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How to Seamlessly Integrate SuperContainer Into Your Existing Workflow

Integrating 360Works SuperContainer into your workflow instantly eliminates the performance bottlenecks of native container fields. By externally hosting your files—whether it’s PDFs, high-res images, or dense documents—you reduce your database size, accelerate backups, and prevent corruption.

You don’t need to rebuild your applications to use it. By deploying SuperContainer on FileMaker Server, configuring dynamic Web Viewers, and mapping folder paths, you can centralize your documents without changing your team’s day-to-day operations.

Here is how to get the most out of SuperContainer without disrupting your team’s current processes. 1. Optimize Your Deployment

Before changing anything in FileMaker, you need to ensure the SuperContainer application handles your files in the right environment.

Choose Your Setup: You can run SuperContainer as a standalone application, bundle it with FileMaker Server, or deploy it on an Apache Tomcat server.

Define Your Storage Location: By default, files save in the shared user directories on Mac and Windows. If your existing workflow relies on a NAS or specialized external server drive, simply adjust the web.xml configuration file (or the options panel in standalone mode) to map a custom path directly to that volume. 2. Configure Dynamic Web Viewers in FileMaker

SuperContainer isn’t a plugin; it runs as a web application that takes over the appearance of a standard container field using your layout’s Web Viewer.

Automate URL Mapping: Point your Web Viewer to your SuperContainer server and dynamically generate a URL for each record using a FileMaker calculation.

Example Calculation: “http://yourServerAddress:8020/SuperContainer/Files/Asset/” & myTable::ID

This creates a perfectly organized hierarchy on the server automatically named after the unique table and ID of your record. 3. Handle File Uploads & Thumbnails

One of the biggest advantages of SuperContainer is its ability to create instant, dynamically resized thumbnails of high-resolution images, eliminating the wait time for users loading heavy documents.

Drag-and-Drop: Users can drag-and-drop files right into the Web Viewer interface, which includes a progress bar for uploads.

Automated Renaming: If your workflow requires tracking the actual file names for search purposes, utilize the optional SuperContainer Companion Plugin. You can use functions like SCGetInfo to automatically fetch the uploaded file’s name and store it directly in a standard FileMaker text field. 4. Adjust the Interface for Team Roles

SuperContainer gives you complete control over how much information users see directly in the Web Viewer. You can append parameters to the SuperContainer URL to fit specific user roles:

List View: Use ?style=listview to display small thumbnails with the filename—perfect for tight invoice layouts or summary screens.

Read-Only Mode: Use ?style=readonly+image_only to prevent accidental deletions on legacy or public-facing records. 5. Extend to Mobile and Web Users

SuperContainer automatically supports mobile workflows and is fully optimized to work with FileMaker Go on iOS.

Instead of using Java applets, which are not supported on iOS, SuperContainer seamlessly falls back to an HTML5 interface, allowing users to view, upload, or render documents right on their iPhone or iPad. What’s next?

If you’re ready to start optimizing your custom applications, I can help you:

Review your FileMaker Server specifications and choose the optimal installation option.

Customize your URL style parameters to hide upload buttons or adjust display sizes for team needs.

Setup the Companion Plugin if your workflow requires specific file naming and cataloging.

Let me know what you’re storing and how you’d like to proceed! 360Works SuperContainer:: FileMaker Document Storage