String | None |
:database |
String | None | |
:username |
String | None | |
:password |
String | None | |
:ssl |
SSL options to be forwarded to Faraday | Faraday SSL options | None |
:proxy |
Proxy options to be forwarded to Faraday | Faraday proxy options | None |
:log |
Log JSON responses to STDOUT | Boolean | false |
:coerce_dates |
See section on date fields | Boolean | :hybrid | :full |
false |
:date_format |
Date parsing format | String (FM date format) | "MM/dd/yyyy" |
:timestamp_format |
Timestmap parsing format | String (FM date format) | "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss" |
:time_format |
Time parsing format | String (FM date format) | "HH:mm:ss" |
:timezone |
The timezone for the FM server | :local | :utc | nil |
nil |
If you're only connecting to a single FM database you can configure it globally
through FmRest.default_connection_settings=. E.g.:
FmRest.default_connection_settings = {
host: "example.com",
database: "database name",
username: "username",
password: "password"
}This configuration will be used by default by FmRest::V1.build_connection as
well as your models whenever you don't pass a configuration hash explicitly.
By default fmrest-ruby will use a memory-based store for the session tokens. This is generally good enough for development, but not good enough for production, as in-memory tokens aren't shared across threads/processes.
Besides the default token store the following token stores are bundled with fmrest-ruby:
On Rails apps already using ActiveRecord setting up this token store should be dead simple:
# config/initializers/fmrest.rb
require "fmrest/token_store/active_record"
FmRest.token_store = FmRest::TokenStore::ActiveRecordNo migrations are needed, the token store table will be created automatically
when needed, defaulting to the table name "fmrest_session_tokens". If you want
to change the table name you can do so by initializing the token store and
passing it the :table_name option:
FmRest.token_store = FmRest::TokenStore::ActiveRecord.new(table_name: "my_token_store")To use the Redis token store do:
require "fmrest/token_store/redis"
FmRest.token_store = FmRest::TokenStore::RedisYou can also initialize it with the following options:
:redis- ARedisobject to use as connection, if ommited a newRedisobject will be created with remaining options:prefix- The prefix to use for token keys, by default"fmrest-token:"- Any other options will be passed to
Redis.newif:redisisn't provided
Examples:
# Passing a Redis connection explicitly
FmRest.token_store = FmRest::TokenStore::Redis.new(redis: Redis.new, prefix: "my-fancy-prefix:")
# Passing options for Redis.new
FmRest.token_store = FmRest::TokenStore::Redis.new(prefix: "my-fancy-prefix:", host: "10.0.1.1", port: 6380, db: 15)NOTE: redis-rb is not included as a gem dependency of fmrest-ruby, so you'll have to add it to your Gemfile.
Moneta is a key/value store wrapper around many different storage backends. If ActiveRecord or Redis don't suit your needs, chances are Moneta will.
To use it:
# config/initializers/fmrest.rb
require "fmrest/token_store/moneta"
FmRest.token_store = FmRest::TokenStore::MonetaBy default the :Memory moneta backend will be used.
You can also initialize it with the following options:
:backend- The moneta backend to initialize the store with:prefix- The prefix to use for token keys, by default"fmrest-token:"- Any other options will be passed to
Moneta.new
Examples:
# Using YAML as a backend with a custom prefix
FmRest.token_store = FmRest::TokenStore::Moneta.new(
backend: :YAML,
file: "tmp/tokens.yml",
prefix: "my-tokens"
)NOTE: the moneta gem is not included as a dependency of fmrest-ruby, so you'll have to add it to your Gemfile.
Since the Data API uses JSON (wich doesn't provide a native date/time object), dates and timestamps are received in string format. By default fmrest-ruby leaves those string fields untouched, but it provides an opt-in feature to try to automatically "coerce" them into Ruby date objects.
The connection option :coerce_dates controls this feature. Possible values
are:
:full- whenever a string matches the given date/timestamp/time format, convert them toDateorDateTimeobjects as appropriate:hybridortrue- similar as above, but instead of converting to regularDate/DateTimeit converts strings toFmRest::StringDateandFmRest::StringDateTime, "hybrid" classes provided by fmrest-ruby that retain the functionality ofStringwhile also providing most the functionality ofDate/DateTime(more on this below)false- disable date coercion entirely (default), leave original string values untouched
Enabling date coercion works with both basic fmrest-ruby connections and Spyke models (ORM).
The connection options :date_format, :timestamp_format and :time_format
control how to match and parse dates. You only need to provide these if you use
a date/time localization different from American format (the default).
