I have a related database, shared by the special education teachers in my building, consisting of 4 files. I'd appreciate some help constructing a script that backs up all 4 to a backup folder at every shutdown, regardless of which one is open and active. I'm very new to scripting and the one I've been working on continues to have bugs. Thanks, in advance.

http://www.filemaker.com/support/techinfo.html

Select Filemaker and type in article # 103860

It gives you an sample script that does what you are looking for.

Beltro

Create a script in each file with the following script step:

Save a Copy as...

In the document preferences, specify that this script be run when the file is closed.

You could get really tricky with this script and allow the operator to cancel it etc.

One thing... if the database runs on a server and is shared, then the script above won't necessarily do what you want, because scripts execute on the client's computers, not the server. this means that the script will try to save the backup copy on the client's computer not the server.

The only worksaround to this is to:

1) add an IF to the script that only does the backup if the script is run on the server... easiest way is to use the Status(Current MultiUserStatus) function which returns 1 if the computer is the host.

2) quit and reopen the database on the server regularly to run the backup script. Even better, automate the process with a script or macro of some sort (AppleScript etc).