dev_synaptech

Comment, Worked perfectly. Many thanks -much gratitude.

Hi, I have a text field that contains size and color data separated by a "-" dash. i.e. record (1) red - XL record (2): crystal blue - small record (3): black/light blue - large record (4): mediterranean blue/ speckled black (45) - extra small .. and so on I am looking to parse everything to the left and to the right of the "-" dash into two other fields (color) and (size). I am having trouble accounting for the variability of the location of the dash in building my calculation. Within this field, there is one and only one occurrence of the "-" dash. Any help pointing me in the right direction would be appreciated!

It seems that I have been running in circles as I got lost in the forest. Thank you for the much simpler, more elegant solution. Your help is very much appreciated!

Hi bcooney, Thank you for the assist - the List function is exactly what I needed. I thought I'd post my solution in hopes that it might help someone else. So, I only needed to work in the one "join table" - the one that contained only two fields "products" and "categories". I created the self-join with products=products and displayed product ID and Category ID in a portal. So for "product_1" I have "category_a" "category_b" "category_c" and for "product_2" I have "category_d" "category_e" "category_f" and for "product_3" I have "category_a" "category_c" "category_f" and so on.. But for each productID I wanted to pull all of the category ID's into a single field separated by a "/" so the output would look like: productID -- category_a / category_b /..category_n So I used this calculation: productID & " -- " & If ( GetValue ( List ( selfjoin::category) ; 1 ) >0; GetValue ( List ( selfjoin::category) ; 1 )&"/" ; "" ) & If ( GetValue ( List ( selfjoin::category) ; 2 ) >0; GetValue ( List ( selfjoin::category) ; 2 )&"/" ; "" ) .... repeated as necessary. This resulted in the output string I was hoping for. Thanks again!

Hi, my data modeling skills are rusty and the solution is not clear to me. I have a table with 6000 records, it's a join table for two other tables and it contains a Product ID field and a Category field. The products are not unique and neither are the categories - they repeat throughout the array. I have managed to show for every Product the multiple categories that the product can be in through a self join in a second table occurrence - yay for me. However, what I'd like to do is build a calculation that writes the values in the self-join portal out to a field that looks like this: product_id = "Category_1" & "/" & "Category_2" & "/" & "Category_n" or the Output would be a string like Sockguy Thermal Sock: Socks / Road Cycling Gear / MTB Gear Hope this makes sense.. TIA

Outstanding, thanks for your help in extending this concept! It works well! It's too bad there isn't a more robust set of drivers for ImageCapture, as that would be a cleaner solution... Much appreciated!

As for the size, the default 640x480 is fine.

Yes, I absolutely can place the iSightcapture App in the Utilities folder. Each "client" or user, is updating a shared database served by FM Server 8.

Ah, I seem to be making a mess of this.. Yes, you are correct in your questioning of why I wouldn't I want to embed the picture into Filemaker.. I couldn't figure out how to get the .jpeg file into the container field via the Applescript "set " command...The work flow is this, or this is what I am trying to do... For each employee record, I want to associate three separate images. I would like the user to be able to click a scripted button to "take" picture one, then two, then three. Ideally, I'd like the child picture records to be related to the Parent Employee record by the employee ID. My thought was, that when the user is in the Parent record, the script could first copy the employee record ID, go to the related picture table, create a new record, paste the employee ID, then run the isight script, insert the JPEG image into a container in the child table. Hopefully the pictures would show up in a portal in the Parent Table as related records...

Umm, that's my fault, I put that path example in my script. I was simply trying to put a sample path example into my script example as I *expected* it would necessarily have to be changed on another user's machine. My fault for assuming... I can get get an image into a container field, that's not the problem, the isight app works great. My problem is that the file needs to be stored (the terminal command saves Jpeg image as the same name every time a new picture is taken, to the same file location) uniquely, as I want to associate multiple pictures with one record.

I am working on a variant of this solution provided by Fenton. I am having trouble bringing the picture data in permanently to Filemaker. I get the following error: "Filemaker Pro got an error: Data is being accessed by another user, script, or transaction." Is there a better applescript command that will actually paste the picture data into the container vs. simply displaying the file contents as it seems it is currently doing? I have included my sample file, with scripts. The purpose of this is to have multiple, related (child) pictures, for one (parent) record. I could be doing this backwards.. any help would be appreciated. isight_project.zip

Fenton, thank you again for the assist on this project! I understand why keeping the data relational is important as it relates to the overall structure; the hope was to keep the selection of the data targeted with more precise queries... but alas, I'd like to be 19 again too. OK, so I've built the separate XSL stylesheets and related tables(still having a slight problem with the ParallelATA section, the XSL works for the second device but has the "tabbed" column effect for the first device), but now the problems are "contained" within each set of related records and doesn't blow up the entire record. So the workflow, at least so far in my mind, is that when the user scans the machine barcode into a field; I'd like to then, take that field data use it as a part of the XML path declaration (as it's also a file name: e.g. /desktop/ASPFILES/uv1234bg1rg.xml), is that possible? In terms of automating that's where I am in over my head: Let me see if I get this conceptually. For each XSL stylesheet import, it has to be defined as a variable, also, the XML Path needs to be defined as a variable. Since this is a repetitive process, here's my logic: the XSL stylesheets will stay "constant", but the XML Path will always change, so should the global variables be the XSL stylesheets and the local variable be the XML Path? So, if I have six XSL stylesheets, should I create six containers that hold the never changing values and call them from the script? Or should I paste them as a "value" in the variable definition? Which leads me to my next question: exactly how do you get the variable information (XSL stylesheets and XML path declaration) into the import dialog or import process ? Or how does the import function call that variable data? I've tried two methods: pasting the XSL data directly into the "value" field, and defining a container to hold it then using that field as a calculated value. No joy on either. Whew, I can feel my brain stretching.. Cliff

