Angela10

I am preparing to move some data from an old legal calendaring system to a new one. I'm using FMP to assist in the reorganization of some data to make exporting from the legacy system easier. In the old system, attorneys related to an event was tracked using a text field on the event record. The field lists the attorney's initials separated by a comma (Event 1 ABC,DED,MMS, Event 2 DEF,BBD, Event 3, FKD,....). The new system is structured differently, related attorneys are actually a related table to the event table. so, I need to be able to get those attorney initials in separate records and include the eventID field. ABC,1 DED,1 MMS,1 DEF,2 BBD,2 FKD,3 DPW,3 NZG,3 Any pointers? Thanks - A

I work for a lawfirm and we are contemplating purchase of document assembly software - HotDocs to be specific. We currently have a case management system built in FMPv11. Has anyone had experience working with FMP (database) and HotDocs (doc assembly) together? If so, any pitfalls or incompatibility issues? Below is from HotDocs' website. I'm assuming/hoping it will work. To connect HotDocs with a database, you must have one of the following applications or servers installed: o Microsoft® Office® Access o Microsoft® SQL Server o Oracle® 8i or 9i with the OraOLEDB OLEDB provider o Most other ODBC-compliant databases

I'm having trouble with exporting data from FMPv11 into a .mer file and then using the exported data in an MS Word v2007 merge form. Word recognizes the .mer as a data source, but has problems with characters like ' and " that are located with in the text fields that are being exported. I've tried using different Text Encoding options while in Word, all have their own flavor of not reading the ' and " characters and either ignore them completely or give me those goofy little box symbols. Anyone else trying to use FMP and MS Word together and can help me with the export and merge process?

I'm trying to find an answer to this question as well. Is this possible to do without a plug-in? I've looked at the "manipulator" plug-ins, but they have more horsepower than I'm looking for. I just need to figure out a way to get case related contacts into outlook so that attorneys can send emails to the group using their mobile devices. Anyone out there doing this?

I'm trying to figure out how to script a find to pull up next week's depos. I'm using FMP to manage a depo schedule and every Wed and Fri of the current week we need to report to the client what depos are scheduled the following week. I'm using FMPv10 (advanced) and we have the solution hosted on FMSv10. I'm using global calc fields to evaluate what today's date it, and add x number of days depending on what day of the week today is. For the end date of the range I'm taking the results of the start date calc and adding 4 days. For whatever reason, its not updating or refreshing the date range as we proceed through the week. Anyone have a solution or know of a previous post that will show me the proper way to set this up on a hosted solution so that each user when running the reports can have FMP automatically pull up next weeks records? Thanks

Oh no….now I'm confused cat. I tried the suggestion from Michael to respect the found set and I’m missing something. Here’s my understanding of the solution…. 1.) I create a summary field called sCount in my Clients in Case that counts the zkp_record ID. zkp_record ID is an autoenter serial no used as a a primary key when needed. Always has somethign in it. 2.) Then, I create a calculation field that does the following: cInvCountByCase = 1 / GetSummary ( sCount, Case ) So, I can name that calc field what I want, and then modify the calc provided as such: 1/Get Summary (sCount, Case (what’s this case field?)) 3.) And den...I create another summary field to total what I created in the calc field: sTotalInv = Total of cInvCountByCases (aka whatever I named my field) 4.) Finally, I run my report and sort by assigned attorney (anything else?) So, I try it and I get nothing . How sad for me : Pointers?

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! That worked. FYI - for anyone using this solution in the future, the calc text had some extra stuff in there - the Status part isn't needed. Here's the final calculation in my test database - PatternCount( ValueListItems( "MyDatabase.fp5" , "Unique Attorney Cases" ) , "¶" ) + not IsEmpty(Unique Attorney Cases::zkp_Case ID)

I didn’t describe the structure accurately. The database was developed to handle a particular practice group and jurisdiction – no need to develop for other types of cases, etc. We have the following: Clients (defendants – one record for each defendant that is our client) Cases (plaintiffs – one record for each plaintiff’s case we are involved in) Clients in Cases (defendants – one record for each Client that is named in the Case) No attorney table as of yet. But can add one. The report I’m running now is in the Clients in Cases level. Assigned attorney is a field in this table. We run a search for clients in cases with active status and then group by assigned attorney and offer a count of those assignments. Now, they want to see in the same reporta count of the Cases the attorney is working on. So for example, attorney Brenda has 17 active assignments in the Clients in Cases level. We represent multiple clients in a case and the same attorney can be assigned to more than one client it a case, it turns out Brenda actually works on 10 Cases but for 17 clients in those cases. Make sense? I tried playing around with creating a value list on the Case level based on the relationship to the Clients in Case and getting a list of attorneys that work that case. Then I wanted to build a relationship using the Get (value list ID on the Case Level and the assigned attorney from the Clients in Case. Got an error message - the value list id field can’t be used as a match field. I think I’m on to something there, since I can get the count to work if I manually enter the Clients in Case attorneys on the Case Level. Anyways – that’s where I’m at. As my dad would say – “there’s more than one way to skin a cat” – any advice and assistance is much appreciated! Thank you

