Data API Or Claris Connect

Overview

There are two normal ways to connect FileMaker to something outside it. The Data API and Claris Connect. Experienced developers choose between them in about five seconds. Here is what they are thinking.

First, the plain definitions.

The Data API lets other software read and write FileMaker data using code. A developer has to write that code.

Claris Connect links FileMaker to apps like Slack, Gmail or Xero through a visual builder. You join steps together on screen instead of writing them.

Pick the Data API when

• someone on your team already writes code
• you need to control exactly what moves and when
• the other system has no ready-made connector
• you want to check a condition before any data moves

Pick Claris Connect when

• you want a new order to post a message in Slack
• you want a signed form to trigger an email
• you have no developer time and the task is simple
• the apps you want to join are already in the list

The question that settles it

Ask what has to happen to the data on the way across.

If the answer is nothing, Claris Connect is the shorter road. The data goes from one app to the other and you are done in an afternoon.

If the answer is anything at all, the Data API gives you the control. Rename one field. Skip the record when a status is wrong. Combine two values into one before sending.

Both are supported. Both are fine choices. They just answer different questions, and the cost of picking the wrong one is a rebuild three months later.

Which one are you running right now, and did you choose it or inherit it?