HowardCrut

Can anyone offer some additional advice? Thank you in advance, Howard

1. I have not tried building just a view in Oracle. Wouldn't that prevent me from being able to edit the content? 2. How can I set my DSN to select just from a select group of the entire Oracle list of tables? You are correct, there are 182 Oracle tables to choose from, most of which I DO NOT WANT included now or in the future (eg. when I'm in Manage Database / Relationships, add a new table, select the Data Source of the Oracle server that was set in the system DSN). All of the tables do have a decent naming convention. And all of the tables I need start with the same MYTABLES "prefix" - such as "MYTABLES.CONTACT" or "MYTABLES.ORDERS" etc. Can I just manually edit the tnsnames.ora file that is stored on my FMServer. The tnsnames.ora file used in the ODBC connection contains network configuration data for all the Oracle databases and tables, not just the ones I need. 3. The Oracle database is in the same building. It is on one of the internal servers maintained by our technology specialists. Sample from the tnsnames.ora file: PS.MYOGANIZATION.ORG = (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = myserver1.myorganization.org)(PORT = 1521)) (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = myserver2.myorganization.org)(PORT = 1521)) (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = myserver3.myorganization.org)(PORT = 1521)) (LOAD_BALANCE = yes) (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVER = DEDICATED) (SERVICE_NAME = ps.myorganization.org) (FAILOVER_MODE = (TYPE = SELECT) (METHOD = BASIC) (RETRIES = 180) (DELAY = 5) ) ) )

Steven, Thanks for taking a look into this! I'm running Windows Server 2003. Howard

Summary: Painful 41 minute load time for Oracle ESS connection. NEED HELP! Product: FileMaker Server Version: Filemaker Server Advanced 11 (Version: 11.0.2.217) Operating system version: PC server: 2.9 GHz Intel Pentium Pro/II/III running OS Version: Windows NT 5.2 Service Pack 2 Description of the issue: PROBLEM: My server hosted database with an Oracle ESS connection causes my FMP Client to freeze for 41 minutes. After the 41 minutes of “load time” things run smoothly. The 41 minutes is a deal breaker for me. Can someone PLEASE help me understand? Help me know what I need to do to avoid the load time. Steps to reproduce the problem: DETAILS: I’ve got a PC server running FMSA11 with a hosted database that connects via ODBC to mysql and it works wonderfully. My problem is when I add an ODBC connection to Oracle. Once I add any ESS Oracle table to the relationship graph and hit “OK” on the Manage Database pop up screen, the Filemaker Client freeze up for 41 minutes, only the spinning beach ball. It does not matter if the table I add to the relationship graph has only two records consisting of two text fields. After it finally unfreezes, then everything works beautifully. All the Oracle data is displayed. Even when I exit the database, everything works fine the next time I launch it, until, of course I go to a layout with ANY field that requires the connection to the Oracle tables. At that point, I have to pull out my stopwatch/timer to come back in 41 minutes when I can use Filemaker again. Nothing is accessible w/ Filemaker at this point. Another words, it is not just freezing that single window, or that single database, but the entire application is temporarily frozen until it loads everything it is trying to load. The Oracle box has several PeopleSoft and Oracle databases which I assume consists of hundreds of Oracle tables. I am not the Oracle DBA. I don’t even know what any of the other Oracle databases/tables are being used for. My username/password credentials only permit me to access my single Oracle database which contains about 25 Oracles tables. If I include even one Oracle table (does not matter which table) in the relationship graph pulling from an Oracle ESS using ODBC, then it causes the same delay of about 41 minutes. I can’t confirm it, but my guess is that since the data I need to access is on an Oracle server that contains so much other data, then it will severely cripple me. If I had the luxury of having the Oracle data I need to sit on a separate server with nothing else, my guess is that it would be quite fast, but in my case, this is not a possible solution. After searching for way to long to try to find a solution, I came across: http://forums.filemaker.com/posts/436b8f977f where posted 11/25/09 by FluffyBear, ”Filemaker's odbc access is inefficient, that's why it is slow... It's not the odbc layer, it's just FM make really bad calls. Until they program more efficient ways of handling the data, you're not going to see any improvement. If you want to know what the thing does, run a query log on your oracle server and see all the extra stuffs that FM do to fetch a single result and you'll know why it's slow.” If I connect to the Oracle server from my Filemaker CLIENT on my Mac using the latest Actual ODBC Oracle driver using the same credentials accessing the same tables, then I get the same delay. PLEASE HELP!!! -Howard Expected result: Expect to get 0-1 minute load time. Actual result: Load time takes 41+ minutes! Exact text of any error message(s) that appear: There are no error messages. Configuration information: OTHER BACKGROUND INFO: I’m using Filemaker Server Advanced 11 (Version: 11.0.2.217) PC server: 2.9 GHz Intel Pentium Pro/II/III running OS Version: Windows NT 5.2 Service Pack 2 On the client side, I’m using Filemaker Pro Advanced 11 on a MacBookPro MacOS X 10.6.6 I’m pretty sure the Oracle version is 10g. On the PC server to install the Oracle ODBC drivers, we installed a client under c:\oracle\client. It is a full client install, so it is bigger. The ODBC connection uses the tnsnames.ora file. Workaround: The only solution I have found is to pull out a stop watch, come back in 41 minutes, then use the database. If I have to open Manage Database window, then I'll have to wait another 41 minutes.

