I'm very new to the use of plugins. I need to trigger an import records script, on a nightly basis. I know Troi Activator and Events will do the job. I had heard that FMP7 allows for server based plugins. Has anyone come up with one or do I need to rely on having a dedicated machine on all of the time? Also, for those of us new to plugins which is easier to configure - Activator or Events?

You might not need a plugin. I'm not familar with Macs at all, but I assume there is some provision to schedule a program to execute on a given day and time (on Windows there is the Schedule Tasks Manager). If there is a similar facility, create a FM File with a single script that runs when the file is opened. This script would run the external scipt in whatever file you want to do the import.

Steve

Edited July 30, 200520 yr by Guest

On the mac, the easiest way to schedule opening a file is to use crontab in the terminal. (or download Cronnix for a GUI) You'll still have to do this with a FMP client, not on the server. The server has no way to import records or perform any scripts.

I actually do use a plugin to do my hourly imports from our SQL server, and to send emails on a schedule. Scriptmaker scripts could also be called from a scheduled Applescript, but I found this plugin easy to use and not expensive. MMScript from CNS plugins is $35... It is not a final product yet simply because there isn't a manual written for it yet but it doesn't really need one. You can download the demo and try it out, it just pops up a dialog every once in a while if you don't buy it.

I just have one machine as my server and another as a utility machine running FMP connected to the server. It's using MMScript to schedule scripts, and SMTPit (Pro now) to send email. (I think Events will now send email as well as scheduling scripts, but the price is more than the combination of the CNS plugins.)

I should have been more clear. While I develop on a Mac, this solution is intended for an all PC environment! I've done something similar to this using Visual Basic, where a script was scheduled to run at a certain time, opening the database with a password that triggered an FMP script that does the import. Problem is I didn't write the VB script, nor have I ever worked with VB. I was hoping for an alternative. I really thought people were going to write sever based scripts so we didn't have to mess with these workarounds anymore.