Returns version string of the active 24U SimpleTalk Plug-In, formatted as requested by the parameter.
| versionFormat | Defines the format of the returned version. |
| "short" | To get just the version number. Default value. |
| "long" | To get the plug-in name followed by its version number. |
| "platform" | To get the platform of the code currently running on. |
| "autoupdate" | To get autoupdate compatible (comparable) version number. |
This function is very important and it has the same output format in all 24U Plug-Ins. You should call this function every time you need to check if the plug-in is properly installed to the FileMaker. Even if the plug-in is not registered (or badly registered) this function should work. Calling this function in the startup script of your solution is recommended.
Returns requested version format or platform. If this function returns "?", the plug-in is not properly installed or FileMaker cannot load and activate it for some reason.
Provides special functionality to operate with plugin serial numbers.
| SerialNumber | Register given SerialNumber and return an error code. |
| EmailAddress | Tries to activate with given email address and return an error code. |
| "Registration window" | Show the "Registration window" and return 0. |
| "About window" | Show the "About window" and return 0. |
| "Status" | Return the actual registration state of the plugin: Demo, Demo expired, Trial, Trial Expired, Registered or Dead. It may return different values in client solutions and server side scripts, depending on the types of licenses the product is registered with. |
| "Unregister" | Unregister all serial numbers related to the product and return an error code. |
Use this function to register or unregister 24U SimpleTalk Plug-In, to get information about current registration state, or to invoke GUI providing basic registration information and purchase capabilities.
Returns zero or error code depending on the selector.
STalk_Register( "STLI20C016-BXMW-VNW7-L8AJ-3KGX-VWG8" )
This function will register the plug-in with client serial number STL20C016-BXMW-VNW7-L8AJ-3KGX-VWG8 for 16 users.
STalk_Register( "user@mail.com" )
In case you do not have a serial number but you want to try the plug-in out, use the string with your email address as selector.
STalk_Register( "unregister" )
This function will unregister every serial number related to 24U SimpleTalk Plug-In.
STalk_Register( "About window" )
Similar to opening FileMaker preferences, navigating to the Plug-Ins tab and double-clicking on 24U SimpleTalk Plug-In.
Note: All serial numbers here are only for demonstration purposes. They will not work in the plug-in.
| port | port number to listen on |
| protocol | "TCP" (default), additional options may be supported in future versions |
| datahandler | name of script to run (default is built-in handler) |
| openhandler | name of script to run (default is built-in handler) |
| closehandler | name of script to run (default is built-in handler) |
| encoding | "UTF-8" (default) or "UTF-16" or "UTF-16BE" or "UTF-16LE" or "ASCII" or "Hex" (see the note below). This value is also used as a default encoding for all further server connections. |
| terminator | string for splitting the data (default is CRLF). (see the note below) This value is also used as a default terminator for all further server connections. |
| openhandler | schedules the specified script to run, returns "OK" if successfully scheduled, or "ERROR" if script could not be scheduled | ||||||
| datahandler | receives data with one STalk_Receive call and performs actions if the received data match to one of the following patterns:
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| close handler | closes the connection from the server side |
Start listening for incoming connections on the specified port. When new connection is opened, openhandler is called. The data received through the connection are stored in a queue. When a terminator (CRLF by default) is present in the connection queue, datahandler is called and connectionID is passed to it as parameter. Datahandler is responsible for clearing the beginning of the queue up to the terminator(including) using the STalk_Receive function. After the data handler completes, it is called again immediately when there is a terminator in the connection queue. When the connection closes, closehandler is called. Neither openhandler nor closehandler are required to call STalk_Receive.
STalk_StartServer returns positive serverID if successful, negative error code in the case of failure.
STalk_StartServer( "3333" ; "TCP" ; "Some script for openhandling" ; "Some script for datahandling" ; "Some script for closehandling" )
This function will start server on port 3333 with these scripts as handlers. Note: "Some script for openhandling", "Some script for datahandling" and "Some script for closehandling" has to be valid names of scripts.
STalk_StartServer( "3333" )
This function will start server on port 3333 with default handlers.
Close all open connections and shut the specified server down.
Returns 0 if successful, error code in the case of failure (i.e. invalid server ID).