Any Fantasy Football fans out there? I'm going to be playing in multiple leagues this year and am wondering if anyone knows of a Filemaker solution to help with the draft day, selecting your starting lineups, keep track of your scoring, etc. If it tracked the entire league, that would be great, but I'm mainly interested in a solution to track my own team(s). Thanks! Howard

Yes, thanks, I have looked at them, but they do not meet our needs. Howard

I work with a non-profit company - Campus Crusade for Christ's high school ministry - Student Venture. I’ve done a few searches online trying to find either an open-source human resource solution, a completed open solution, or even a low cost solution to purchase that we can customize to meet our needs. Basically, I’m looking for a way that we can shift from a paper society to have all of our staff, intern, and volunteer job applications be done with web based forms to be captured into an HR database which would then automatically send out links to their reference contacts to fill out an online reference form to also be captured in the database. I’d want the database to have work flow features to hand it off to the next person in line (collect application, process the application, background check, process the new hire paperwork, handed to the training department to begin new staff training process, etc) Currently, a new candidate downloads a pdf, prints it out and fills it by hand, snail mails it in to us and we snail mail out reference forms, etc. Much more taxing than it needs to be. We also have a need to create a web based form to collect weekly statistical reports from each of our staff nationwide to tabulate our ministry progress. This is currently done in monthly cutting and pasting hundreds of Excel files. Moving that into Filemaker seems best. We’d also like to have all of the other common HR features... Any ideas? Howard

Brian Benson, I respect your views as a gay person. The ministry I work with, nor have I, ever have communicated nor condoned hate toward gay people. Having personal friends that are gay, I have nothing but love toward you and the homosexual community. Your slanderous comments are painful, but you have a right to your opinion. I'm sure you can cite many instances in the liberal press that communicate all kinds of things about our ministry. But, being the largest and among the most respected Christian para-church ministries in the world is bound to have audiences of people that agree with, disagree with, or twist what is seen or heard. Even just two days ago, on Good Friday, March 25th, NBC Nightly News aired a positive story about Campus Crusade's Big Break outreach during the 6:30 pm (EST) broadcast. It

I could use some tips on getting "The Works" to work. I'm a Mac OsX user, running "The Works" on FM Server 6.0. From another computer opening Begin.fp5 from the 'Open Remote' menu, everything appears to open correctly. I enter Username: brian and Password: 123 and it says 'Invalid Username. Do you wish to try again?'. But, if I open Begin.fp5 on the server computer directly in client version of Filemaker Pro 6.0, then all works fine - brian/123 enables all the files to launch and run as desired. Am I doing something wrong? Essentially I'd like to add my flat file for our ministry to "The Works" template to take advantage of these features so we can get this accessable online to our staff around the U.S. who will use PC and Mac. Would anyone be willing to help our ministry (Campus Crusade for Christ's high school ministry - Student Venture - visit http://studentventure.com/joinus/ ) by helping me combine these? We can pay you, but probably not what you'd be worth... But you'd be having a major impact in the lives of high school students nation wide! Howard http://studentventure.com/joinus/ joinus -at- studentventure -dot- com

If I understand correctly, I'd suggest using the Excel Concatenating function adding whatever field separators you desire. Concatenate each cell in a row together into a new cell in the last column, then concatenate that single column containing all the concatenations. The last cell would contain all the contents of the excel document in a single cell. Copy that cell and paste it in your filemaker record. ie: if excel document looked like: r=row number c=cell number r1c1 r1c2 r1c3 -> concatenated r2c1 r2c2 r2c3 -> concatenated r3c1 r3c2 r3c3 -> concatenated Then concatenate that 4th column containing all the concatenations.

WDWTravel: In Entourage, create a 'Rule'. If the email you get that contains the form contents always has the same subject like 'form results', the create a 'Rule' that if an incoming email's subject equals 'form results' then forward or redirect the email to a filemaker database using POP3it. That way only emails that contain the form results get sent to that database. From within the database you can define the fields as a calculation function which parses the body of the email.

