I have written a script that I use via a portal to find emails in a text box and then erase them. What I'd like is rather than erase them, is to find them and add "BAD" to the text box, keeping the email address in tact.

Any idea?

Try

Insert Calculated Result [EmailField; EmailField & "Bad" ]

Hello Lee

Thanks for the quick reply.

I can't make it work and i am not sure if understand how the script works for adding text to the field.

Here is what I had in mind.

See attachment.

InsertInFindMode.fp7.zip

Errr... I am rubbish. I have added your page to my db. I have connected it to the right fields but I firstly cannot make it so that from "[email protected]", the field becomes "BAD [email protected]". Sadly, I can't seem to get to work.

Secondly, I am wondering if there is not some parasite invisible text that means that the find does not work properly. There is a cleaning script to get rid of these parasites.

Lastly, I attach a script that seems to find a list of emails as a list. The following action would be to add BAD to the existing email, without deleting the address.

Thanks in advance

Christopher

FINDEMAIL.fp7.zip

I have retried your script

Insert Calculated Result [EmailField; EmailField & "Bad" ]

but in "specify calculation" window it will not accept

EmailField & "Bad"

as a valid calculation

Any other ideas??

The file you posted only has one field called "Find EMAILS".

The only two scripts in the file are having something to do with a related file (Not enclosed).

The Insert Insert Calculated Result you posted is using a Field that doesn't exist.

I think of a Email field as having only 1 Email address. The "Find EMAILS" Field in your file has a list of several emails in it. The Insert Calculated Result as I wrote to have only added the word "Bad" to the last one.

BTW, I used "EmailField" as a generic field, and you would need to change it to the name in the calculation to "Find EMAILS", if that is the field you are working with.

However, it will not work the way you want it to in the example file you sent.

Lee

Oh boy, I got your script addition to work ... but ... it adds BAD to the address in the FIND EMAIL box, not into my MASTER DB. The script still continues to find the addresses listed in the FIND EMAIL box nd list them as a sort. Is there is a way of getting the BAD to inscribe in the master doc & also to have at infront of the address rather than behind??

I attach the FIND EMAIL doc with your script in it and also a library. Sadly, you will have to reconnect them as I use this script over a server.

Archive.zip

woops again, my ingratitue made me forget to say thanks for the work so far

And the passwords are?

name:admin

password same as above

I hate to guess, but it appears that FIND EMAIL.fp7 is used to collect a list of "Bad" emails somehow?

I don't have a lot of time for working on this today, I have a full day planned. However, to get me thinking in the right way, why not explain your process here.

Once I (We) understand the purpose of the two files, maybe we can fix this for you.

so, tells what you are doing to discover the "Bad" emails, where they are now and what you want to do with them.

An example would be:

I gather email address from a web site.

I send responses to them, and some are determined to be invalid.

I get a list of them, and I want to mark the in Contact as a Bad or Invalid Address.

Etc.

HTH

Lee

Oh yes. The whole process.

I have a very complete listing of companies that I use, amongst other things, to send emails from. As time goes by, people leave companies etc, in short, email addresses become in valid. When I send out a newsletter, I often get alot of badly directed email. From Eudora I extract the addresses that no longer function and from that list I wish to update the db so that I know that the email I have is BAD (hence why I wish to add BAD to the email). This gives me the opportunity to follow the careers of people as I can check their email addresses.

By pasting a list of emails into the FIND BAD EMAILS text box, I activate a very simple script i concocted that (usually but not always - & i don't why) finds, via a portal, the listed bad emails in the COMMERCIALS PRODS CONTACTS and sorts only them. From there I have to manually add the BAD to the front of each entry. (if you type bad in the find of COMMERCIALS PRODS CONTACTS, you will see what I mean).

I modified your files to include a relationship in Email Find, but you don't need it, as v7 confused me of where I need it.

I imported the data that was in your field in an earlier version of Email Find from a Text File, also enclosed, which created a record for each email.

In you Contact file, I created a new layout to test what I was doing, with a couple of new fields and your Email Field on it. I Created a Relationship to the Email Find. The Related data was doing what I wanted, so I placed the flag field on your First Layout. Maybe this will do what you want. You can always do a search on the new layout for 1, and it will return only the bad emails.

Let me know if it works for you or not.

Lee

UpdateofArchive.zip

Lee

Sadly, the .zip seems to have been corrupted as I cannot open it. Can you upload it again please?

Okay, here it is again

Archive.zip

Thank you very much for having sent the file. I must confess that I am a little bewildered. I find the red box idea great but I do not quite know how to use it. Firstly I was hoping to be able add text as there were other words I would use in different scripts. Secondly, I can't work out how to use the find function with the read boxes.

