FileMaker ReadQRCode & GetLiveText functions

With the release of Claris FileMaker 19.5,
there are some new functions related to containers that offer new ways to
increase efficiency, accessibility, and utility in app development. These new
functions, CopyLiveText and ReadQRCode, offer the ability to parse out text and
read the contents of QR codes. Using these functions, users can implement image
captions and image tagging for searching images, removing the need for complex
integration solutions for the same text parsing purpose.

Let’s take a look at some quick
examples of what you can do with these new functions. Feel free to follow along with the sample file provided at the end of this article. 

CopyLiveText
Function

Upon start-up, you should see the intro page with a
tab for each new function. Stay on the CopyLiveText tab for now. Insert a photo
of your choice that contains text in it. Please be aware that as of FileMaker
19.5, CopyLiveText only works on image files, not PDFs or other file types
allowed within containers.

Your screen should look similar to this. Clicking the ‘Copy Container Text’ button will active a short snippet of code containing the new function in question, shown below. Once activated, it will scrape the text off of the image and paste it into a text field below, with remarkable accuracy.

As of FileMaker 19.5, the function returns a text value, in a language code of your choice between the following options: 

• “en-US”
• “fr-FR”
• “it-IT”
• “de-DE”
• “es-ES”
• “pt-BR”
• “zh-Hans”

As you
can see from this example, CopyLiveText transcribes the text from the container
file and converts it into a text value that you can now manipulate as you wish.
A word of caution: Although the script is quite accurate, the harder it is for
you, the user, to read the image text, the harder it will be for the function
to read it. Choose images with acceptable quality, and make sure your text
fonts are legible to the human eye, and you will have no problem using this function to your advantange.

ReadQRCode

Once you are satisfied
with the CopyLiveText function, choose the second tab in the demo file. The ‘ReadQRCode’ tab should look similar, but it is quite different in function. Insert a QR image of your choice
into the container. For the purposes of this demo, we have opted to showcase
the potential for QR codes that lead to website URLs, but in practice, you could
utilize any variation of QR codes that you so choose.

Once you have a QR image inserted, click the
button as before. The code, for the purposes of this demo, will send you to a
web viewer layout, with the URL destination filled in by the contents of the QR
code.

Our sample QR Code takes you to our very own
homepage, dbservices.com. As previously mentioned, you do not have to merely
use the ReadQRCode function to access URLs; in fact, it could be used in a similar fashion to CopyLiveText by storing plain text in the QR code instead of
a URL. In short, anything you could typically use a QR code for, you can now
use inside of FileMaker without the need to read it with a QR code reader.

Conclusion

As your
FileMaker application evolves, so too will your needs and the use cases for the
application. With these new features added in FileMaker 19.5, Claris opens
the proverbial door for new ways to utilize containers in a way that best suits
your application. Whether it’s to appeal to users with new accessibility
features, to add new value to your search engine with image tagging, or to streamline the process of using QR codes by now using them directly in the
application, these new features have the potential for endless value for any FileMaker
application. 

If you are interested in implementing the new CopyLiveText and ReadQRCode functions into your Claris FileMaker solution, contact DB Services and we’d be happy to help.