Using AppleScript to access CURL on OS X makes downloading web content a snap. Note that some web servers, such as Google, do no allow you to download content via CURL because of license issues. (For Google, they would rather you use their SOAP API to download content.)

This simple example downloads a page from the internet and places it into the "result" field. You can also use the "parameters" field to add search terms if needed.

This example only scratches the surface of what you could do. CURL has the ability to download files to your hard drive. Using an auto enter container field based on a path, you could download a graphic from the internet and then automatically import it. CURL also supports other protocols such as FTP and HTTPS. You can easily create a solution to interact with a credit cart service such as Authorize.net to charge credit cards directly in your FileMaker database. (Using their AIM method)

For more information on CURL, check out http://curl.haxx.se/. You can also view the man page from the terminal using "man curl"

Download the example file (FileMaker 7 and OS X required )