I feel very bad that you are all this and I understand if you have had enough. I honestly thought my request would straight forward.

Fire this script from your Find Emails layout, pmworld:

Go To Related Record [ Show Only Related ; PMWORLD COMMERCIALS CONTACTS (using layout based upon PMWORLD COMMERCIAL CONTACTS) ]

Go To Record/Request/Page [ First ]

Loop

Set Field [ PMWORLD COMMERCIALS CONTACTS::Email ; "(BAD) " & PMWORLD COMMERCIALS CONTACTS::Email ]

Go To Record/Request/Page [ Exit after Last ; Next ]

End Loop

See how you go with that.

Update: Oh. You want to add different words than Bad? No prob. Create a global text field called gAppend. Place it on your Find Emails layout. Insert the text into it. Then change your Set Field [] step to:

Set Field [ PMWORLD COMMERCIALS CONTACTS::Email ; gAppend & " " & PMWORLD COMMERCIALS CONTACTS::Email ]

LaRetta

Hi pmworld,

I was out of town all day and just got back. In the mean time, I see others have jumped. I have no idea what LaRetta is suggesting, and I'm too tired to read through it now.

In the mean time, I'll just restate about the files, take a look at the Text file. It is a just a list of the Bad Emails. I envision that you could create this from your email program, and just import these into your Email find file.

Once imported, the flag for these bad email address will automatically update your contact file to show the Flag.

You can use the calculation on the new layout I made to search for 1, and that would return these Flag addresses.

What could be simpler than that?

Lee

"What could be simpler than that? "

Hi Lee, sorry if you felt I was stepping in on your territory. My purpose is to assist the postee and I will do exactly that every chance I get (if I feel I have another option worthy of mentioning).

The simple script I presented (using GTRR) is:

1) Faster than a Find (particularly on an unstored calculation)

2) Doesn't require wasting resources adding three new fields (two unstored calculations)

3) Allows him to change the Append text dynamically (as he requested) and

4) Fits into his existing process with no change whatsoever.

He doesn't need to turn those bad emails into separate records at all. A multiline text field (as he currently has it) matches just as well.

I see nothing wrong in presenting alternate options to people who post. It is done on these forums all the time. The Postee can then pick and choose what fits best for them.

Personally, I'm glad several people respond with different methods ... it helps us all learn better ways.

LaRetta

Thank you to you both for your time. I do not want this to become an issue.

Dear Lee

I have tried to understand the mechanism but, I cannot find the mechanism that connects your page to the txt file. I find your proposal very elegant and it has given me ideas for being able to flag entries visually. For the moment , I seem to get mitigated results as when I open your files, the red flag never appear on all the mails listed. It maybe that I have not been able to connect them correctly on my machine. As your proposal has potential for many entries I would like to understand.

Thank you to you both for your time. I do not want this to become an issue.

LeRetta

Thank you for your time. I must confess that what you have written is closer to my rather simple interpretation of my needs. I have managed to make the script work but on only one email at time. With a list, it will sometimes show up all the records with the first record ammended and other I only get the first mail. I presume that this is not quite right.

Thanks

Christopher

Hi Christopher,

If you could attach your file I'm sure I could spot it quickly - or I'd be happy to give you a copy of your file back with the script intact and functioning.

And nah, Lee and I go way back ... and we both know the other's intentions are always good.

LaRetta

"What could be simpler than that? "

Hi Lee, sorry if you felt I was stepping in on your territory. My purpose is to assist the postee and I will do exactly that every chance I get (if I feel I have another option worthy of mentioning).

The remark was meant for Christopher, that was why it followed my explanation, or attempt anyway, of how the changes I had made to his files might fit his needs.

I was NOT implying you were stepping on my toes, only that I was too tired to analyze what you had suggested.

I read your post now, and I still feel that what I suggested would work best, however Christopher isn't following on the process very well, and it sound like he will use your script.

Lee

Hi Christopher,

How are these Emails sent out now, i.e. directly from COMMERCIALS PRODS CONTACTS.fp7, Outlook Express, ... ?

Lee

I export them to an app called maildrop or Eudora.

Do you produce an export, or something from Eudora showing the BAD Emails?

Lee

I use Mailjuicer, a tiny but extremely efficent app that rips out email addresses from emails. The subsequent list is copied and from this list I wish to add BAD. Highly recommended app and free. (Probably an easy ecript to write for you pros.)

Laretta,

I tried out what I considered to be brainwave. I figured that by incorportating your script directly into the db, it would make things more efficient. It was a part success. It managed to add BAD to all the emails when I only had listed one. I supply a version of the db prior to the script being activated. It is all rather virulent really. Luck I kept a back up.

