Wotan

Have you tried stopping and, then, restarting the service (under the Windows >Control Panel >Services menu)? I've found that files will not be recognised by Server unless they are present as/when the service starts up.

Does anyone know how to configure DDE Share so that a Filemaker data copy will paste into Excel under NT? I've got a rough idea but working out the exact configuration is proving a pig.

Is there an easy way round the 53 weeks a year Filemaker convention? I need to allocate work weeks. When Filemaker arrives at the end of a year it counts the last week as week 53.

I'm posting this here because I've lucked out elsewhwre and am getting desperate... Developing an FMP 5 solution over NT, I'm scripting DDE commands that work at first, then quit working. I believe this has something to do with the way NT handles application memory. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, do you know of a workaround?

I am developing a FMP 5 solution for an NT environment. I'm having difficulties running DDE commands from FMP. My commands are working but only some of the time. I've been told that it may have something to do with the way that NT apportions application space (i.e. for the sake of system stability it parcels out the space discretely). Is there any way around this? I need to run DDEs and reconfiguring every client's machine is impossible.

Thanks for the reply, Kurt. Do you know any way of overcoming the NT problem?

Kurt, You're right about the export overwrite. Thanks for that. Trouble is, I still don't get the functionality I'm after. With DDE I can paste info into a file and then run macros (to create titles, generate graphs, etc). I'm wondering whether the problem might be that I'm running the solution under NT - which handles application memory differently from Windows. I think it 'seals' each application from any others running - or, at least, has the potential to do so (which would explain how my script works only occasionally - i.e. when the memory is not doing this). So sometimes I'm sending DDE messages that are going nowhere/rebounding off the memory partition. Has anyone else experienced this problem in NT? If so, is there a way round it that will ensure that the messages get through for every client (without having to reconfigure every one of their PCs)?

I'm trying to automate a records export - from FMP 5 to Excel 97 - so that users can easily transfer information by means of a single button. I can do this with the 'Export' script step - but this leads me into problems with the destination file name. If a user is exporting data on a daily basis to the .slk file, I'll have to come up with a way of deleting the old file before creating the new (every day and for every user). I think a simpler way to achieve the result desired is to copy the data, then paste it into an Excel file (I think DDE should allow me to make a filename the product of a calculation; so I can make sure each file generated is unique). I wanted to have Excel run a macro to paste the record data into the file (and another macro before this to paste the title data into the first row, etc). Now, I can get all this to work - but only occasionally. For some reason, wholly inexplicable to me, the DDE command line [RUN("macroname")] works - but only occasionally! I've tested the copy part of my script (by going to Notepad and pasting; yes, the copied data appears). I've tested the macro part of the script (by going to the Excel file and running the macro; it, too, pastes the data from the clipboard). Why, then, is it not working altogether? Or, bizarrely, only sometimes?

I've loaded Filemaker Server 5 and have configured it to host a series of files. Clients are accessing these files successfully. I now want to schedule backups, etc, but when I go to initiate the Filemaker Server Console nothing appears. I can see the Filemaker Server Properties icon but nothing at all in the right pane. I have IE3 on my NT machine and Server Pack 3. Could these be the stumbling blocks?

If you want to change properties on a live server (such as increasing the number of clients) do you have to close the Filemaker Server under the Services window in Windows (NT)? This is FM Support's advice. So why am I asking, you might wonder? The server hosts a very busy database. I'm loathe to take it down to perform an upgrade that doesn't work (as I did recently - following similar advice). I'd be obliged if anyone could confirm this from experience.

Basic question. I've just loaded FM Server 5. When I go to view any of the options in the Console window, I get the message 'This page cannot be displayed' - as if the information were coming from the web. Any suggestions?

I am trying to automate an export function via script steps. After record are exported to Excel, an e-mail is dispatched telling users that the latest edition of the file is ready for review. I can handle all this. The thing I can't do is take the next step and fully automate the process (I want this cycle to run once or twice a week without any human intervention). I've encountered a problem: the script freezes when the file exports to an Excel directory because the filename already exists. Should I go the DDE route (and have the script queue a command that goes to the Excel directory and deletes the previous file prior to running the script that generates the current one)? Or is there some FM way of making the file name the product of a calculation - so that each week or so the script is renamed by the addition of an alphanumeric character (so that this week the file is myfile.slk and next week it is myfile1.slk)?