STalk_StopServer( 42 )
Stops server with ID 42 - if existed.
| host | Domain name or IP address of the server to connect to |
| port | remote port number to connect to |
| protocol | "TCP" (default), additional options may be supported in future versions |
| datahandler | name of script to run (default datahandler does nothing) |
| closehandler | name of script to run (default is datahandler) |
| encoding | "UTF-8" (default) or "UTF-16" or "UTF-16BE" or "UTF-16LE" or "ASCII" or "Hex" (see the note below). This value is also used as a default encoding for all further connection operations. |
| terminator | string for splitting the data (default is CRLF). (see the note below) This value is also used as a default terminator for all further connection operations. |
| timeout | number of seconds to wait for a connection (default is 60). This value is also used as a default timeout for all further connection operations. |
| idle | number of seconds to wait after last send or receive operation before automatically closing the connection (default is 600) |
Open a TCP connection to the specified host. Datahandler and close handler are called in the same way as described in STalk_StartServer function reference.
Returns positive connectionID if successful, negative error code in the case of failure.
STalk_Connect ( "1.1.1.1" ; "80" )
Connects to server with IP 1.1.1.1 using port 80.
STalk_Connect ( "192.168.0.1"; "33" ; "TCP" ; "UTF-8" ; ">" )
Connects to server with IP 192.168.0.1 using port 33. Encoding for communication UTF-8, as terminator is used character >.
Close and invalidate the specified connection.
Returns 0 if successful, error code in the case of failure (i.e. invalid server ID).
| host | Domain name or IP address of the server to connect to |
| port | remote port number to connect to |
| protocol | "TCP" (default), additional options may be supported in future versions |
| encoding | "UTF-8" (default) or "UTF-16" or "UTF-16BE" or "UTF-16LE" or "ASCII" or "Hex" (see the note below). |
| terminator | a string to be added to the end of the data being sent (CRLF by default) (see the note below) |
| autoconvert | "yes" or "no" (default is "yes") |
| local_terminator | string which will be replaced with terminator (default is line end) |
| timeout | number of seconds to wait for a connection and reply (default is 60) |
| data | data to be sent |
Connect to the specified host/port, send the data (and terminator), wait for reply (until the other side closes connection or the time is out), close the connection and return the reply. If autoconvert is specified, each occurrence of local_terminator in data is replaced with terminator. Also each occurrence of terminator in the reply is replaced with local terminator. This is useful e.g. when you want to send more lines separated with CRLF instead of line ends. (This is the default behaviour)
Returns received reply if successful, negative error code in the case of failure.
STalk_Send ( "192.168.0.1"; "33" ; "Hello my new friend\r\n" )
Sends string to address 192.168.0.1 using port 33. Terminator is used default "\r\n".
| connectionID | numerical identification of an open connection (result of STalk_Connect or handler's script parameter) |
| encoding | "UTF-8" or "UTF-16" or "UTF-16BE" or "UTF-16LE" or "ASCII" or "Hex" (see the note below). (inherited from connection by default) |
| terminator | string for splitting the data (inherited from connection by default). (see the note below) |
| data | data to be send. |
Send data to the other side of an open connection. Automatically append the connection's terminator to the end of the data.
Returns positive number of bytes sent (including terminator) if successful, negative error code in the case of failure.
STalk_Send ( 5 ; "SimpleTalk says hi!\r\n" )
Sends message to connection with ID 5. Terminator is used default "\r\n".
| connectionID | numerical identification of an open connection (result of STalk_Connect or handler's script parameter) |
| encoding | "UTF-8" or "UTF-16" or "UTF-16BE" or "UTF-16LE" or "ASCII" or "Hex" (see the note below). (inherited from connection by default) |
| terminator | string for splitting the data (inherited from connection by default). (see the note below) |
| timeout | time in seconds to wait for data before timing out (use connection's timeout by default), 0 for "don't wait" (return immediately either data or an error code) |
Read data from an open connection's buffer up to the terminator. Terminator is read but not returned.
Returns data read (without terminator) if successful, negative error code in the case of failure.
STalk_Receive ( 42 )
Tries to receive data from connection with ID 42.
| "local-ip" | Local IP address |
| "local-port" | Local port number associated with the specified server or connection |
| "remote-ip" | IP address of the remote side of the connection |
| "remote-port" | Port number of the remote side of the connection |
| "encoding" | Default encoding for the connection |
| "frontmost" | 1 if FileMaker is the frontmost application, 0 otherwise |
Returns current value of a global variable or a connection/server option specified by selector.
