Import XML file - any name - without dialog

[Harald E Brandt]

In the final runtime version of my solution, both for XP and Mac OS, the user can click a button to bring up a standard file dialog where he is supposed to select an XML-file he has received by e-mail. That XML-file will then be imported. (The format (fields to match etc) of the XML file is already known to me.)

The current solution has an 'Import Records' step with 'Perform without dialog'; the 'Specify data source' is NOT checked, but the 'Specify import order' is of course enabled and properly setup while I had an XML test file selected.

The 'import order' is saved with the script step, even when I make sure 'Specify data source' is NOT checked.

The current behavior is thus: the Open File dialog comes up, but after the user selects a file and clicks Open, the user will see a very confusing "Specify XML and XSL Options". Although, all he has to do is to click Continue, I really want to bypass that annoying second dialog box since it is extremely confusing to the user.

How do I achieve that?

If I could get JUST an Open File dialog, just to get the file name, I could probably take that file name and dynamically make a file path so I could then import the xml file using that specified file path. But I am not aware of a method to ONLY get an Open File dialog just to get a path or file name!?

Best Regards,

/Harald

[comment]

Perhaps you could adapt the method outlined here. Not perfect either, but...

[Brudderman]

Or if you have version 8.5, you can try this as well.

James

[Harald E Brandt]

To Mr Comment: Yes, that works! Thanks!

But an oddity is: if the script has switched to another Layout before the 'Insert File' script step, it won't work! In that case, I do not get any 'Insert File dialog'! (The help file says there must be an active container field on the layout where the script is being performed, otherwise you get error 102.) On the other hand, I can work around it by making the script go to the layout where the container field is, although the actual importing of records needs to be done to another table later.

To the wish list I would certainly want:

Ability to name that dialog, since currently it says "Insert File", which in my case is wrong! I am importing XML data, not inserting a file! Most users may not react on that, but good GUI design calls for a consistent logical naming of dialogs.

Second, that "Store only a reference to the file" should of course not be visible to the user!

To Brudderman: No, I do not have version 8.5. Heck, I just upgraded to version 8 three months ago! It feels a bit ridiculous to already feel "left behind"! But what in that logic requires version 8.5? The link in the link says that version 8 is a requirement. But regardless of that, the link talks about VBScript! That isn't really cross-platform, is it? (I.e Mac and Windows). In version 8, I can execute an AppleScript -- that is easy for me, since I am very proficient with AppleScript. But VBScript? Is that new to version 8.5? The link http://filemaker.com/downloads/pdf/filemaker_versions.pdf doesn't seem to list such a feature!?

/Harald

[Brudderman]

Harald, my mistake. VB script is a Windows feature. Sorry.

James

www.james-mc.com

[Harald E Brandt]

"my mistake. VB script is a Windows feature. Sorry"

Yes, of course it is a Windows thing, but the question remains: what does version 8.5 offer concerning this? Executing it just as I today can execute AppleScript? I don't see anything about that in the feature list for 8.5 I mentioned?

[Fenton]

No, I don't think there's any difference in 8.5.

[comment]

Well, I said it wasn't perfect - but it's better than nothing. If you want something more slick, you could have a script run either AppleScript or VBScript, according to the current platform. Though I am not sure VBScript can talk back to Filemaker without a plugin (perhaps that's the thing with 8.5 - return data thru the web viewer?).