Future versions of fmrest-ruby will provide better (and less heuristic) ways of specifying and/or detecting date fields (e.g. by requesting layout metadata or a DSL in model classes).
FmRest::StringDate and FmRest::StringDateTime are special classes that
inherit from String, but internally parse and store a Date or DateTime,
and delegate any methods not provided by String to those objects. In other
words, they quack like a duck and bark like a dog.
You can use these when you want fmrest-ruby to provide you with date objects,
but you don't want to worry about date coercion of false positives (i.e. a
string field that gets converted to Date because it just so matched the given
date format).
Be warned however that these classes come with a fair share of known gotchas (see GitHub wiki for more info). Some of those gothas can be removed by calling
FmRest::StringDateAwareness.enableWhich will extend the core Date and DateTime classes to be aware of
FmRest::StringDate, especially when calling Date.===, Date.parse or
Date._parse.
If you're working with ActiveRecord models this will also make them accept
FmRest::StringDate values for date fields.
fmrest-ruby has basic timezone support. You can set the :timezone option in
your connection settings to one of the following values:
:local- dates will be converted to your system local time offset (as defined byENV["TZ"]), or the timezone set byTime.zoneif you're using ActiveSupport:utc- dates will be converted to UTC offsetnil- (default) ignore timezones altogether
Spyke is an ActiveRecord-like gem for building REST models. fmrest-ruby has Spyke support out of the box, although Spyke itself is not a dependency of fmrest-ruby, so you'll need to add it to your Gemfile yourself:
gem 'spyke'Then require fmrest-ruby's Spyke support:
# Put this in config/initializers/fmrest.rb if it's a Rails project
require "fmrest/spyke"And finally extend your Spyke models with FmRest::Spyke:
class Honeybee < Spyke::Base
include FmRest::Spyke
endThis will make your Spyke model send all its requests in Data API format, with token session auth. Find, create, update and destroy actions should all work as expected.
Alternatively you can inherit directly from the shorthand
FmRest::Spyke::Base, which is in itself a subclass of Spyke::Base with
FmRest::Spyke already included:
class Honeybee < FmRest::Spyke::Base
endAll of Spyke's basic ORM operations work:
bee = Honeybee.new
bee.name = "Hutch"
bee.save # POST request
bee.name = "ハッチ"
bee.save # PATCH request
bee.reload # GET request
bee.destroy # DELETE request
bee = Honeybee.find(9) # GET requestRead Spyke's documentation for more information on these basic features.
In addition FmRest::Spyke extends Spyke::Base subclasses with the following
features:
Usually to tell a Spyke object to use a certain Faraday connection you'd use:
class Honeybee < Spyke::Base
self.connection = Faraday.new(...)
endfmrest-ruby simplfies the process of setting up your Spyke model with a Faraday connection by allowing you to just set your Data API connection settings:
class Honeybee < Spyke::Base
include FmRest::Spyke
self.fmrest_config = {
host: "example.com",
database: "My Database",
username: "...",
password: "..."
}
endThis will automatically create a proper Faraday connection for those connection settings.
Note that these settings are inheritable, so you could create a base class that does the initial connection setup and then inherit from it in models using that same connection. E.g.:
class BeeBase < Spyke::Base
include FmRest::Spyke
self.fmrest_config = {
host: "example.com",
database: "My Database",
username: "...",
password: "..."
}
end
class Honeybee < BeeBase
# This model will use the same connection as BeeBase
endUse layout to set the :layout part of API URLs, e.g.:
class Honeybee < FmRest::Spyke::Base
layout "Honeybees Web" # uri path will be "layouts/Honeybees%20Web/records(/:id)"
endThis is much preferred over using Spyke's uri to set custom URLs for your
Data API models.
Note that you only need to set this if the name of the model and the name of the layout differ, otherwise the default will just work.
Use logout to log out from the database session (you may call it on any model
that uses the database session you want to log out from).
Honeybee.logoutSpyke allows you to define your model's attributes using attributes, however
sometimes FileMaker's field names aren't very Ruby-ORM-friendly, especially
since they may sometimes contain spaces and other special characters, so
fmrest-ruby extends attributes' functionality to allow you to map
Ruby-friendly attribute names to FileMaker field names. E.g.:
class Honeybee < FmRest::Spyke::Base
attributes first_name: "First Name", last_name: "Last Name"
endYou can then simply use the pretty attribute names whenever working with your model and they will get mapped to their FileMaker fields:
bee = Honeybee.find(1)
bee.first_name # => "Princess"
bee.last_name # => "Buzz"
bee.first_name = "Queen"
bee.attributes # => { "First Name": "Queen", "Last Name": "Buzz" }You can define portal associations on your model as such:
class Honeybee < FmRest::Spyke::Base
has_portal :flowers
end
class Flower < FmRest::Spyke::Base
attributes :color, :species
endIn this case fmrest-ruby will expect the portal table name and portal object name to be both "flowers", i.e. the expected portal JSON portion should look like this:
...
