Rover

I'm upgrading a 10 year old application with 29 interlinked databases, 160 relationships, 330 layouts, 190 value lists, 625 scripts and over 1000 fields to FM Pro 8.3 and I want to take the opportunity to do a major Spring Cleaning before I activate the new version. After fighting through the file references cleanup / relationship restoration phase (some file references were 8-9 years out of date), I tried the DDR. Whoops, it doesn't generate a DB like the one in 6, so I tried the html version first. Nice, lots of info, lousy for what I needed - 29 separate html files - one of which was going to be 479 printed pages. Kinda useless for a quick look up such as finding everywhere a field in a particular database is referenced (internal and external). MY PROBLEM: Next I tried the DDR XML version, hoping I could load that into a data base. FM generated the XML files quickly, but then blew up when it tried to automatically open the report in IE, with the following error message: [color:red]Cannot find 'C:00-FM8ConversionNewFolderSummary.xml",,-1,,,,,'. Make sure the path or Internet address is correct. I then tried to build a database from the XML files. I didn't specify an XSL Style Sheet, figuring if FM created the file, then FM should be able to read it as is, plus, I didn't have one. FM gave me the following error: [color:red]XML parsing error: Attribute 'name' is not declared for element 'CustomMenuSet' Line Number: 330 Column Number: 30 Whilst reading the docs, I noticed that I shouldn't have spaces in my DB names, so I renamed all the culprits. Same results, same error messages. I removed all references to 'CustomMenuSet' from the XML file ( there were only 5 or 6) and tried making a DB again. Same message, except it said [color:red]for element 'Script' instead. On a scale of 1 to 10, my XML experience is about .01. Any suggestions?

Well, DUH! Don't I feel stupid?! Guess I didn't see the forest for the trees, or is it see the trees for the forest? Thanks much for the explanation.

I have 2 fields, test and test2. Test2 is a text field I use for input (or a number field, it makes no difference to my problem) Test is a calculation that returns a number with the formula TextToNum(test2). I want to see if test2 contains a numeric, if not I expected test to be blank. It works as expected except when test2 contains no numerics and starts with the letter f, n, t or y. Upper/lower case makes no difference. If test2 starts with f or n, then test=0. If test2 starts with t or ty, then test=1 I can figure out a work-around, but this bugs me. Can anybody explain what's happening? Please? Pretty-please? Thanks

I'm doing an export of some 36 fields from a FM (Developer 6) DB and 3 related FM DB's. I'm putting the export in a script. I've got one field that's driving me bananas - it keeps disappearing from the export list. I performed the file export, create the field list, - works fine, everythings there. I openned the script, clicked on the export statement, clicked done and told it to replace the export. I ran the script and this one field (from one of the related files) didn't show up. I ran it again and checked the export field list, and it wasn't there. So I did the file export bit, and the field wasn't there either. Many, many tries and no luck. It'll export the field the first time, but then it disappears again. I can manually insert the field in the list during the export and it works, but, again, it's gone afterwards. I finally tried just the field that was giving me problems all by itself. It vanished. I went to still another DB that was related to the DB that had the missing field and tried exporting the problem field from there - same thing - it went 'poof' after the export. I went to the DB the field is in and did the file export thingy and it didn't disappear. I'm exporting 5 fields from this file and only this one is a problem. The problem field is a calculation (so is one of the fields that works). Stored, unstored, indexed, unindexed make no difference - I tried them all. Help!! & thanks Mike McBee

Whoops! I'm new to these forums and I didn't realize you'd sent me an attachment. I've tried it and it's great! It's not the ultimate answer that I'm looking for, but it sure will save us a lot of time and trouble!! Many thanks!! As you said, the distyler and exporter plugins are for Mac only, so I'm still looking. Again, thanks!

Christian Unfortunately, that won't help since I'm on windows. I should have said that upfront. Can you name some of the plug-ins you mentioned, at least I'd have a place to start looking. Thanks

Hello and Help! We're an auction house specializing in autographs and memorabilia. We use FileMaker to do all of our cataloging, 1 lot = 1 record in our database. We produce a printed catalog 3-5 times a year (usually with 800-1200 lots), taking the text from FileMaker to MS Word to PageMaker to produce the material for the printer. Most of our lot descriptions involve a lot of formatted text - particularly bold, italics, underline, allcaps and smallcaps. To get from FileMaker to MS Word, we export as a tab delimited file, open the .tab file in Word, convert to a table, review for glitches (e.g. extra carriage returns), then save it as a Word document. We then use this document as input to an MS Word mail merge process to produce our catalog the way we want it. With this method, it's a trivial matter to get the formatting we want at the field level (e.g. the Title field is always uppercase bold, all fields are in the Minion font); simply by specifying it in the Word merge master document. Getting the formatting that's applied at the character level within a field (e.g. an italicized quotation included in the description) is another matter, however. Currently, we "tag" all formatted characters as we write the descriptions (e.g. alt+168 This sentence is bold. alt+168) Once the tags are present, getting the desired results is again a trivial matter; in the Word merged document we use a simple macro to convert the tags to the desired format. The pain-in-the-posterior part of this whole process is getting the tags in place. Since we also use the FileMaker material for other purposes, we have to maintain two copies of the description - one with tags and one without. Two copies can easily lead to errors - change one, you gotta change the other, and so on. But the real problem is getting the tags inserted in the first place - it's time consuming and error prone (forget a closing tag and the Word macro will produce really strange results). Tagging probably adds 25-35% to our cataloging time. Now it's obvious that this formatting information is available in the FileMaker database, it's visible in two of FileMaker's specialized "exports" - screen viewing and printing. In particular, printing, at it's simplest level, is basically a form of tagged output (<bold on tag>This sentence is bold.<bold off tag>). So far my efforts at capturing a usable copy of the print stream have failed miserably, all I've been able to get is gobble-de-goop (this used to be soooo easy back in the pre-Windows days). I've also examined test FileMaker files at the byte level - I can see something happening when formatting is applied, but exactly what is not readily apparent. It's obviously NOT using embedded tags, it looks more like some kind of table reference or even a map is being used to keep track of the formatting. So, after all that jabbering, here's my question: Does anybody know of any way what-so-ever to get FileMaker to produce a capturable output that automatically contains tags indicating character formating? A native FileMaker technique, a plug-in or a separate program would be acceptable. Or something that could capture a usable version of the print steam would do the job. Barring current availability of such a program or technique, does anybody know of someone who could write a suitable plug-in, program or printer driver for me? Thanks

Fitch Thanx!

I just moved into this job and I inherited a FM 4.1 application with 33 databases. The system has been tracked over by my 4-5 predecessors to the point it's really muddied - it's barely half relational any more. I'm considering upgrading to the latest & greatest FM, but I'd like to get a handle on what I've got first. Are there any documentation tools that'll help me out with identifying scripts, layouts, relationships and the rest? Oh, and does the newest FM have a way to export styled text? Thanks