Re: File manipulating with FMPro fields
Re: File manipulating with FMPro fields
- Subject: Re: File manipulating with FMPro fields
- From: cheshirekat <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 22:54:24 -0600
On 04-03-2001 2048, Ehsan Saffari may have typed or relayed in full or in
part ...
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On 03/04/2001, 16:31:49 -0600, cheshirekat <email@hidden>
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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.
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You may very well have to, since you don't know where it is, it might be
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in the top level of MTS, or it might be in the last subfolder of the last
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subfolder of MTS.
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I meant that I didn't want to search the entire drive manually for each
file, since there are literally thousands of files.
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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?
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Not sure but check the troi file plug in at http://www.troi.com
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I've downloaded the Troi file demo and haven't tried it yet. I had seen
mention of similar plugins - I wanted to know if others could input their
experiences with similar tasks, especially with many files on a large
volume.
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>My other option is to use Sherlock or Find File osax, or File Buddy or ??
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I'd go for the FindFile OSAX, it should be able to return the path,
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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.
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I'd wager that AS is more powerful than the plugins.
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I also think AS is very powerful; I would think even more so combined
with Filemaker.
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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?
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That would make the strartup of your database take a long time (given the
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size of the volumes to search and the numbver of files that may need to
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be checked), maybe a folder action is a better choice for updating the
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db. Maybe more details about what you need to do would help.
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I was somehow thinking that a subset of the dataase with only filename
and filepath fields would be relatively fast with the right tools and
implementation, but I'm not an expert. I was hoping for pointers.
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I've done something somewhat similar, a piece of AS in FMP catalogues any
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folder hierarchy it is pointed to and creates a record for each file
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(with full path and file info). From this db I can check, open, delete or
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do whatever with the catalogued files. All with AS/AE.
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I've been doing something similar with small AS applets. I haven't
embedded too many of my AS in FMP since I still remember a time a few
versions ago that I just couldn't get much to function correctly unless
the AS was standalone. But I'm a tad more comfortable with my AS and FM
potentiols so I've been doing this more lately.
Basically, I'm just keeping track of a bunch of different files, file
types, acquisition dates, modification dates and current usage. Until
recently, I could remember specific folders to check, but I guess I'm
getting too old and that option isn't reliable. Previously, the file info
was more important than where to locate it - until I need something and
realize just how much stuff I have to sift through. (I guess buying
another 9GB hard drive at a bargain should have been a clue.) I bought a
CDRW a few months ago to replace several dozen Syquest cartridges, and
hopefully, I can get this database optimized enough to make the file
management tasks easier as I start archiving stuff. But I haven't yet
gotten around to doing any burning. I'm still working on categorizing,
labeling, extracting stuff from file comments, etc. from stuff that is in
daily use.
I just realized that I have another option that I'll also start checking
out this week since I already own it - Scriptbase. I haven't fiddled with
it in *cough* many many months *cough* so I guess I have much relearning
to do.
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hth
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ehsan