"portalData": {
"flowers": [
{
"flowers::color": "red",
"flowers::species": "rose"
}
]
}If you need to specify different values for them you can do so with
portal_key for the portal table name, and attribute_prefix for the portal
object name, and class_name, e.g.:
class Honeybee < FmRest::Spyke::Base
has_portal :pollinated_flowers, portal_key: "Bee Flowers",
attribute_prefix: "Flower",
class_name: "Flower"
endThe above will use the Flower model class and expects the following portal JSON
portion:
...
"portalData": {
"Bee Flowers": [
{
"Flower::color": "white",
"Flower::species": "rose"
}
]
}fmrest-ruby includes support for ActiveModel's Dirty mixin out of the box, providing methods like:
bee = Honeybee.new
bee.changed? # => false
bee.name = "Maya"
bee.changed? # => true
bee.name_changed? # => truefmrest-ruby uses the Dirty functionality to only send changed attributes back to the server on save.
You can read more about ActiveModel's Dirty in Rails Guides.
Since Spyke is API-agnostic it only provides a wide-purpose .where method for
passing arbitrary parameters to the REST backend. fmrest-ruby however is well
aware of its backend API, so it extends Spkye models with a bunch of useful
querying methods.
.limit sets the limit for get and find request:
Honeybee.limit(10)NOTE: You can also set a default limit value for a model class, see other notes on querying.
You can also use .limit to set limits on portals:
Honeybee.limit(hives: 3, flowers: 2)To remove the limit on a portal set it to nil:
Honeybee.limit(flowers: nil).offset sets the offset for get and find requests:
Honeybee.offset(10)You can also use .offset to set offsets on portals:
Honeybee.offset(hives: 3, flowers: 2)To remove the offset on a portal set it to nil:
Honeybee.offset(flowers: nil).sort (or .order) sets sorting options for get and find requests:
Honeybee.sort(:name, :age)
Honeybee.order(:name, :age) # alias methodYou can set descending sort order by appending either ! or __desc to a sort
attribute (defaults to ascending order):
Honeybee.sort(:name, :age!)
Honeybee.sort(:name, :age__desc)NOTE: You can also set default sort values for a model class, see Other notes on querying.
.portal (aliased as .includes and .portals) sets which portals to fetch
(if any) for get and find requests (this recognizes portals defined with
has_portal):
Honeybee.portal(:hives) # include just the :hives portal
Honeybee.includes(:hives) # alias method
Honeybee.portals(:hives, :flowers) # alias for pluralization fundamentalistsChaining calls to .portal will add portals to the existing included list:
Honeybee.portal(:flowers).portal(:hives) # include both portalsIf you want to disable portals for the scope call .portal(false):
Honeybee.portal(false) # disable portals for this scopeIf you want to include all portals call .portal(true):
Honeybee.portal(true) # include all portalsFor convenience you can also use .with_all_portals and .without_portals,
which behave just as calling .portal(true) and portal(false) respectively.
NOTE: By default all portals are included.
.query sets query conditions for a find request (and supports attributes as
defined with attributes):
Honeybee.query(name: "Hutch")
# JSON -> {"query": [{"Bee Name": "Hutch"}]}Passing multiple attributes to .query will group them in the same JSON object:
Honeybee.query(name: "Hutch", age: 4)
# JSON -> {"query": [{"Bee Name": "Hutch", "Bee Age": 4}]}Calling .query multiple times or passing it multiple hashes creates separate
JSON objects (so you can define OR queries):
Honeybee.query(name: "Hutch").query(name: "Maya")
Honeybee.query({ name: "Hutch" }, { name: "Maya" })
# JSON -> {"query": [{"Bee Name": "Hutch"}, {"Bee Name": "Maya"}]}.omit works like .query but excludes matches:
Honeybee.omit(name: "Hutch")
# JSON -> {"query": [{"Bee Name": "Hutch", "omit": "true"}]}You can get the same effect by passing omit: true to .query:
Honeybee.query(name: "Hutch", omit: true)
# JSON -> {"query": [{"Bee Name": "Hutch", "omit": "true"}]}.script enables the execution of scripts during query requests.
