Foxtail Technology - Tech Prognostics

Check if FileMaker Server is Listening

If you’re like me, you like to know if your servers are doing what they’re suppose to do!

For the Mac users, there is a little command line tool called “NC” that can help. The command is as follows:

nc -zw 3 server.ip.address 5003

And returns something like this (if successful):

[9/19/11 10:55:21 AM] User Name: That returns: Connection to server.ip.address 5003 port [tcp/fmpro-internal] succeeded!

If there is no process or service listening on that TCP port, it returns a blank line.

The command breakdown is as follows:

NC is the NetCat command
-z is instructing NetCat to listen only. It will not send any data to the port
-w is creating a timeout for 3 seconds.
server.ip.address is the address of the server you wish to connect to.
5003 is the port for FileMaker Server. You can use this with any port you would like.

For Windows users, it looks like there is a port of this: http://joncraton.org/blog/netcat-for-windows

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Make a Mac OS Lion Bootable USB Flash Drive

01.) Download OS X Lion from the Mac App Store.

02.) Once downloaded, go to the Applications folder and find the copy of Lion you just downloaded.

03.) Right click on the downloaded file and select “Show Package Contents”.

04.) Go to “Contents” and jump inside the “SharedSupport” folder and you’ll find a file titled “InstallESD.dmg”. Copy this over to the desktop or anywhere you have room.

05.) Plug a USB flash drive into your Mac which has at least 4GB of memory. We highly suggest using an 8GB flash drive just to be on the safe side.

06.) Now open up “Disk Utility” and drag InstallESD.dmg from the copied location to the left-hand sidebar.

07.) Select the attached USB from left side and click on “Partition” tab.

08.) Select “1 Partition” from the Volume Scheme drop down menu and choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” from the left.

09.) Now click on “Option” at the bottom. Select “GUID Partition Table” and press OK. Click on Apply at the bottom right to start formatting (NOTE: This is will erase all data on your USB flash drive).

10.) Once the drive has been formatted, click on “Restore” (it’s right next to where you clicked on “Partition” in step 08).

11.) Drag the InstallESD.dmg from the left hand tray into the “Source” field.

12.) Drag the untitled partition on the USB Flash Drive into the “Destination” field.

13.) Click Restore and type in your password. This will create the bootable Mac OS Lion USB flash drive.

Now you may use the USB drive in a Mac to boot into the Lion Installer (hold down the “Option” key on your keyboard when you hear the startup chime). Follow the install directions from here. 

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Google Voice Project

We recently posted a sample download on FMForums.com of our Google Voice and FileMaker integration file, and we would love to hear what you are doing with it!

Here is some information about the file:

This sample contact management application is built with FileMaker 11, utilizing script triggers, hidden tab tricks, and the 360Works ScriptMaster Plug-in. We put together a custom Java JAR to essentially take apart the Google Voice site. Functions were built using Groovy in ScriptMaster to interact with the Java JAR. There is no official API for Google Voice (yet), so this library is essentially a code scrapper for the Google Voice site.

The features in the demo file are basic at the moment. It allows you to dial a phone number or Google Voice address and send/receive SMS messages.

The History button will start a script trigger that will collect new SMS messages every 30 seconds.

Please let us know if you have questions or just drop us a note to let us know how you’re using the functions.

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Installing FileMaker Server 11 on Windows XP

As you are probably aware, Windows XP support for the FileMaker Server 11 installer was removed. The installer was built with support of the following Windows operating systems:

• Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
• Windows 7 Professional Edition
• Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition SP2
• Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition SP2

There is a way to allow Windows XP SP3 support back into the installer package.

1. Download and install the InstEd MSI package editor. Visit: http://www.instedit.com/download.html - Install & Launch.
2. Locate the FileMaker Server 11.msi file in the FileMaker Server Install Folder, and in the Files subfolder through File>Open with InstEd.
3. While in the Tables section of the Open MSI file, scroll down to LaunchCondition.
4. Edit the Condition calculation to this: ((VersionNT = 501 And ServicePackLevel >= 3) Or (VersionNT = 502 And ServicePackLevel >= 2) Or (VersionNT = 600 And ServicePackLevel >= 1) Or (VersionNT > 600)) And Privileged
5. For a detailed look at VersionNT and ServicePackLevel vist: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370556(v=vs.85).aspx
6. Save As to a new file name and Exit the InstEd application.
7. Locate the folder with the MSI files (both the original and the new).
8. Rename the original to FileMaker Server 11 OLD.msi
9. Rename the new file to FileMaker Server 11.msi

That should allow the installer to install on a Windows XP, Service Pack 3 box. Remember! This is not supported by FileMaker nor is this supported by us. Use at your own risk.

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