This is a list of truly free plugins for FileMaker Pro. I don't consider demo versions and trial versions free, so if the developer doesn't provide a fully functional plugin that that is completely free of charge, they are not included here.

• The Protolight Plugins (several free plugins) are quite old now, but some are still usable, even with FM8. The only free file manipulation plugin I know of.
• MyFMButler.com has recently released the DoScript plugin, which allows you to trigger the execution of a script whenever a field or record changes. Spiffy!
• Murray's Freeware Plugin provides several kind of obscure but possibly useful functions. Old, but might still be useful.
• TextFormation Plugin from Hi-Voltage can format numbers and strings using predefined masks, great if you need to standardize phone numbers, for example. Nice!
• Jens Teich has made available a free plugin for evaluating regular expressions. Cool!
• aUtils Plugin from Peninsula Software does some fairly specialized string manipulations. Not the most useful functions ever, but if you happen to need them, they're free.
• Datamatics offers two "free" plugins for FileMaker, one that pops up a login prompt, and one that provides a simple time selector for entering time values. Unfortunately,, they are free, but not freely distributable, fee required for developer use. :(
• The Softwares 4 Humans EventScript plugin allows you to run a script when a calculation is evaluated. Keen!
• Abstrakt offers two simple but useful plugins. Shell plugin runs a shell command and returns the output of the command. The Twain plugin lets you scan from your default TWAIN scanner into a FM field. Nifty! [Note: Abstrakt's site seems to be having issues, so I've mirrored their plugin downloads.

Examples of Plugin Source Code

• Troi Automatisering does not really have any free plugins anymore. They offer what they call sample plugin source code for download, but it's only available in Code Warrior form, and it's of limited value due to license restrictions. If you're interested, Troi's sample code is available here. If you're looking for plugin source code to base your own project on, you're better off with the 24U Plugin Template, which allows modification and redistribution. (see next item.)
• 24U offers a free plugin source code template for developers. Very useful as a starting point for creating your own custom plugins, better than FileMaker's own SDK example IMHO. Muy bien!
• Another freebie from 24U, the evaluation version of their SimpleHighlight plugin now also includes free source code for a lite version of the plugin
• Here's something interesting... LISP source code for the regular expression plugin listed above. Unfortunately, the extraordinarily expensive LispWorks is required, which makes this of little practical value to most folks.

• Here's an old article by David McKee on creating FileMaker plugins. Definitely out of date, but still informative.
• Another fairly old article on creating FileMaker plugins is available from www.murrayc.com
• Yahoo! Groups has a group for FileMaker plugin developers.
• Here's an interesting new Freshmeat project that I'm looking forward to finding out more about.