Eruption

Turn XML files describing FileMaker Pro solutions into directory and file structures

Motivation

As your FileMaker Pro solution grows you might find yourself losing overview. I did and I always wished I could use some of the tools most of the other development environments provide. So to have project-wide search, version control, and file comparison, I developed this script that turns an XML of your FileMaker Pro solution into a directory and file structure.

Not all XML is created equal

As of this writing Eruption can process two types of XML files:

• The newer format that is created by using the Save a Copy as XML… command from the Tools menu found in FileMaker Pro 18

• The clipboard format for which you need other tools to save as an XML file first

The previous Database Design Report format is not supported.

Installation

1. Download or clone this repository

2. In your favorite terminal application, change to the project directory.

3. If you downloaded the .zip file with Safari it should be cd ~/Downloads/eruption-master

4. Make the erupt file executable with chmod +x erupt

Running

The command line syntax for Eruption is:

> erupt xml_file output_directory

erupt

Path to the erupt executable found in the project directory

xml_file

Path to the XML file generated by FileMaker Pro 18 (or newer)

output_directory

Path to the directory where to store the eruption

Example:

~/Downloads/eruption-master/erupt ~/Desktop/filemaker.xml ~/Desktop

Tips

• Drag the eruption directory onto TextMate, press cmd-shift-F, and enjoy instant project-wide search

• Kaleidoscope is an useful tool to compare whole directory structures (or in terms of this project: eruptions of different development stages)

• Xcode's FileMerge has a nice GUI to compare two single files

• The command line tool to compare two single files is called diff