Automating Mug Shots to Filemaker from iSight

Last year I was hired to automate picture taking for a badge creation Filemaker database. Thanks to a free utility by Axel Bauer, a MacOSX CLI Utility to Capture Stills From iSight Camera", this turned out to be quite easy with the following tiny applescript:


tell application "Terminal"
	do script "/Applications/isightcapture myimage.jpg"
end tell

Editor’s Note: The original link for Axel Bauer’s script is not live, but the alternative source requires a login so this updated copy has been stored in ScriptBuilders.net under my name. Hopefully, Axel will not object. The link below is to the ScriptBuilders copy.

Just put Axel’s Unix Executable File, isightcapture, somewhere in your Application folder and trigger the applescript.

A jpeg file named myimage.jpg will be created in the top-most level of the active user folder (the one containing your Applications and Documents folders).

You can then either use an AppleScript to set a container field in Filemaker to the graphic:


tell application "FileMaker Pro"
	set cell "mygraphic" of current record of database 1 to file "Macintosh HD:Users:youruseraccount:myimage.jpg"
end tell

Or, you can use Filemaker’s built in scripting capability (Scriptmaker under Filemaker’s Scripts menu) to import the file.

You could also trigger a Filemaker script from within an AppleScript with:


tell application "FileMaker Pro"
	do script "name of script" -- In Filemaker's Scripts menu
end tell

Be sure before running the AppleScript that the database containing the Filemaker script is the frontmost database.

You could also store the original AppleScript call to Terminal within Filemaker either within the “Perform Applescript” script step of Filemaker’s Scriptmaker, or within a field. If you are using a calculation field, you can specify text to be quoted by using a backslash to escape the quotes the way you would in most languages in the latest version of Filemaker. For example, the above Terminal AppleScript would look like this in a Filemaker Pro calculation field:

tell application \"Terminal\"
	do script \"/Applications/isightcapture myimage.jpg\"
end tell

Don’t forget your paragraph breaks!

If you use Filemaker’s older method of two quotes together, then:

tell application "Terminal"
	do script "/Applications/isightcapture myimage.jpg"
end tell

The latest version of Filemaker (version 8 in April, 2006) will convert the double-quotes to a backslash.

Filemaker can also store AppleScripts that call itself in all but the oldest versions.

If you prefer external AppleScripts, they can be triggered with Filemaker’s send apple event command from within Scriptmaker.

Happy scripting!

Diana Simonson

Hi, thanks for this post, I have been looking for something to do this for a while.

However I am having a small problem with it, for my application I have multiple records which each need a unique photo. This seems to add the same photo to each record and then change all the records every time I take a new one.

I some how need to give each file a unique name such as myimage_001, myimage_002 etc which file maker can then reference in the second part of the code. It would be great if I could still do this with a single click and without having to type in a new file name manually.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Matt