Time tracking with FileMaker and Apple Watch

<>pple Watch is a cool new gadget, but many of you don’t see the use of it. I think it’s not for everyone but it could be helpful in certain situations. If you are a craftsman, you could be in the category that is helped of an Apple Watch. Read on to understand how I made time tracking to a FileMaker system possible.

<>A while ago I wrote an article about how to control a scoreboard from a distance with Bluetooth headset and I joked a little bit about waiting for the imaginary Go app to Apple Watch. In this article I use Apple Watch in combination with FileMaker.

I am using an app called Workflow. With this app it’s possible to script different tasks on iPhone or iPad. I have made a workflow as the picture show to the left. The Workflow app makes it possible to run workflows on Apple Watch.

When the workflow runs, it fetches my current projects as a semicolon-separated list from a web page I built in PHP, which communicates with FileMaker Server. The result feeds into the split text object that produce a list to next object.

”Choose from List” object use that list to prompt the user to choose a project.

When project is selected I pass the string to the next step in the workflow that convert the text suitable for using in URL and store it in a variable, Project name.

Next I ask the user to choose if they would like to add a description or not. If the user chooses to add a description the speech recognition starts (Siri) and the user speaks the description. I URL encode the description and store it in a variable called Description.

At the end I load my PHP-page again with a different action parameter to submit the data.

The PHP-page calls a FileMaker script that stores the current time and calculates the time difference between this submit entry and the one before. The time is added to the chosen projekt.

If I work on the same project later on during the same day and use a new description, it will be appended to the previous one.

Below you’ll see a video that shows how it’s working in real life and you maybe also will be able to pick up some Swedish 😉