Having a problem here. Working on a database for a law firm. Main table is Cases and the related table is Clients. A case can have many clients. Clients can be active or closed. Attorneys are assigned on the client level. An existing report shows attorney client assignments for active cases using the sub-summary report feature and a summary field. We search for active clients and sort by assigned attorney and the display is like: Atty Assignments Brenda 17 Bob 20 Sarah 15 This worked great until they realized they need to see not only a count of the client assignments but also a count of the number of unique cases comprising the attorney assignment count. Something like this. Atty Assignments Cases Brenda 17 5 Bob 20 8 Sarah 15 10 For the life of me, I can’t figure out how to get at calculating the case count. Any suggestions? PS-this is a legacy database in version 6, with plans for the upgrade to 9 in near future. However, this report is needed ASAP (of course)

Running into a bloat issue using FMPv9.3 and linking pdfs to records using a container field. Does it make sense to see a MBs worth of space being used to just link a pdf to a container field? And, what if a file is hosted? It seems the opening and closing helps recover some of the space that was used to create the link. But if the file is being served, there is no regular open/close. We ran into a problem with v6 and the 2GB size limitation. Only 1400 records with linked pds filled that 2GB up. Network Admin is concerned about file size, and backups and using up that much space for "nothing". Thoughts? Below is what we are seeing when linking/embedding pdfs and xls. Initial file size is 152.322 MB, embedded a 54 MB PDF resulting file size is 297.082 MB file size = 145 MB bloat. Closed and reopened the DB. File size reduced to 214.355 MB = 83 MB reduction. Created new record, linked the same 54MB PDF, display as icon. File size increased to 217.399 MB = 3MB bloat. Closed/reopened DB = file size reduced to 215.871 MB = 1.528 MB reduction. Then I embedded a 4.824 MB XLS. File size increased to 229.158 MB = 14MB bloat. Closed/Reopened DB and file reduced to 221.560 MB = 7.598 MB reduction. Linked the same 4.824 MB XLS, display as icon. File size 222.072 = 512 KB Bloat. Closed/Reopened DB. File size 221.810 = 262 KB reduction.

Thanks Fenton for the response. Woefully we are still using FMPv6, does length (container) calculation work in that version? I figured out how to test if there is a link in the container field and have found that there are only 1300+ records that have a linked pdf document. I found no other embedded dox via a manual review of those records. I increased the field size so that if the pdf was embedded it would show as the document. The users are linking pdfs by right clicking the container field, select link object, browse, check link and show icon. Is there anything in that sequence that is causing the bloat? I've recovered the file and also saved a copy as compressed. Still it is hovering around 2GB.

I have a couple of solutions where the users are linking pdf via a container field, they are supposed to be linking not embedding. However, one file has grown to the 2 gig size - there are only 18K records in the database, only one container field per record and only approx 4000 records should have a linked pdf. Is it possible that file size would bloat to 2 gig if users are only LINKING pdfs? UPDATE: We have removed an embedded pdf that is 41KB in size and have seen a 3MB size decrease in the actual FMP file. Linked documents seem to be taking 17KB of space (seen by file size increase after linking) Any thoughts on this??? Has anyone seen this before. I can't find anything out there on Google, FMForums or FMP Knowledge Base.

I am having a similar issue with creating one report showing data from different tables in my solution. Did you finally get a satisfactory result in reporting from multiple tables? If so would you mind sharing how you did it? Thanks - A

I think I found a clue. My co-worker is using Adobe 7. I am using Adobe 6. When I open a .pdf document linked from her machine the doc header reads "embedded file" rather than the file name. From a sampling of other Adobe 6 / FMP 6.v4 computers at the office the files appear to link correctly -launches that packager thing and the file name is listed on the Adobe doc header. Question: Any known issues with Adobe 7 and FMP 6.v4 and the linking of .pdfs via a container field and linking an object?

I'm adding on to a database for a law firm. The main file has one record per case. The new sub-file will track pleadings filed in a case. One case - many pleadings. I would like to create a container field in the pleadings file and use that to link references to .pdfs. The .pdfs are saved on the network on a shared drive in each individual case file. I know how to build the relationship, create the container field and link the object as a reference. But, here's the rub. I tested the solution and works great on my machine, I click on the image field, the packager.exe thing comes up and asks if I want to open the adobe file. The file opens in adobe, and I can see the file name on the header. This suggests to me that the file is linked via reference? However, when my co-worker links an image from her computer and either she or I click on the image field it just opens a .pdf in adobe but the file header says "embedded file". This suggests to me that file is embedded? We are both clicking the link option. My end game is to link by reference all documents, not embed the .pdfs. I'm afraid the results I'm describing above are showing that one machine embeds and the other links even though we are clicking the same thing? I work using FMP 6, FM Server 5.5 for the databases and Window XP with SP2. Also of note, our system admin guy is going to do away with mapped drives and we will eventually use something called UNC paths. Will this cause a problem? I know FMP, but not so much with network. What is my question to you all? What is the best practices out there for accomplishing this task? I am concerned about how the two machines have different results on the linked .pdf. I have read through the forum to find an answer, but nothing is fitting exactly. I guess I need some more background on how to set this up in a Windows environment. That way I can talk more intelligently to our systems admin guy. Thank you for your time.