Honeybee.script("My script").find_some # Fetch records and execute a scriptSee section on script execution below for more info.
You can chain all query methods together:
Honeybee.limit(10).offset(20).sort(:name, :age!).portal(:hives).query(name: "Hutch")You can also set default values for limit and sort on the class:
class Honeybee < FmRest::Spyke::Base
self.default_limit = 1000
self.default_sort = [:name, :age!]
endCalling any Enumerable method on the resulting scope object will trigger a
server request, so you can treat the scope as a collection:
Honeybee.limit(10).sort(:name).each { |bee| ... }If you want to explicitly run the request instead you can use .find_some on
the scope object:
Honeybee.limit(10).sort(:name).find_some # => [<Honeybee...>, ...]If you want just a single result you can use .first instead (this will
force .limit(1)):
Honeybee.query(name: "Hutch").first # => <Honeybee...>If you know the id of the record you should use .find(id) instead of
.query(id: id).first (so that the sent request is
GET ../:layout/records/:id instead of POST ../:layout/_find).
Honeybee.find(89) # => <Honeybee...>Note also that if you use .find(id) your .query() parameters (as well as
limit, offset and sort parameters) will be discarded as they're not supported
by the single record endpoint.
Sometimes you want to iterate over a very large number of records to do some processing, but requesting them all at once would result in one huge request to the Data API, and loading too many records in memory all at once.
To mitigate this problem you can use .find_in_batches and .find_each. If
you've used ActiveRecord you're probably familiar with how they operate:
# Find records in batches of 100 each
Honeybee.query(hive: "Queensville").find_in_batches(batch_size: 100) do |batch|
dispatch_bees(batch)
end
# Iterate over all records using batches
Honeybee.query(hive: "Queensville").find_each(batch_size: 100) do |bee|
bee.dispatch
end.find_in_batches yields collections of records (batches), while .find_each
yields individual records, but using batches behind the scenes.
Both methods accept a block-less form in which case they return an
Enumerator:
batch_enum = Honeybee.find_in_batches
batch = batch_enum.next # => Spyke::Collection
batch_enum.each do |batch|
process_batch(batch)
end
record_enum = Honeybee.find_each
record_enum.next # => HoneybeeNOTE: By its nature, batch processing is subject to race conditions if other processes are modifying the database.
You can define container fields on your model class with container:
class Honeybee < FmRest::Spyke::Base
container :photo, field_name: "Beehive Photo ID"
end:field_name specifies the original field in the FM layout and is optional, if
not given it will default to the name of your attribute (just :photo in this
example).
(Note that you don't need to define container fields with attributes in
addition to the container definition.)
This will provide you with the following instance methods:
bee = Honeybee.new
bee.photo.url # The URL of the container file on the FileMaker server
bee.photo.download # Download the contents of the container as an IO object
bee.photo.upload(filename_or_io) # Upload a file to the containerupload also accepts an options hash with the following options:
:repetition- Sets the field repetition:filename- The filename to use when uploading (defaults tofilename_or_io.original_filenameif available):content_type- The MIME content type to use (defaults toapplication/octet-stream)
The Data API allows running scripts as part of many types of requests.
As of FM18 you can execute scripts directly. To do that for a specific model
use Model.execute_script:
result = Honeybee.execute_script("My Script", param: "optional parameter")This will return a Spyke::Result object containing among other things the
result of the script execution:
result.metadata[:script][:after]
# => { result: "oh hi", error: "0" }All other script-capable requests take one or more of three possible script
execution options: script.prerequest, script.presort and plain script
(which fmrest-ruby dubs after for convenience).
Because of that fmrest-ruby uses a common object format for specifying script options across multiple methods. That object format is as follows:
# Just a string means to execute that `after' script without a parameter
"My Script"
# A 2-elemnent array means [script name, script parameter]
["My Script", "parameter"]
# A hash with keys :prerequest, :presort and/or :after sets those scripts for
{
prerequest: "My Prerequest Script",
presort: "My Presort Script",
after: "My Script"
}
# Using 2-element arrays as objects in the hash allows specifying parameters
{
prerequest: ["My Prerequest Script", "parameter"],
presort: ["My Presort Script", "parameter"],
after: ["My Script", "parameter"]
}A record instance's .save and .destroy methods both accept a script:
option to which you can pass a script options object with
the above format:
# Save the record and execute an `after' script called "My Script"
bee.save(script: "My Script")
# Same as above but with an added parameter
bee.save(script: ["My Script", "parameter"])
# Save the record and execute a presort script and an `after' script
bee.save(script: { presort: "My Presort Script", after: "My Script" })
# Destroy the record and execute a prerequest script with a parameter
bee.destroy(script: { prerequest: ["My Prerequest Script", "parameter"] })
# Reload the record and execute a prerequest script with a parameter
bee.reload(script: { prerequest: ["My Prerequest Script", "parameter"] })Every time a request is ran on a model or record instance of a model, a
thread-local Model.last_request_metadata attribute is set on that model,
which is a hash containing the results of script executions, if any were
performed, among other metadata.
