I’ve recently started development with FMBetterForms and have some questions.
What is the best practice on saving data from one page and bring it over to the next? From what I can tell, there exist a global JSON object called $$BF_Cookie that I could save data to ( via FileMaker as this is the only way I know how to as of now ). Is there any other practices to send data from one page to another?
Is there any functionality in FMBetterForms to allow devices to take pictures ( if accessible ) and then automatically upload them to the site to be accessed later on?
For storing data the is accessible on multiple pages, use the App model.
For photos, it’s a bit more complex. You have to upload them to another service (my current favorite is UploadCare, see this example page) and then store a URL to them in your FileMaker DB.
There are a number of ways to pass data between pages and their use depends on your needs.
Via a URL Query Link:
When you need to just pass a few items to the next page ( like and id etc ) then you can call the 2nd page with a query param something like app.mycompany.com/#/pagetwo?id=123
Via the app global data model:
In addition to model there is app as Eric mentioned, that persists between page loads ( but not across refreshes )
Cookies / Local Storage
Cookies are ok if you want to have anonymous users but remember who they are. This is good for apps that have returning visitors and you want to pass that page some additional info from their last visit.
If you are storing the intrim data between the apge, then the first method is simplest and FM can refetch the data as needed.
Hey Eric.
Trying to use the example page, but getting inconsistent results.
It seems to be ignoring some of the options sometimes and I can’t figure out when and why.
On the page you posted it showed me the file size and a remove button sometimes and then it stopped.
I created my own page with 3 separate consecutive uploads elements (but identical).
So, the 2nd and 3rd showed me ‘1 file’ and a ‘remove’ button, but the first never does (maybe something to do with the global options that are shared across elements on 1 form?).
Have you or anyone else come across such behaviour?
Any ideas?