Baffled by import problem

[charper]

I've got an import script that seems to be screwing up. Here's the scenario:

I've got Filemaker 5.5 installed on two different computers: Computer A and Computer B.

I've got a database I've built on Computer A that has a script which imports order records from a text file in a folder on my desktop: Orders.txt. On Computer A, this script works perfectly fine.

I've emailed both the database and Orders.txt to a hotmail account as attachments. I've downloaded both the database and Orders.txt from this account into a folder on the desktop of Computer B.

When I open this database on Computer B and run the import script, the import fails - the right data gets imported into the WRONG fields. Did something wierd happen to the database when it got emailed and downloaded to Computer B? It looks ok on Computer B - cosmetically. And the data that's already in it appears to be perfectly intact also. Seems to me that this import should work perfectly fine on Computer B.

I've checked file sizes and date stamps and have verified that there is no other file called "orders.txt" on Computer B. And I've even opened up the import script on Computer B and made sure that the import command was pointing at Orders.txt on Computer B. The only thing I haven't done yet is step through the import script one step at a time to see where its getting things hosed up on Computer B. I'll be doing that tomorrow (as a house call) on Computer B if I don't come accross the answer before - really wish I didn't have to do that. A cyber beer for whoever can clear this up for me. I'll be losing sleep tonight.

[kennedy]

Are computers A and B the same OS?

Reaching for straws... I might zip up the two files... attach the zip file... and then unzip on Computer B. (In case the email attach, send, and detach process is munging your .txt file.

[LaRetta]

I doubt this is the problem, since I'm really new. But I know I've read on this forum about changing the sort of your field definition ... I think it can mess up an import/export. Maybe you sorted your field definitions on one computer (copy of FM) and not the other. I believe that FM always performs import/exports according to the field creation order, not sort order (something like that) and that can cause a mis-match. I'm just trying to help ... I know what it's like to do the 'all nighters.' And, sometimes it's a little thing that throws us! Good luck to you!

[charper]

Hmmm. That's actually a pretty brilliant theory for a

"beginner". I wasn't aware that field definition order

had any baring on imports at all. That's rather precarious

if that's true. At any rate, I'm absolutely positive that I was not in the field defintions dialog on either machine during this test - it was a carefully controlled test.

However, I wonder if its possible that the field definitions got resorted automatically somehow as an

unintented result of the procedure I described above.

Very interesting. I won't get to check Computer B until tomorrow but that'll be the first thing I look at when I get there, you can count on that. Thank you Laretta.

As for the email theory, that does sound a little hard to swallow. If email was gonna hose up my database attachment then how could it selectively effect only my import scripts? Doesn't seem likely. But I'll give the zip file thing a shot if nothing else works.

Of course if worse comes to worse I can always go into all 30 effected scripts on Computer B and reset the field orders for hundreds of fields (if they are indeed out of order which appears to be the case). Please God, don't make do that.