If you want something like: November 12, 1988 = 10th grade go ahead an try: Year(Today)-( Int(((((((NumToText(Year(Today) - DOB year - Case(Today< Date(DOB month, DOB day, Year(Today)), 1, 0))*365.25) + (NumToText(Mod(Month(Today) - DOB month + 12 - Case(Day(Today) < DOB day, 1, 0), 12))*30.435) +NumToText(Day(Today) - DOB day + Case(Day(Today) >= DOB day, 0, Day(Today- Day(Today)) < DOB day, DOB day, Day(Today- Day(Today)))))-2191.5))-((Month(Today)-8) * 30.435+Day(Today)-1) )/365.25 )+1) -12) This is with the assumption that the student is six years old by the cut off date of August 1 to be able to enter 1st grade. At the very end of the formula, 8 = August and the 1=the 1st. So, if the cut off date was the 30th of September(9), then at the very end it would say: ...((Month(Today)-9) * 30.435+Day(Today)-30) )/365.25 )+1) -12) clear as mud?

Ender - I'm not sure if it is with a company that will be here today, gone tomorrow, but $356/month for the T1. We have not changed over yet. Our 3-year overpriced DSL contract with Bellsouth costs about $350/month (a coworker signed that contract before I moved out here). Thanks for the tips on #2 & #3! Any other generous folks out there that will tackle some or all the others?

I work with a non-profit youth ministry. We do not have the financial resources to pay for an optimal environment in most "recommended practices'. Currently, we are using a G4 eMac 1GHz w/ 768 MB ram with OsX 10.3.5 as our simple 'server'. We'll have about 15 clients connecting using FM6, all with only light use. Probably no more than 5 at any one time. Mainly due to cost factors, we'd like to only use one machine for all the below. Here are a few of my questions: 1) we are using this computer for a small email server that automatically checks email (Entourage) every 3 minutes. (typically only 20-30 emails received a day) - what is the worst that will happen by doing this on the same machine? Only slow things down a little? a lot? cause possible corruption? 2) Can I use Instant Web Publishing (IWP) from the server so our staff who do not have a client version of FMP can have basic access to the database contents? If so, do I have FMServer running, hosting the database while having FM6 client on the same computer running so people can access the database via IWP, too? 3) I've heard, 'never have FMClient and FMServer running on the same machine'. Is this true? And why? Possible corruption, or just minor slowdowns? 4) Is there a proper way to open the database and shut it down when on the server to ensure that corruption does not occur? What seems as if it would be obvious, causes me fear because our database did get corrupted during this process once. 5) Is there a problem opening the database in FM6 client on the server computer when it is being hosted to others? 6) Is there a good resource out there that enables a developer to tack on Auditing or a Modification log to track what other clients have changed, in case I feel like I want to veto their changes and change the data back to what it was before their changes? Also a resource to add a delete button that flags a record for deletion? 7) We currently have a Bellsouth business DSL line. Is this enough throughput to host fast enough for most? If we got a traditional T-1 line, would this be a significant speed improvement? Thank you so much for whatever tips you can provide to help us maintain stability while keeping our costs way down. -Howard FMP 6.0 Unlimited client, FMP 5.5 Developer & FMServer 5.5v4 Using eMac; CPU: G4 (3.3); 1 CPU; CPU Speed: 1 GHz; L2 Cache: 256 KB; Memory: 768 MB; Bus Speed: 133 MHz; OsX 10.3.4

I saw that some people using a PC had this same problem, but has anyone had the same problem on the Mac? I am using TCP/IP to host a Instant Web Publishing database, have no corrupted fonts, but still when trying to launch FMP it goes through the whole process, even says "TCP/IP successfully loaded" but just sits for about 4-5 minutes before getting into a state where you can work with it. And it is when I open the FMP application (even when I am not opening a particular file in FMP.) Below is the closest solution I've seen for the PC, but not applicable to the Mac. Please help!! ------ Re: FileMaker hangs on launching #26193 - 08/22/01 02:31 PM For what it's worth, Maurice, I finally got back to that client's computer. Tried all the recommended stuff, including reinstalling FM with no network preference, dumping fonts, etc., but nothing worked. In the process, though, I discovered the guy had 16,000 files in his Windows/Temp folder (yes, 16,000!). After I dumped those and cleaned things up a bit, I reinstalled FileMaker -- and it now launches and runs fine. I don't know if the two things are related or if I just got lucky, but I thought I'd pass it along. FileMaker Version: 5 Platform: Mac OS X Panther

I still use FM 5.5 booting in Classic. Now that I have upgraded to Panther, I no longer have the same problem. But before I upgraded I did move fields/objects a different way to get around the duplication bug - I cut and pasted instead of trying to drag the cells, then once I pasted it (pastes the center of the objects right at the curser point) I would use the keyboard arrows to nudge it up/down or left/right. Still a little tedious, but much quicker than the other options I came across. Obviously upgrading to Panther is best option, but hope this helps... FileMaker Version: 5 Platform: Mac OS X Jaguar