File attached

COMMERCIALSPRODSCONTACTSCopy1.fp7.zip

It might have made things more efficient but your structure and relationships are nothing like the demo you presented called FindEmails!!

I'm not surprised you had problems with it. The relationships aren't even the same. And the script I gave you was based upon a specific RELATIONSHIP since it used a GTRR.

The script was based upon FindEmails::BadEmails multiline being directly attached to COMMERCIALS::Emails. The Go To Related[] would then isolate the proper records for update.

You now have your BAD EMAILS layout based upon your main (COMMERCIALS) and the join is a multikey.

You can STILL use the script but you must adhere to the principle outlined even though you will be using a self-join.

I created a NEW relationship (using a self-join) and based your bad emails layout on THAT relationship. I have reattached your file.

Pay particular attention to the table occurrence Bad Emails layout is based upon. Look in your graph at how they are joined. This will work much better for you.

LaRetta

COMMERCIALSPRODSCONTACTSCopy1.zip

Another thing I just noticed but don't have time to correct ... I need to take off.

Change your badEmails field to GLOBAL text as well.

I must confess that I am lost. What is a GTRR? What is "self-join"? What is "join is a multikey"? Sorry I am a real neophyte. Is the old system better and above all safer? I am happy to go back to the old system but I got unreliable results so I figured it might more efficient to incorporate the script internally.

GTRR is Go To Related Record[]. It is the script-step which looks at the relationship between your BadEmails field and your emails. They (each multiline email listed in BadEmails) relates 1-to-1 to your COMMERCIALS emails.

When you evoke the GTRR script-step, only matching emails to bad emails are isolated into a found set. Only this found set is updated further by the script.

You need to look at the graph. Envision how they relate. Your badEmails layout must be based upon this new BadEmails relationship (look in Layout setup). There is nothing wrong with your setup now. Change badEmails to global as indicated and you are ready to go with it.

Hi Christopher,

I'm attaching an update to the files. I just noticed that I had not made the container field a Global, and therefore the flag was NOT showing on all of the BAD Emails, even though the calculation were there.

Sorry if this cause you some confusion.

Lee

Hi Lee, I wanted to view your script but it seems to be a .fp7, which my version of filemaker (6) can't open. Do you think you could repost the script or the file in a lower version, I would be so grateful, as my application is so similar to the original poster as I want to append text to the contents of an existing "notes" field, rather than replace the entire contents....

TIA!!

- - Dave

Hi dave, and welcome to the Forum.

There isn't a script in what I posted, only a relationship.

Why not just post a sample of your files, and explain to us what you are wanting to happen that isn't, we will see what we can do.

HTH

Lee

Hey Lee, thanks for the offer, I'll be very curious to see what happens...

Sorry for the long post but I hope it will forstall many questions:

Basically, I'm a (somwhat) self taught filemaker person, i.e., an amateur. Lately I have been responsible for marketing at the small company I work at, where we need to keep track of our prospects and what we've communicated to them. This has led to heavy use of the "notes" field, a large text field where we take our minutes of each phone call in a professionally created database, one that predates my employment at this company by several years. I have attached a sample of the DB minus all but a ten records for all the usual reasons.

My ideal process so far has been concieved as thus:

-Find for emails (can do no problem)

-sort for duplicates (still trying to find the best way to do that, not too many so not a big deal yet)

-export the first and surnames and associated addresses to the mailmerge and sending program (have a good tested solution for that part, MaxBulkMailerX)

-turn back to the FM database after the mailing goes out, and mark all the previously found exported records in the notes field as "7/11/05 E-Blast1, Batch 1", preferably at the top, as we put all our most recent contact entries into the top of the notes field, rather than the bottom (this is where the Forum comes in).

Once I figure out how to append the field I might even get fancy and take all the bounces and re-import them to the DB, marking the notes field as "email bounced" or like that....

viola, I can now go through the contact list recursively as I have time, know that the new contacts haven't revcieved the blast, talk directly to those that have, and when I'm ready for E-Blast 2 I just have to find for "E-Blast1" in the notes field, find omitted, then find for "@" and then will be ready to do it all over again!

But to modify the notes field without replacing the entire contents I have been stumped- I've tried every approach I can think of. I am now studying the original converstion of this thread, I will post back when I have followed it as far as I can.

Thanks again Lee + co for your enthusiasm!

- - Dave

marketingexampleDB.fp5.zip

and here is the file that was supposed to be attached please let me know if it compressed over the 'net ok...

- - d

Post deleted by cognitdiss

Thanks Queue, didn't realize I could still edit after the initial post, this is a new type of board for me.

I thought I was good to go because I could open the archive and the file within no problem, but yes, it was saved in an open state, so I am now posting the re-archived file.