So, to be more clear in my request.. Is there an XPATH expression that will allow me to pick out the nodes (and the following siblings) that I want to get from Anywhere in the System Profiler XML output? Or is it absolutely required to define the node within the XML structure to then grab the information you want. As I stated before the System Profiler XML node structure changes by machine and my current attempt at capturing segments of the entire structure is failing. Any help in the regard would be welcome. Cheers, Cliff

Hi, I'd like to import the contents of a .txt File into a container (retaining the carriage returns if possible) based upon the matching field criteria in Filemaker to a Filename in a specific folder on the desktop. Let's say the example is that a user enters an ISBN number into a field, then executes a script that will go to a folder on the desktop that contains files labeled with the ISBN, performs a match then imports the contents of the book into a text container in Filemaker. I figure it's an Applescript embedded in Filemaker but I can't seem to work the logic out. TIA

Hi All, I have been slogging through Fenton Jones' great tutorial for bringing in ASP xml data into FileMaker. I have hit a wall with the project and wanted to submit my work to see if someone might have a better way for me to reinvent this wheel. So my goal is to pull specific pieces of data from various Apple machines (G3, G4, Intel, etc) from their respective system profile data. To control for the varieties of OS's and ASP builds, all of the machines are booting to 10.4.x volumes. I have built an Automator App to pull only the specific SPDATATYPES into a generic xml file (not the .spx ASP output). So far so good. Using the examples on this board, I have constructed an XSL page to transform the XML data into a simple Filemaker database. I decided NOT to make the SPhardwaredataTYPE the parent record and the subsequent SPdataTypes children (matched by the serial number) for instances such as multiple ATA devices and multiple sticks of Memory (Bank 0, Bank 1 etc). But rather build one very long record with all of this xml data parsed into fields. I didn't want to have separate XSL files, as I don't know how to automate the multiple transformation steps. This, I think, is where my problem starts. I can bring the data in, but it seems as though the XML structure is not consistent accross different machines so the xsl file breaks down when you run multiple machine types through. I have included my files and some sample xml docs to see if what I have done so far makes sense to anyone. }:| Thanks ! ASP_Import.zip

Soren, Thank you, I will investigate these two strategies and let you know how I fare! Much Appreciated!

HI, I am trying to put together an inventory solution that handles unique and non-unique items. The items are computers with unique serial numbers but have non-unique attributes such as family, model, memory size , hd size, processor speed, condition grade, and operational status. The unique computer records will also have child records of the parts INSIDE that computer which might need to be repaired, or exchanged with a similar part. The child part records are also unique. I need to show the origin and the end-disposition for each unique part: for whole machines that would be origin=Purchase Order number, and for end-disposition=Invoice number. For unique parts origin=Purchase Order AND Unique Machine Serial number (if removed from like defective machine) OR just Purchase Order if purchased from an outside vendor... Unique part end-disposition would be Invoice AND Unique Machine Serial number OR if defective a Recycling ID number For auditing purposes I have to reasonably show how and where the parts originated and departed. My inventory will also contain non unique parts that I have to create purchase orders for as well. I can't figure out how summarize in both the Purchase Order table or the Invoice table the aggregated amounts of the individual items. If I have 100 unique serial numbers 50 of which are laptops (same model) and 50 are towers (same model), I don't want my Purchase Order to have 100 line items, I want it to summarize as simply two models (two line items). If I want to include, say 10 units of another part ID that are not unique in the same PO for a third line item. I've tried to test this with two intermediate line item files (one for unique items and one for non-unique) but I can't get the relationships to work. I am looking for someone to point me in the right direction if possible! Thanks!

Fenton, Thank you! Brilliant! I very much appreciate the assist. The Applescript approach invoking the terminal commands was the thing I was looking for. Hopefully I can get a solution together today that puts it all together. Cheers, Cliff

Hi, I have spent a lot of time today trolling the forum for the best way to attack this project - without any clear idea how to start. I am trying to pull data out of the Apple System Profiler xml file, specificallly, just the hardware info and import into a single record in filemaker. I think I'd like to script it, as the XML structure will be the same accross all machines (all have same OS version). I've been trying to constuct an XSLT from looking at the Profiler XML data, but I am having troulbe with the nested nature of the data. I'll be pulling in say, 20 attributes (machine name, HD model, memory, etc. etc.) I am hoping this makes sense and I am looking for a push in the right direction for a way to parse this info. Thanks! Cliff