Previously, I wrote a blog series on how to use write operations with the Execute FileMaker Data API script step in Claris FileMaker 21. If you haven’t read them or are new to this script step, you can find the links below:

At the end of that series, I wanted to see how the performance really was. I didn’t compare the single-record Create, Update, and Delete functions since they felt a little faster. However, I wouldn’t expect much of a difference for those simple tasks. In this case, use the method that works best for your needs. What I did want to analyze was how it performed when processing multiple records.

When setting up this demo file, I wanted to use something we currently work with, so I chose importing dynamic email templates from SendGrid. The flow is fairly simple: it makes an API call to SendGrid to retrieve the data and loops through the records. This creates the main template record and the version. In the process, it also checks whether a record exists and either creates a new record or updates the existing one.

In this post, I will highlight the demo file and show a basic setup using SendGrid. I will post a follow-up blog that will be released later today, I will walk through the scripts and share what I found. Let’s get started.

Setting Up the Demo File

Let’s start by opening the demo file. Once it’s open, you should see a screen that looks like this:

From here, click the API Keys button, which will open a card window that looks like this:

Creating a SendGrid Account and API Key

Before we proceed, you’ll need a free SendGrid account. Click the Start for Free button, as shown in the image below.

Follow the steps to create your account. Once you create your account and log in, click on Settings, then API Keys, and you will see a window that looks like this:

Click on Create API Key, and a window like this will appear:

Enter an API Key Name and make sure Full Access is selected. Once complete, click Create & View. The system will show you the key only once, so be sure to copy it. Then, paste the API Key into the Key field of the demo file.

Setting Up Dynamic Templates in SendGrid

To properly test this, you need to set up Dynamic Templates in SendGrid. Navigate to Email API > Dynamic Templates, and you should see a screen similar to this, though without any templates listed yet.

Click Create a Dynamic Template, and a window like this will appear. Enter a name and click Create.

Next, we need to add a version. If your screen doesn’t look like the image below, click anywhere in the row near the template name to expand it. Then, click Add Version.

Make sure you select SendGrid Email Designs  (if it isn’t already). Hover over any design, click Select, then click Select again in the Design Editor box. This will bring you to the template editor, where you can simply click Save at the top and then the Left Arrow to return to the template list.

To test this with multiple templates, you can either repeat the process to create more or click the three dots at the end of a template row and select Duplicate. You’ll want more than just a few to thoroughly test performance. The good news is that setting up from their designs speeds up the process and provides variety. One thing to note: the scripts are not set to paginate, so they retrieve whatever the SendGrid default returns. The account I am testing with has 60 records, so all are imported.

Now that we have the initial setup ready, keep an eye out for Execute FileMaker Data API Performance Test – Part 2, releasing tomorrow, where I will walk through the scripts, explain the process, and share the times for each test.

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