STalk_Get( "local-ip" )
Returns IP adress of local pc.
| "encoding" | Modifies the default encoding of the specified server or connection |
| "frontmost" | Brings FileMaker to front or sends it to back. |
Modifies value of a global variable or a connection/server option specified by selector.
STalk_Set( "encoding" ; "UTF-16" )
Sets default encoding "UTF-16".
STalk_Set( "frontmost" ; True )
Brings FileMaker to front.
Encoding of data defines the way how the content passed to SimpleTalk is converted into binary form for sending through network and vice versa. Hence it is important that each side of the connection is synchronized with each other and uses the same encoding.
| UTF-8 | Each character of the text is encoded with one or two bytes. | |
| UTF-16BE | Each character of the text is encoded with two bytes. Big endian ordering is used. | |
| UTF-16LE | Each character of the text is encoded with two bytes. Low endian ordering is used. | |
| UTF-16 | This is synonyma for UTF-16BE | |
| ASCII | Each character of the text is encoded with one byte. Only the basic 127 ASCII characters will be send unchanged. | |
| Hex | The text is taken as a hexadecimal representation of binary data. (i.e. each pair of characters represents one byte) |
Terminator is a couple of bytes which splits the transferred data into logical blocks. Of course, both sides of the connection should use the same terminators to achieve the requested behaviour. When a terminator is specified as an optional parameter to some Plug-In's function, it is encoded into binary form with the same encoding which is given to encode/decode the data. The only exception is default terminator CRLF, which already has exact binary interpretation. When the given terminator is an empty string, its behaviour is a little bit special and depends on the calling function:
| STalk_StartServer,STalk_Connect | data handler is never called | |
| STalk_Send(connectionID,...) | normal behaviour, i.e. nothing is appended to the data sent | |
| STalk_Receive | waits for timeout or the disconnection from the other side, then returns everything it received | |
| STalk_Send(host...) | partially normal behaviour: nothing is appended to the data sent, occurrences of local_terminator are replaced with empty string,but the received data are not changed. |
Majority of SimpleTalk functions can be called with optional parameters. Their syntax suggests that the plugin could not distinguish which calling form the user requested. For example the string "UTF-8" in call STalk_StartServer(2424,"UTF-8"), could describe protocol, datahandler, encoding or terminator. To be able to corectly distinguish the parameters, the name of the handlers and terminator can not be "tcp", "UTF-8", etc. Also the terminator can not be name of any existing script (potential handler). This restrictions are rather small and it rarely makes problems in practical situations. In such situation, there still is the possibility to call SimpleTalk function with all parameters given so that no ambiguity is possible.
| -50 | Invalid parameter |
| -1000 | Plug-In requires registration (expired) |
| -3218 | Invalid server ID |
| -3247 | Address/port already in use |
| -3256 | Connection error / not connected |
| -3157 | WSA internal error |
| -3259 | Connection/request timed out |
| -3260 | Connection refused |
| 24001 | Demo mode expired: If you want to keep using the plug-in, you must register it or buy it for particular environment. |
| 24002 | Product expired: Trial period is over. If you want to keep using the product, you must buy it for particular environment. |
| 24003 | SN limit was met: The serial number is already registered on too many computers. |
| 24004 | Product is dead: The product expired and cannot be used any more. Please download the new version from 24U Software. |
| 24005 | Invalid serial number: Serial number you entered is not valid. |
| 24006 | Activation failed: Activation failed probably due to some network error. Please, check your connection to the internet and try again later. |
| 24007 | Deactivation failed: Deactivation failed probably due to some network error. Please, check your connection to the internet and try again later. |
| 24008 | Unknown serial number: The given serial number cannot be used for the current product. It has been stored so that other product can try to use it. |
| 24009 | Blacklisted serial number: The given serial number has been blacklisted and cannot be used anymore. Please, contact 24U Support if you need more information. |
| 24010 | eSellerate engine not installed: This product uses eSellerate to validate user registration and purchases, but its installation failed. Please, reboot the computer or try again later. |