Re: File manipulating with FMPro fields
Re: File manipulating with FMPro fields
- Subject: Re: File manipulating with FMPro fields
- From: Ehsan Saffari <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 20:48:37 -0600
On 03/04/2001, 16:31:49 -0600, cheshirekat <email@hidden>
wrote:
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I've been working fairly heavily with a Filemaker Pro 5 database I
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created for my own personal use that I'm trying to tweak as much as
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possible so that I have to do less manual work. Isn't that the point of
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AppleScript? ;)
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The database has a field "Questionable File" which just has the name of a
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file. I need to make sure that file exists without knowing the exact file
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path. If exists is true, then storing the path in a field of the current
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record. An example directory:
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folder "Utopia1:MTS:"
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The "MTS" folder may have several layers of subfolders, but I want the
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search to start at "MTS" and search through all of the folders until the
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file is found. (Yes, the file *should* be there somewhere, in a rare
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instance I'll have to set a radio button if it's MIA.) Since this
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drive/partition is several GB large, I don't want to have to search the
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entire drive.
You may very well have to, since you don't know where it is, it might be
in the top level of MTS, or it might be in the last subfolder of the last
subfolder of MTS.
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I know there are some FM plugins that allow for doing file
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stuff from within FM - is this one of the tasks I can use a plugin for?
Not sure but check the troi file plug in at
http://www.troi.com
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My other option is to use Sherlock or Find File osax, or File Buddy or ??
I'd go for the FindFile OSAX, it should be able to return the path,
unlike File Buddy and Sherlock which don't (at least in Mac OS8.6)
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I'm leaning towards a FM plugin because I have to accomplish other file
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tasks besides just searching for files while in FM.
I'd wager that AS is more powerful than the plugins.
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What are my options
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of scriptable helpers? I might even want to have a startup script that
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will check the "MTS" folder for any new additions and deletions against
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an external database? What are my options for speed and scriptability
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since my database is getting extremely large?
That would make the strartup of your database take a long time (given the
size of the volumes to search and the numbver of files that may need to
be checked), maybe a folder action is a better choice for updating the
db. Maybe more details about what you need to do would help.
I've done something somewhat similar, a piece of AS in FMP catalogues any
folder hierarchy it is pointed to and creates a record for each file
(with full path and file info). From this db I can check, open, delete or
do whatever with the catalogued files. All with AS/AE.
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I have no preference whether the suggestions ore for freeware, shareware,
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commercialware, osax, etc. since this is for my personal use. My goal is
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to do as little typing as possible so that I can do other tasks while
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updating and maintaining this database which is taking up a large amount
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of my limited free time. I really love creating new databases with FM and
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now I'm looking to expand my knowledge and usage.
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Thanks!
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kat
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p.s. Sorry for the lack of brevity, I just wanted to be clear what I'm
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looking for. I know there are some people on this list that use AS with
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their FM databases.
hth
ehsan