Click here for MediaManager’s download page. It will function in demo mode until you purchase a license key.

Those white bracket marks sometimes cause confusion. They don’t have anything to do with registration status. FileMaker Pro actually stores two images in the container field: the high resolution image that MediaManager works with and a lower resolution snapshot that is displayed. MediaManager places the white brackets on the low res snapshot to clearly distinguish it from the high res image. You can still convert and/or export the image and the output file will not have those corner brackets. But, if the preview brackets are too distracting, you can use Media_SetImageDefaults to prevent the brackets from being added in future transformations. The following note from the user guide gives a little more explanation:

“All image transformation functions return an image in high-fidelity MMIM format which is then set to a container field. Unfortunately FMP is unable to display these images reliably. So in addition to the MMIM, all image functions place an additional JPEG image in the container that is a lower resolution preview of the MMIM. FMP displays the JPEG preview instead, so that you can see the result of the image operation. This preview is normally clearly marked as a preview with white brackets in the corners; however, you can use Media_SetImageDefaults to turn off either the marking or even the creation of the preview. You may choose not to create a preview, saving computation time, when you create intermediate images that the user will never see.”

On a related note: A white circle is added to your images when MediaManager is operating in demo mode. Once you register MediaManager the white circle will no longer be added.

A white circle is added to your images when MediaManager is operating in demo mode. Once you register MediaManager the white circle will no longer be added.

When incorporating MediaManager into your own FileMaker solutions, you must register MediaManager EVERY TIME you launch FileMaker Pro. A simple way to do this is to include a registration script step in your solution’s On Open script. If you have multiple files in your database, you should either:

1. Include the registration step in the On Open script for each database, or
2. Require that the primary file be launched to ensure that its On Open script will register MediaManager.

You can include a “Media_Register” script step in any script in your solution, as long as it is called before you intend the menus to be modified. Therefore it is commonly put into an “On Open” script.

To set a script as the file’s On Open script, go into FileMaker’s File > File Options… menu. Make sure “Perform Script” is marked, and select your On Open script in the list of scripts that appears.

If you have a multiple file solution, you must make sure during the opening process that at least one of your files will open and properly register MediaManager in this manner.

With a plug-in that is controlling security issues or doing any other critical tasks, you want to be absolutely sure that your users have the plug-in installed when they are using your solution. Therefore, we encourage you to employ the Media_Register function in your Startup script in the context of an If statement. If the plug-in doesn’t return "Registered MediaManager 16.0.1", then the plug-in is not installed and you can inform your user that they can’t proceed, and then you can close the file (or exit FileMaker, if you prefer).

You can also use the Media_Version function to test that a certain version (or greater) is installed.

You can check the registration status in one of three ways:

1. Use Media_Register with the full registration string.

   The Media_Register function can be used to detect whether MediaManager is installed, as it always returns one of the errors or confirmations below:

   • “Registered MediaManager ” & the version number,
   • “Invalid Registration MediaManager ” & the version number,
   • “Expired Registration MediaManager ” & the version number, or
   • Blank (“”, in FMP 5 & 6) or question mark (“?”, in FM 7 & 8) if the plug-in is not installed.

   So, in other words, you can register MediaManager when a file is opened or reregister MediaManager at any time, by using:
   Set Field [Response Field; Media_Register (“COMPANY NAME|MAC REGISTRATION CODE|WINDOWS REGISTRATION CODE”)]
If [IsEmpty (Response Field)]
Beep
Show Message [“MediaManager is not installed on this computer.”]
Quit Application
End If

   Substitute your company name and registration information in the above Set Field step. If the Response Field is empty, it means MediaManager is not installed. You can then warn the user and quit FileMaker.

   This approach can cause a very slight delay before a response is returned, however. For this reason, we recommend registering with the full string only once after launching FileMaker Pro, and then use one of the other two methods below in subsequent checks of the registration status.

2. Use Media_Register with a blank string:

   When you send a blank registrations string —

   Set Field [Response Field; Media_Register (“”)]

   — MediaManager will return the current registration status based on the LAST string sent. This is useful because the response is virtually immediate, rather than the slight delay of registering with the full license key.

3. Use Media_Version to make sure the plug-in is installed:

   The Media_Version function returns only the version number of MediaManager, not its registration status, but will also return a blank value (“”, in FMP 5 & 6) or a question mark (“?”, in FM 7 & 8), allowing you to make sure that MediaManager is installed.

If you manually insert images by reference into a container field using FileMaker Pro’s Import File… menu command, MediaManager cannot work with the image.

The problem actually relates to a bug in FileMaker Pro. The core problem is that, when FMP imports a folder of pictures, it uses an incorrect file path notation.

There are a couple of workarounds you can use:

• For images that have not yet been imported. instead of using FMP’s import records by folder function, use MediaManager’s InsertImage function.
• For images that have already been imported using FileMaker Pro’s Import File method, you can use the following technique:Create a script a Set Field step that sets the following calculation into the container field holding the imported image (where myTable::Container is the container field):
  Substitute (
GetAsText (myTable::Container) ;
“image:” ;
Case ( Get ( SystemPlatform ) = -1 ; “imagemac:” ; “imagewin:” )
)

  This calculation basically grabs the file path for the image in the container, fixes the format, and then with your Set Field step you are setting the corrected file path into the container field. You shouldn’t see any change in the displayed image, but the file path format will now be correct and you can then use MediaManager functions without a problem.

You may be running into a bug in FileMaker Pro. Did you use FMP’s Import Records>Folder function to insert the pictures? When FMP imports a folder of pictures, it uses an incorrect file path notation, which then prevents MediaManager from returning the image information.

There is a workaround you can use, however, for these images. Create a script that sets the following calculation into the container field holding the imported image (where myTable::Container is the name of the container):
Substitute (
GetAsText (myTable::Container) ; “image:” ;
Case ( Get ( SystemPlatform ) = -1 ; “imagemac:” ; “imagewin:” ))

This calculation basically grabs the file path for the image in the container, fixes the format, and then with your Set Field step you are setting the corrected file path back into the container field. You shouldn’t see any change in the displayed image, but the file path format will now be correct and you can then use Media_GetImageInfo without a problem.

A few image formats (TIFF, PDF, and animated GIF, for example) can hold multiple images layered inside one file. This value tells you how many images are held in the entire file.

MediaManager supports AAC/MP4 audio on both Windows and Mac. However, while Apple includes both an AAC encoder and decoder on all of its Macs, Microsoft offers only an AAC decoder.

Therefore, Windows users will need to install an AAC encoder. Many are available for free, such as Nero AAC.