Starhawk

Being a subsidiary of Apple, I just assumed that Filemaker Server would be ready for Yosemite. Whoops.

Thank you for the response, ironsuit. I do have someone working with me on the project right now. I'll be sure to post back like Lee said with an update the next time I request assistance. -Cameron

I think I am done playing around with Filemaker. I'd love to have a brain that gravitated to the subject rather than taking each challenge as its own brainteaser I import Real Estate data into my database and Im trying to do a few extra things with it now. I mail out Postcards and Letters to selected prospects in my database. The Postcard part is pretty easy as I only need to print out labels. I'd now like to be able to "mail merge" the letters and print or save as PDF right out of Filemaker. Each person receives a variety of postcards and letters from me that I need to keep track of. I already have a system in place that uses scripts to set up the campaign, set dates, postpone dates when needed, etc, but it may need improvement. Would anyone like to help me out with getting this set up? I am willing to converse via email, screencast, IM, etc to explain in more detail. Thanks to anyone who'd like to help me out! -Cameron

Now a question back to postponing the campaign. In my joined table between the profiles and letters, I have fields of ProfileID LetterID DatetoSend DateSent Each profile will receive about 8 letters so there are about 8 lines per ProfileID scheduled. I'd like a script that basically said "If DateSent is blank, add [number of days to postpone] to DatetoSend". I would also like the option to do this for all profiles that are currently being sent letters (all the profileIDs in the joined table) and an option to just postpone a particular ProfileID's letter schedule. My best guess at the moment would be to perform a FIND either all the profileIDs or just particular ones and then REPLACE the DatetoSend with DatetoSend + [number of days to postpone]. Just wanted to get some advice before I screw anything up.

Thanks Fenton! When I set up the CampaignLetters joined table, am I creating one record per CampaignID and multiple fields under it for 'Letter 1', 'Letter 2" and so on? Or do the opposite and have each letter a separate record and the campaingID attached to each one? Will these 2 additional tables relate to my current joined table (between the PROFILE table and LETTERS table) in any way? Thank you again for answering my novice questions. -Cameron

I now see how Novice my original question was! I now have structured my database so there is a Table for PROFILES and a Table for LETTERS with a joined table in between called 'LINES'. Everything has a serial and the relationships are created via these serials. In my LINES Table, I can see each time a letter gets mailed out, to whom, and when. I am assuming this will come in handy when I start to create a report. Now, I am trying to structure this a little differently and I am not sure if I need a Script or if I should create more tables and relationships. I'd now like to create a table that is called CAMPAIGNS. Each Campaign would consist of multiple letters. I'd like to have a drop down list on the Profile's layout to show all campaigns, and then when one is selected, all of the related letters show up. I'd also like to preserve the ability to select letters to send on an individual basis rather than by campaigns. It seems I may be able to leave the relationships the way they are now, and create a script to for each campaign and the script will pick and choose the appropriate letters. On the other hand, it also seems I may be able to set up more tables related to one another. PROFILES to CAMPAIGNS to LETTERS? These are all many to many and I am unsure of how to set up the join tables in between. PROFILES to JOIN TABLE to CAMPAINGS to JOIN TABLE to LETTERS? And will this preserve the individual letter choosing I currently have? Thanks again for any help. I have not tried any of the calculations/scripts recommended here yet as I am still setting up the structure. Each time I run into a snag feels like the ultimate brain teaser : -Cameron

Thank you very much! I will work on getting this set up and report back when I cant get any further.

Thanks LaRetta, I am sure I am thinking about this the wrong way. But each record is a complete profile of the person I am mailing to, and so I have fields for each letter and dates for when they are sent out for that particular person. Can I still set up the individual letters as Records and then have them relate to the individual profiles?

I've created a database to keep track of a letter mailing campaign. I have 8 Fields for 8 letters set up as Letter 1 Letter 2 and so on... I put the start date I want to begin mailing in the field "Letter 1" I then want to mail out the remaining Letters in two day increments, so I have a simple calculation set up to produce a date 2 days later from the previous letter. Letter 1 12/31/07 Letter 2 01/02/08 and so on... Now, I'd like to get a little more complicated, but Im not sure how to approach. When i have actually completed one of the mailings, I'd like to have some way to show that particular letter has been sent. Maybe a completed check box? Then, if I'd ever want to postpone the campaign, I'm trying to figure out a way I could push out the remaining unsent letters by a certain amount of days. For example, maybe I have Letter 1 12/31/07 Completed Letter 2 01/02/08 Completed Letter 3 01/04/08 Letter 4 01/06/08 but I want to postpone Letter 3 (and subsequent letters) by (for example) 1 day. What would be a good way to go about doing this? Im also trying to figure out a way for it to skip Sundays, but Im also searching previous threads to try to figure that out. If anyone has an idea of how to implement that as well, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any assistance. -Cameron