Log in to an external data source

If your hosted database needs to log in to an external data source, the hosted database name is specified in the URL; the account name and password for the hosted database are specified in a header Authorization string; and the database name, account name, and password for the external data source are specified in the fmDataSource parameter as a JSON array.

HTTP method

POST

URL

/fmi/data/version/databases/database-name/sessions

version – the FileMaker Data API version requested can use v1,v2, or vLatest

database-name – the name of the hosted database

HTTP header

Content-Type: application/json

Authorization: a base64-encoded string representing the account name and password to use to log in to the hosted database. This base64-encoded string should follow the standard HTTP Basic Authentication Scheme.

Parameters

The fmDataSource parameter with a JSON array specifying the database name, account name, and password to use for logging in to the external data source.

For example:

Copy 
{ 
  "fmDataSource": [
    {
      "database": "contacts",
      "username": "admin",
      "password": "admin" 
    }
  ]
}

To use an OAuth account to log in to the external data source, specify the X-FMS-Request-ID header value (oAuthRequestId) and the URL query value (oAuthIdentifier).

Copy 
{ 
  "fmDataSource": [
    {
      "database": "contacts",
      "oAuthRequestId": "E65B98BB17429CO643B31119F",
      "oAuthIdentifier": "B164A3459A776E5177445DR223"
    }
  ]
}
Response

The access token, an empty response body, and a messages array showing an error code of 0.

The X-FM-Data-Access-Token header is returned in response, which is the session token to be used for subsequent API calls.

For example:

Copy 
X-FM-Data-Access-Token: c13c0f486780f2187bde6f3859dabd4dcf8ea43be420dfeadf34
{
  "response": {},
  "messages": [
    {
      "code": "0",
      "message": "OK"
    }
  ]
}

See Error responses.

Notes 

  • FileMaker databases are the only external data sources supported. Specify the database name without the .fmp12 filename extension.

  • Files listed in the fmDataSource parameter will be opened as needed, for example, when a script is run or when the context is changed to a layout that requires the external data source. As a result, errors with logging in to the external data source happen when attempting to open the files, not when logging in to the database session.