The results for :after, :prerequest and :presort scripts are stored
separately, under their matching key.
bee.save(script: { presort: "My Presort Script", after: "My Script" })
Honeybee.last_request_metadata.script
# => { after: { result: "oh hi", error: "0" }, presort: { result: "lo", error: "0" } }As mentioned under the Query API section, you can use the
.script query method to specify that you want scripts executed when a query
is performed on that scope.
.script takes the same options object specified above:
# Find one Honeybee record executing a presort and after script
Honeybee.script(presort: ["My Presort Script", "parameter"], after: "My Script").firstThe model class' .last_request_metadata will be set in case you need to get the result.
In the case of retrieving multiple results (i.e. via .find_some) the
resulting collection will have a .metadata attribute method containing the
same metadata hash with script execution results. Note that this does not apply
to retrieving single records, in that case you'll have to use
.last_request_metadata.
You can call .set_globals on any FmRest::Spyke::Base model to set glabal
field values on the database that model is configured for.
You can pass it either a hash of fully qualified field names (table_name::field_name), or 1-level-deep nested hashes, with the outer being a table name and the inner keys being the field names:
Honeybee.set_globals(
"beeTable::myVar" => "value",
"beeTable::myOtherVar" => "also a value"
)
# Equivalent to the above example
Honeybee.set_globals(beeTable: { myVar: "value", myOtherVar: "also a value" })
# Combined
Honeybee.set_globals(
"beeTable::myVar" => "value",
beeTable: { myOtherVar: "also a value" }
)If using fmrest-ruby + Spyke in a Rails app pretty log output will be set up for you automatically by Spyke (see their README).
You can also enable simple STDOUT logging (useful for debugging) by passing
log: true in the options hash for either
FmRest.default_connection_settings= or your models' fmrest_config=, e.g.:
FmRest.default_connection_settings = {
host: "example.com",
database: "My Database",
username: "z3r0c00l",
password: "abc123",
log: true
}
# Or in your model
class LoggyBee < FmRest::Spyke::Base
self.fmrest_config = {
host: "example.com",
database: "My Database",
username: "...",
password: "...",
log: true
}
endIf you need to set up more complex logging for your models can use the
faraday block inside your class to inject your own logger middleware into the
Faraday connection, e.g.:
class LoggyBee < FmRest::Spyke::Base
faraday do |conn|
conn.response :logger, MyApp.logger, bodies: true
end
endFM Data API reference: https://fmhelp.filemaker.com/docs/18/en/dataapi/
| FM 18 Data API feature | Supported by basic connection | Supported by FmRest::Spyke::Base |
|---|---|---|
| Log in using HTTP Basic Auth | Yes | Yes |
| Log in using OAuth | No | No |
| Log in to an external data source | No | No |
| Log in using a FileMaker ID account | No | No |
| Log out | Yes | Yes |
| Get product information | Manual* | No |
| Get database names | Manual* | No |
| Get script names | Manual* | No |
| Get layout names | Manual* | No |
| Get layout metadata | Manual* | No |
| Create a record | Manual* | Yes |
| Edit a record | Manual* | Yes |
| Duplicate a record | Manual* | No |
| Delete a record | Manual* | Yes |
| Get a single record | Manual* | Yes |
| Get a range of records | Manual* | Yes |
| Get container data | Manual* | Yes |
| Upload container data | Manual* | Yes |
| Perform a find request | Manual* | Yes |
| Set global field values | Manual* | Yes |
| Run a script | Manual* | Yes |
| Run a script with another request | Manual* | Yes |
* You can manually supply the URL and JSON to a FmRest connection.
After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run
rake spec to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive
prompt that will allow you to experiment (it will auto-load all fixtures in
spec/fixtures).
To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To
release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run
bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push
git commits and tags, and push the .gem file to
rubygems.org.
Bug reports and pull requests are welcome. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the Contributor Covenant code of conduct.
The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License. See LICENSE.txt.
This project is not sponsored by or otherwise affiliated with FileMaker, Inc, an Apple subsidiary. FileMaker is a trademark of FileMaker, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.