THANK YOU!! I knew there was a feature to do what I needed. I didn't know of the "Status" feature... Status(CurrentFieldContents) Now working: Go to Record/Request/Page [ First ] Go to Field [ duplicate ] If [ duplicate = "new" ] Go to Record/Request/Page [ Next ] Go to Record/Request/Page [ Previous ] Loop Go to Next Field If [ IsEmpty(Status(CurrentFieldContents)) ] Insert from Last Record [ ] [ Select entire contents ] End If Exit Loop If [ Status(CurrentFieldContents) = "new" ] End Loop End If Thanks so much for the help! -howard

yes, but my real question is can I specify a field name without mentioning it by it's actual name. I'm having difficulty determining if a cerrent field was empty without actually referencing it by name. ie: If [ ***CURRENTFIELD*** = "" ] : or: If IsEmpty(***CURRENTFIELD***) Modified the script below, but I'm stuck on this one step... Enter Browse Mode Sort [ Restore sort order, No dialog ] Go to Record/Request/Page [ First ] Go to Layout [ Long Duplicate checker ] Go to Field [ duplicate ] If [ duplicate = "new" ] Go to Record/Request/Page [ Next ] #THIS ACTIVATES THE RECORD # I WANT TO COPY FROM Go to Record/Request/Page [ Previous ] #GOES BACK TO RECORD #I WANT TO PASTE/INSERT INTO Loop Go to Next Field If [ ***CURRENTFIELD*** = "" ] ??? INSERT FROM LAST RECORD [select entire contents] Exit Loop If [ ***CURRENTFIELD*** = "new" ] #BACK AT FIRST CELL, SO EXIT End If End Loop End If ----- obviously I could say: If [ first = "" ] - Insert from Last Record If [ last = "" ] - Insert from Last Record If [ phone = "" ] - Insert from Last Record, etc. but I'm hoping I can do this without having to do each of them separately, since there are so many and new fields are added all of the time which would force this script to manually be continually updated. To elaborate a bit more, in the 'Copy []' function, if you do not specify the field, then it just copies from the current field, same thing with 'Paste []'. I want to say IsEmpty() to find out if the current field is empty without specifying the field. Thank you for your help!

I assumed/hoped that by not specifying a result that it would basically put what is on the clipboard from the previous step: Copy [ ] [ Select entire contents ]. Then is there a way to: Set Field [ synchronizer field, <<contents on the clipboard>> ] without entering that field. Because if it enters the field then the rest of the script would not work - b/c the current field would become 'synchronizer field'. More detailed example: Record1 = duplicate = "new" first = "Fred" last = "Smith" address = "100 Main St." phone = "" email = "" Record 2 = duplicate = "" first = "Fred" last = "Smith" address = "333 South First" #outdated address phone = "555-1212" email = "emailme@email.com" Script should go through each field in Record1 b/c Duplicate = 'new'. Once it finds a field that is empty, it would copy the contents from Record2. Result would be: Record1 = duplicate = "new" first = "Fred" last = "Smith" address = "100 Main St." phone = "555-1212" email = "emailme@email.com" with new address (replacing the old one), and copied phone & email b/c Record1 phone and email fields were blank. There are too many fields (about 60) to do them individually by name, so using a global to hold the value of the current field of the current record seems to me the quickest way. Any ideas? Thanks- HowardCrut

Thank you ahead of time for your help! This is a great site for getting over mental speed bumps... what would be wrong with this script? I'm not wanting it to, but It's copying every field over from the next record. I'm trying to copy the contents cell/field by cell/field of a record that has more contents than the newest record that is basically a duplicate. For example the new record may have only an updated mailing address, but the other duplicate record may have all of their other info like phone numbers, emails, etc that is still accurate and needs to be kept. So, in an effort to merge the two records, I only want the script to copy the contents of a cell is if the newest record has a blank cell... And is there an easier or better way to do this? Currently, I have: duplicate = already flagged with 'new' if it is a duplicate and the newest one synchronizer field = global that holds the value of the current fields contents Enter Browse Mode Sort [ Restore sort order, No dialog ] Go to Record/Request/Page [ First ] Go to Layout [ Long Duplicate checker ] Go to Field [ duplicate ] If [ duplicate = "new" ] Loop Go to Next Field Copy [ ] [ Select entire contents ] Set Field [ synchronizer field ] If [ synchronizer field = "" ] Go to Record/Request/Page [ Next ] Copy [ ] [ Select entire contents ] Go to Record/Request/Page [ Previous ] Paste [ ] [ Select entire contents ] Exit Loop If [ synchronizer field = "new" ] End If End Loop End If Thank you again! HowardCrut Version: v5.x Platform: Mac OS 9