Hi fellow Developer!

I’ve dived into the possibilities of working with NFC Tags and Claris FileMaker recently.  Leveraging the power of NFC technologie is possible thanks to a new set of functions and script steps shipped in FileMaker 19.

In this blog I’ll share some bite-sized bits of information and notes that can serve as a reference and quick overview of technical specs for fellow developers to get a jumpstart.

Have fun!

But wait, what is NFC again?

NFC (near field communication) is a set of communication protocols by which two electronic devices communicate when they are within close proximity of one another.

Some uses of NFC devices include contactless payment systems, similar to those used in credit cards and electronic ticket smart cards, and allow mobile payment to replace or supplement these systems, social networking and for sharing contacts, photos, videos, and other files. NFC devices can also act as electronic identity documents and keycards.

FileMaker Go 19 now has the ability to scan or stop scanning for NFC tags using the new script step: Configure NFC Reading

The options include an action (Read or Cancel scanning for NFC tags), a script to be run when a tag is read, an optional script parameter, an optional timeout to cancel the read operation after <n> seconds, and an optional Continuous Reading until the user cancels or the timeout parameter is met.

FileMaker Go supports NFC tags using the following formats:

• “Well Known” format of type text

• “Well Known” format of type URI

• “Well Known” format of type “smart poster” (which is a combination of URI and text)

• “Media” format of type “text/x-vCard”

FileMaker Go can read NFC tags of types 1 through 5 that contain data in the NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF).

Claris & NFC in 19.0

NFC technology supported since version. 19.0. FileMaker GO only for now.

Since version 19.1.2 the format results as JSON .

The script step:

Script step: Configure NFC Reading (Read/Cancel) .

Purpose: Start or stop scanning for NFC tags.

Full script step documentation by Claris: https://help.claris.com/en/pro-help/content/configure-nfc.html

While testing I noticed:

1. This script step needs to be the last script step in your script. When other steps follow, they will be executed even before you scanned a tag. You will need to build your logic inside the script which runs after scanning (see options below)

2. When continuously scanning and saving the values to variable, make sure you use a global variable. The main script reruns the sub script when a tag was scanned.

Options

Script (req.)

Run a script when NFC tag is read.

! Important: In this script you must call the script step Get(ScriptParameter) to get the NFC data from the read tag.

Parameter (opt.)

Specify parameter for required script.

Timeout (opt.)

Cancels ‘read’ after specified number of seconds.

Continuous Reading (opt.)

Scanning multiple NFC tags? No problem, set a non-zero value for this option to read multiple tags.

Format Result as JSON since 19.1.2 (opt. but highly recommended)

Set value to non-zero to format the results as JSON. Easier to handle the NFC results with the built-in Filemaker JSON functions.

Useful variables while scripting

Set Variable [ $nfcdata ; Value: Get(ScriptParameter) ]

(Required in subscripts, see script option)

Set Variable [ $action ; Value: JSONGetElement ( $nfcdata ; “action” ) ]

Returns “TagRead” when a tag was read successfully.

Returns “CanceledByUser” when the user presses cancel or done.

Set Variable [ $serial ; Value: JSONGetElement ( $nfcdata ; “payloads[0].primary” ) ]

Returns the data written on the NFC tag.

Multiple payloads are possible, depends on how the tag was programmed.