New problem, records that do not have comments in the field are creating blank lines in the compiled comments field. So, do I need another if statement in the loop and set script? Obviously not my strong suit, these loops and ifs. If anyone can throw me a bone, thank you. I've got to get reports to the boss by noon today.CST. Thanks - A

In the past, after I've tried all the recommended fixes for weird printing problems, the only thing that has worked is to recreate the layout from scratch. Don't even copy and paste objects from the funky layout onto the new one, just start from New Layout/Blank Page. The problem I most recently had was a square of blank space showing up on the printed page, like a ghost drop down was associated with a field and was being displayed on the printout (didn't display on the print preview) This was happening with all printers on the network. I tried all sorts of things and just had to bite the bullet and redo the layout. I'm sure people will have other suggestions, but thought I'd throw in my two. Good luck, I understand how frustrating it can b. A

Thank you Queue, that was the help I needed. Got it to work perfectly and even created a looping script to run for all the Performance Factors on the evaluation. Yeah!!! I was stuck on the field definition thing rather than the scripting, so thanks for pointing me in the right direction. - A

Well, I tried the value list trick and it sorta worked. But, the number of characters allowed per value list item must be limited by FMP and the extensive reviewer comments are truncated. So, doesn't work. Back the drawing board. I don't know if what I'm trying to do is even possible (combining field data from multiple related records into one field in the master file), any thoughts?

I am working on a employee evaluation database. The Employee file contains one record per employee. The Evaluations file contains many evalautions filled out for each employee. The files link on the employee ID no. My question is this, let's say an employee, John Doe, has 7 evaluations. Each evaluation has 9 performance factors (PF). Each PF has a numeric rating and comments. I can average the ratings and give a average per PF, but I would like to combine the comments for each PF into it's own PF total comments field. Right now the comments are sitting in a portal with no hope of sliding. Can someone give me a pointer to which direction I could go? Looping script, and copy paste into a new field called PF1_allcomments. I sure wish an Aggregate field like Sum (field) w/text result would work. If anyone has a suggestion or can point me to some threads or even some keywords to search for, I'd really appreciate it.

Well.... I only have FMP6 available. 7 on the way at the firm, most likely next year. I see what you mean by the join file. Yes, there is a <contact file> <contactattorney file> <attorney file> scenario going on. Originally, just coded attorney initials, now we need all their contact info. Attorneys have the ability to pick and choose which particular contacts they want the announcement to go to. That field resides in the contactattorney file. I will take the clues you offered on how to get er dun in 6. Thanks, where there is a will there is a way.

Hello and thanks for taking a stab at this post. I developed a basic contacts database for a law firm. A one to many relationship exists between a contact and the attorney(s) who know him or her. I would like to use the database to send an e-mail announcement to about 700 contacts. (I have researched the send mail script step and also have the demo of SMTPit, but have never used that plug-in before). So, I want to send one e-mail to each contact, but in the text of the e-mail body indicate which attorneys know this contact via a signature block. For example: "ANNOUNCEMENT TEXT" Sincerely, John B. Smith Jane M. Doe Bob E. Johnson Now, here's the glitch, if one contact is related to 5 attorneys, but only 3 of those attorneys want the announcement sent to that one contact, how do I accomplish only including the names of the three attorneys in the e-mail text signature block? In the related attorney file, I have a text field formated as a check box for use to indicate that they want the announcement sent. Any light you can shed on this dilema would be useful.

It works~! Thanks for the information.

Is there a way using FMP (Dev 6) to format a field to use a pop-up list only when requested? For example, the user clicks into the field, but only calls the value list when he/she clicks a button located next to the field which has a down arrow symbol on it (actually the fmforums post writing screen is using exactly what I'm looking for ....). I'm trying to develop something that keeps a user from accidently changing values in a field formatted with a pop-up list. I'd like them to actively call the value list using a button or something rather than having the list just appear when you tab/click into that field. Once a value is there, they don't need to see the list. Thanks for your tim - Angela

Thanks for the response. That is the solution that works the best. I only wish portals could work better on the printed page. When combining data from multiple sub-databases into one report, it is the only way I can think of to accomplish the end result. A