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Pro 8 Advanced standalone will not send to PDF


RichTea

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Filemaker Pro 8 Advanced sends data to PDF but when I convert the files into a standalone runtime solution the PDF option disappears from the menu and the script step 'Save records as PDF' fails silently despite setting 'run script with full access privileges'. I can find no mention of this in the documentation - is this a bug in Filemaker Pro 8 Advanced ?

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No it's a deliberate limitation...

You should have used the search function to find this:

http://www.fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/170211/post/177434/#177434

If you in the Quickfind type this way:

+Save +records +PDF +runtime

--sd

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No it's a deliberate limitation...

You should have used the search function ...

--sd

I disagree totally. There is no reason in the world why you would go looking on the FMI webiste to check if a feature is available in a runtime. Where do you draw the line? Should I do such a search for every feature? This is the ONLY non-runtime feature I know of that is either clearly not relevant to runtimes and/or specifically excluded in the FMA help.

As Steve said, it stinks!

Stefan, Thanks for that info! Where were you when I lost some business over this issue?

Edited by Guest
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Further to this topic, I'm wondering if anyone can help me with a solution for OS X. I'm developing a runtime solution, and for the time being I'm only concerened with it working on OS X 10.4.

Since I can't use the Save as PDF script step, I'd like to use the Print script step in conjuction with an applescript in the /library/pdf services folder. The applescript just needs to get the path to the current application (the FM Runtime... as I won't know where the user will have it located) and save a pdf with a hard coded name, overwriting any previous file. Then I can have FileMaker add that pdf to an email.

anyone know how to code this applescript?

Edited by Guest
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There is no reason in the world why you would go looking on the FMI webiste to check if a feature is available in a runtime.

It's not what I'm saying ...oftentimes is the same question raised over and over in this forum. The search I suggested was in the gist of this:

http://www.fmforums.com/forum/showpost.php?post/205417/

--sd

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anyone know how to code this applescript?

Here's som rough ideas, use the script listing:

http://www.apple.com/applescript/print/

and combine it with:

do shell script "screencapture -iW ~/Desktop/temp.pdf"

...while remembering to make the cleanup after the matter is done. It takes some tinkering to customize the script into having all 3 parts included.

Alright I thought I would give it a try:

do shell script "screencapture -iW ~/Desktop/XXX.pdf"

tell application "Finder"

	set parent_folder to (path to desktop folder)

	set the target_file to ¬

		(document file "XXX.pdf" of the parent_folder) as alias

end tell

tell application "Mail"

	set the new_message to ¬

		(make new outgoing message with properties ¬

			{visible:true, content:" "})

	tell the new_message

		tell content

			make new attachment with properties ¬

				{file name:target_file} at ¬

				before the first character

		end tell

	end tell

end tell

tell application "Finder"

	delete file target_file

end tell

--sd

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It's late here, and I haven't had a chance to test this out completely, but here is what I'm working with so far. I think this will work in a FileMaker runtime solution. I just have to make the applescript check for the FMP_PDF folder and create if it is not there, and change the last Tell from "FileMaker Pro Advanced" to the name of the runtime.



  • If the following applescript is placed in the /library/pdf services/ folder then it will be an option in the PDF menu of the FileMaker print dialog box, and thus a it can be executed with a FileMaker Print script step.

    This applescript sets a path to a folder in the users library, saves the pdf file there, then gets that same path in POSIX form and passes it to a global field in FileMaker.

    FileMaker then has everything it needs to create an email using the Send Mail script step and attach the pdf file.

on open these_items

	try

		

		set this_file to item 1 of these_items

		tell application "Finder"

			set the file_name to the name of this_file

			set the parent_folder to (the container of this_file) as alias

		end tell

		

		-- set the path for the saved pdf

		set libPath to (path to library folder from user domain as string)

		set pdfPrintPath to libPath & "FMP_PDF"

		

		-- save a copy of the pdf in the folder specified above

		tell application "Finder"

			set the name of this_file to "Quotation.pdf"

			move this_file to pdfPrintPath replacing yes

		end tell

		

		(* now set the same path in posix form and pass it to FileMaker,

		 so that it can be used to attach the pdf to an email with the Send Mail script step *)

		set sdPath to (path to startup disk as string)

		set sdPath to (characters 1 thru ((length of sdPath) - 1) of sdPath as string)

		set libPath to (path to library folder from user domain as string)

		set hfsPath to libPath & "FMP_PDF"

		set pdfPrintPath to "/" & sdPath & POSIX path of hfsPath

		

		tell application "FileMaker Pro Advanced"

			set theDoc to item 1 of (documents whose name starts with "MOY")

			set cell "PDF Folder" of current record of layout "Config" of theDoc to pdfPrintPath

		end tell

	end try

end open

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If the following applescript is placed in the /library/pdf services/ folder

The idea is good enough, but this is meant to be a handout system stached on a disk as runtime, where you have absolutely no idea if the user is allowed SUDO or not, so the writing permission are likely to cause ill reputing remark on your behalf, due to it's causing strange looking dialogs to appear.

--sd

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The idea is good enough, but this is meant to be a handout system stached on a disk as runtime, where you have absolutely no idea if the user is allowed SUDO or not, so the writing permission are likely to cause ill reputing remark on your behalf, due to it's causing strange looking dialogs to appear.

This application is being developed as a test case, so I only need it to work on one machine for the time being. When the time comes to modify the database for wider distribution I will find a more reliable solution such as the cross platform plugin available from www.schubec.com

Perhaps though, if I plan on using the Schubec PS2PDF plugin in my final solution, I should just buy a single license for it to use with the test case.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

For the record, I did do a search on the forum and got no (useful)results.

To be honest, searches in the forum could be tricky indeed. And the weirdest thing is that I'm having troubles finding my own posts, and especially those with attachment's, which means that I sometimes need to produce redundant templates - jikes!!!!

One problem is that topics is found directly in texts, not in dedicated fields ...obviously subscriping to googles services, where 1NF violations is their bread and butter.

--sd

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