Excel Workbooks, Charts, Formulas & Password Protection from FileMaker
👋 Ever run into situations where you needed to generate a more robust Excel file directly from FileMaker?
Things like:
- Multiple sheets
- Formatting
- Charts
- Formulas / Calculations
- Even password-protected workbooks
Traditionally that usually turns into some combination of:
- Office automation
- helper services
- external SDKs
- AppleScript / COM objects
- or additional licensing costs
I just added a new function to Inlay called Inlay_EXPORT_EXCEL.
It generates native .xlsx files directly from FileMaker using a JSON-driven structure, including optional password protection for the workbook itself.
One thing I really wanted to avoid here was requiring additional spreadsheet licensing or external runtime dependencies. The capability is built directly into Inlay itself.
The broader goal with Inlay has been trying to keep more modern workflows native to FileMaker without accumulating a pile of external glue code over time.
Would love feedback from the FileMaker community on where this could be useful in real-world solutions.