Can we open a windows folder using a field name?

[Stevireno]

Thanks for reading this and helping out.

I have about 2500 folders with unique names,(lastname firstname Dateofbirth), and I would like to now access those folders through filemaker. I have the firstname, lastname and Dateofbirth in field names, and I was hoping I could tell filemaker through the URL command to open a specific folder in my root drive using those fields . I dont want to have to type it in everytime with a different record to get to the patients folder. Since I have the fields in filemaker, I would like to have filemaker open the folder that has already been created that is (lastname firstname DOB).

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!!!

-Steve

[Wim Decorte]

What works is a command line, triggered from the Send Event script step:

cmd /c explorer c:whateverFolder

The Open URL script step should also work (file://...) but I tend to use the command line for this.

[Stevireno]

Is there a way to have filemaker fill in the "whatever folder" using a field name, or a combination of field names. ie. I have a windows folder, seperate from filemaker, called "fish out of water" and I have 3 fields in filemaker, field 1="fish", field 2="out" field 3 ="of water", is there a way to have filemaker fill in the field names so that the folder "fish out of water" is opened using the combination of the 3 fields?

cmd /c explorer c:(can filemaker place field names here?)

Thanks so much for your response, I appreciate it.!

-Steve

[Ted S]

Hi Ho Steveireno!

Yes there is and it's pretty simple. Here's how I would approach it:

Create a global text field called something like gTemp1. Then create your script. I'll call it "Open Folder".

Enter Browse Mode

Set Field [gTemp1, "cmd /c explorer c:" & Field_1 & "" & Field_2 & "" & Field_3]

Send Message ["aevt","odoc"] (choose use field value and select the gTemp1 field)

Set Field [gTemp1, ""] (this clears the field for future use)

That's one way to do it and like most programming, there is more than one way to skin-the-cat. To make it robust you should also provide some error checking and perhaps even provide different calculations for different folder combinations.

Hope this helps.

[Stevireno]

HAHA! Excellent! Thanks so much. I'm learning and hope to someday return the knowledge that people here have given so freely. I see the method you layed out and I think I can alter it a bit to fit my needs. Thanks again!

-Steve'

[Stevireno]

One more question, I don't see a "send message" selection within scriptmaker, is it "send event"?

thanks

[Ted S]

Yes it is. It's called Send Event in v7 and in previous versions it was called Send Message. For some reason I thought you were on v5. Sorry for the confusion.

[SantaFeMac]

Hi Folks,

I don't see a better place to post this, so hope you can help me with a Mac. I am using a Troi plug-in (http://www.troi.com/software/fileplugin.html) to get the MetaData from Photoshop image files. (the copyright owner, date taken, subject matter, etc. which are found at File> File Info)

The problem is that the plug-in only extracts the info once and we have thousands of images. I have written a loop script to automate some of this.

What I need at this point (I think) is to get or set the path to the folder and specify getting the data from whatever files are in that folder, in sequence.

This sounds sorta' like what I have been reading above. Can you help?

I also hope to be able to give back.

Regards

[Fenton]

Troi has a command to get the file names of files in a folder (on Windows I believe it can get the entire path). Look in his example file, under "Getting data in," then "Listing folders".

Put the names in a global field. To address each file, take the names out one at a time, put it in another global, which is appended to the folder path. That gives you the complete file path.

_cgFilepath = _gFolderpath & _gFileName

Get/set the folder path with Troi

Loop