Warning – FileMaker Server 19.2.1 may break soSIMPLE Calendar Server-Powered

WARNING: FileMaker 19.2.1 release may break soSIMPLE Calendar

FileMaker Server 19.2.1 removes PHP support on Windows Servers and may break PHP support on Mac Servers

This is an important notice to our soSIMPLE Server-Powered customers. Please make sure you read this before installing or upgrading to FileMaker 19.2.1.

This FileMaker Server update removes PHP functionality from Windows servers, and standard configuration breaks PHP functionality on Mac servers.

Why is this an issue?

PHP is integral to soSIMPLE Server-powered Calendar, even if you use our REST method to fetch data. Specifically, we use PHP to:

cache pages
fetch data from FMS either using:
- fmrest.php with FileMaker Data API or
- FileMaker PHP class file with FileMaker PHP API
filter and transform data for web page
other utility functions

So even if you choose to use the FileMaker Data API, you still need to run PHP somewhere in order to use the Server-powered Calendar.

What can I do?

There are a few options available. Please note, version 4.1 or greater of soSIMPLE Calendar Server-Powered is required for FileMaker 19 (or you can use our FileMaker 19 soSIMPLE Calendar Add-On, which side-steps all of these issues).

Option 1. Don’t upgrade your server to 19.2.1

Don’t get us wrong – we’re big proponents of keeping software current for both security and feature reasons. But this is, of course, the easiest way avoid this issue. Everything works as expected in previous versions of FileMaker Server.

Option 2. Move to soSIMPLE Calendar Add-on

The new soSIMPLE Calendar Add-on works similarly to the server-powered product, but doesn’t require ANY server-powered technology. It does, however, require changing the soSIMPLE Calendar Action script and the soS Load Events scripts.

Option 3. Follow instructions on the FileMaker Server 19.2.1 release notes to re-enable PHP

There are instructions to keep PHP running on FileMaker Server, but we didn’t have much luck with the Windows process. If you’ve already upgraded and soSIMPLE has broken, it’s certainly worth trying these instructions. Generally:

- Windows Server users should backup a copy of an earlier php folder and put it in the publishing-engine folder
- Mac Server users need to edit the httpd.conf file manually to match your operating system.

After following the Windows instructions, we consistently got PHP errors.

(note: there is an updated kb article about installing PHP on Windows FMS server)

We haven’t gone through the full upgrade yet with Mac Server – so that may work OK.

Option 4. Move to separate PHP installation, using REST18 method

This is a two-step process, which (a) uses a non-FileMaker version of PHP, either on the same computer as FileMaker Server, or elsewhere and (b) uses FileMaker Data API to connect to FileMaker Server.

1. Install PHP on your web server or on your FileMaker Server.
  1. For Windows follow these instructions.
    1. Make sure to include CURL support, which is not enabled by default with these instructions.
      1. Duplicate “php-development.ini” file and rename it “php.ini” (in your PHP folder from the previous step)
      2. Uncomment the line that says “;extension=php_curl.dll” by removing the semi-colon
      3. Restart your server
  2. For Mac, use instruction in Step 3 to enable PHP
  3. Alternatively, you can use any web server with PHP installed.
    1. Make sure that you have the latest soSIMPLE php folder which includes the latest fmREST.php
    2. Your hosted server needs to access your FileMaker server on port 80/443. This may require configuring your firewall.
    3. Change the config.php file so that $host points to your FileMaker Server (or the firewall if your web server is on a different network).
2. Use FileMaker Data API for all communication with FileMaker Server
  1. Turn on the Data API in your FileMaker Server admin console.
  2. In your own file(s) make sure that what ever account name you set up in soSIMPLE Calendar Data Source, has the fmrest privilege enabled. The easiest way to do this is Open your file(s), choose Manage > Security, click Advanced Settings > Extended Privileges. Then make sure any privilege set with fmphp, also show under fmrest.
  3. Change the config.php file in the sosimple folder so that $method shows “REST18”
  4. Confirm settings by opening http://<yourhost>/sosimple/sosimple_cal.php in a web browser.