Help, is Export the only solution?

[David H]

Is exporting data the only solution to pass data to an external program?

Is it possible to somehow pass command line arguments to a send message command so that when the program defined is run it will use these adjusted command line arguments?

I need the command line arguments to be an actual defined field. Is this possible?

so lets say I want to run a program called yipeee.exe

I'd like to run this program as

yipeee.exe [field type]

where [field type] would be some defined value I compute before running the program.

Current Solution

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At this point what I've done to solve this is export the data I need to a file, then I have a perl script read that data from the file and deal with it appropriately.

Current Problem

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The problem with the above is that I have a database of 60,000+ items and if I narrow a search down to 300 items (so only the 300 items are showing).

The only way I've found to be able to export just ONE item (the one being viewed) is to make the script do this..

SHOW ALL RECORDS

OMIT RECORD

SHOW OMITTED

EXPORT RECORD

SHOW ALL

but then I'm back to seeing all 60,000+ items and not the original 300. Anyone have a possible solution for this? The original search for the narrowed 300 items is never the same, so this isn't a fixed search that I could add in the search each time.

Maybe the problem is that I'm using the above 5 steps to export just ONE set of data for the currently viewed record (but this is the only way I've found to be able to do this so that it doesn't export ALL the items being viewed).

Also, I'd like it to revert back to the original list or search I was original on, and not the whole list.

Anyone have any ideas on how I might fix this?

I'm using FMPRO 5.0 in win2k.

thanks,

David H.

[Vaughan]

Have you considered ODBC?

[David H]

quote:

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Originally posted by Vaughan:

Have you considered ODBC?

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No. One being that I don't think I have a use for an ODBC file since I'm using the database to run different scripts that use only specific fields for each script.

Unless your suggestining a way to run ODBC commands from filemaker pro that my script my interpert (I have not experimented with that yet)?

Basically all I'm asking is for is a way to run a program from within filemaker pro that accepts a command line arguement which can also be a defined field value or computed text value.

is this possible?

[Vaughan]

Oh. What about WinBatch then?

[SteveB]

I use WinBatch to do a bunch of different things. It has great flexibility, but I've yet to solve the command line argument(s) problem. I use the Troi File plugin to create a temp ASCII text file and then I start the WB EXE. I tried unsuccessfully to get Troi to change his routines to accept command line args, but so far he is unwilling. WinBatch has no problem accepting up to 9 args, and they have also recently released a flat-file database structure extender that can hold and manipulate data.

[David H]

quote:

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Originally posted by Steveinvegas:

I use WinBatch to do a bunch of different things. It has great flexibility, but I've yet to solve the command line argument(s) problem. I use the Troi File plugin to create a temp ASCII text file and then I start the WB EXE. I tried unsuccessfully to get Troi to change his routines to accept command line args, but so far he is unwilling. WinBatch has no problem accepting up to 9 args, and they have also recently released a flat-file database structure extender that can hold and manipulate data.

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don't think winbatch will help me since I need the arguements to based on a field that may change according to my data.

a good example of what I would like to do would be to define a text field COMMAND_LINE

then if

COMMAND_LINE = "aprogram.exe arguements"

COMMAND_LINE = "test.exe green books"

COMMAND_LINE = "explorer.exe test.html"

COMMAND_LINE = "eudora.exe test.msg"

...ect,.

I want to be able to be able to RUN COMMAND_LINE or use that as an argument for a *send message* script.

this possible?

It seems ridiculous FMPRO doesn't allow this, but this wouldn't surprise me since I've seen so a lot of big software companies (Quickbooks COUGH..email invoice..COUGH COUGH) leave out some of the most basic things sometimes.

I just hope in this case I'm the idiot because I can't figure out how it's done in fmpro and not the other way around

thanks,

David H.