And, update umpteen- file still will not download from the forum w/ same "parse error", but it unarchives and opens fine for me on my own machine, so rather than belabor the nuances of uploading to the forum I will be happy to email directly to anyone who is still interested, you may contact me at [email protected] and I will reply with the file.

error log (response when trying to download file) reads:

Warning: Unexpected character in input: '' (ASCII=6) state=1 in /home/fmforums/public_html/files/167312-exampleDB.sitx on line 428

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/fmforums/public_html/files/167312-exampleDB.sitx on line 428

old post:

Ok, sorry to be cluttering the board, but it looks like I get some kind of "parse" error when trying to check the upload success by downloading my example file. Any hints?

OSX, Safari, PBG4, using Dropstuff in Stuffit Standard 9.0.

Thanks again!

- - d

Make sure the file is closed before you compress it.

You don't have to create a new post for each attempt, by the way. Just Edit one of your original posts and change/add the attachment.

This forum is allergic to .sitx files. Use either .sit, or preferably .zip format.

More confusion. I presume You are suggesting I keep to the old system of 2 files and a portal.

You are suggesting I keep to the old system

Not at all. What I gave you back is your file with it working perfectly. It wouldn't matter whether you use the same table, a different table or even a different file. It's actually easier within the same table.

Create the relationship, change your Bad Emails layout to this relationship, change the BadEmail field to a global text and fire the script from button on Bad Emails layout - very important it be fired from there only. That's the power of GTRR but that also means you must adhere to the rules, ie, only matching records in THAT table occurrence will be found (or in your case your bad emails in COMMERCIALS).

LaRetta

I think I am going to sign up for FM lessons as I don't get it. I have redownloaded the "COMMERCIALS PRODS CONTACTS Copy 1.fp7.zip" file, used the graph to link the "bademails" text field to the main "Emails" field. I made "bademails" a Global. I even managed to link a button to the script.

Result:

With the BAD EMAILS layout empty, the script finds all the bad emails

With a list of emails in the BAD EMAILS layout, it adds BAD to all the entries (& there is no way back!)

I feel very bad to seem to be going around in circles and inpotent in my lack of knowledge, so I feel like throwing the towel.

I attach my work in the hope that it is only something really dumb

Thanks

Christopher

COMMERCIALSPRODSCONTACTSrevbademails.fp7.zip

Your Bad Emails table occurrence is the same name as your original (it just added a 2 after). That really isn't a problem but ...

Because the name is so long, you can't tell one from the other in your popups when specifying both the field and the layout. Did you wonder which one you were using when you selected from the layout popup? There was no way of telling and you had the wrong one selected. Always name your TOs to match their purpose and make them different enough that you can easily tell them apart in popups. BTW, THIS error I've also done ... once. The first time I couldn't tell one TO from another in a popup (because of similar long names) was also the last time.

First, go into your graph and rename that new TO and call it Bad Email. Then go to your Bad Emails layout. You will notice that 1) Your layout is STILL based on your original COMMERCIALS and 2) The field placed on that layout (bademails) is also STILL based on COMMERCIALS. Change both layout and field to the BadEmails table occurrence. You will then again be matching your file I attached above.

I have not presented you with a convoluted, unusual, complex process. The purpose of my stepping in originally with a script was to provide you with an easy solution with minimal effort. If I thought it would have been complex, I wouldn't have suggested it. I'm sorry that you are having a difficult time. I've stepped many people through GTRR and it usually is quick and easy.

Think of it this way: There is no doubt that once you *get it*, using GTRR will be a piece of cake for you because you'll understand it and know the importance of using the right relationships for the layouts and fields. This problem only took me 2 minutes to identify and fix, so no problem there.

I think you're in business now.

My apologies all round. I redownloaded a file & discovered that we were talking at cross purposes. It does work.(In the mean time I have learnt stack on how this all works. Slowly it is staring to sink in! Slowly) Question. what is layout #8? It seems to be an archive of bad emails.

I always create a table layout to view a process when testing it. You can delete it.

In this case, it was only to provide quick access to an email to copy (into bademails) for the test. Then I used it to test running the script to see what happens, ie, is it inserting BAD at the beginning and is it isolating the correct group of records.

I'm tickled you have it working.

LaRetta

Update: I used that file to run tests.

That data (the emails) may have BAD in front of them when they aren't bad. Either re-import your good data (or emails) into it or move that process to your good file.

Le Retta,

As we say in my home town of London, "All is well that end well". I have learnt stacks. I will now try to do this all by myself with a different word. Shouldn't be that difficult. (Hmmmmm)

Thank you very much, you people on this forum are far too generous for the likes of me.

Thanks again.

Christopher