FM Server 5 picture export on OS X..... How to?

[Fumetsu]

Hello all!

First of all I'm not a FM user nor intend to be one. I work with video, dvd etc....

Anyway the clinic where I work has this integrated FM system covering everything they need. Problem is the developer no longer develops, she is working on something else and now we have a problem concerning database file sizes.

Our photo database reached 2gb in size so we cannot keep on using it due to FM 5 limitations. We'd like, for now, to be able to edit all the pictures inside this database to make them smaller. Most pictures are oversized since we only store the pacient's face.

Is there any "easy" way to convert all these pictures without having to learn FM or hiring a new developer?

BTW, we are in Brazil otherwise we would simply post an ad here for someone to takeover the porting of the whole system to FM8+ where this database size limit is not a poblem.

Well, if anyone is able to help me please let me know.

Thank you all.

[Fenton]

Well, you cannot do this without some knowledge. But the FileMaker part of it is not too complex. Unless you want to do the process efficiently, ie. export them, resize/convert them, and re-insert them.

But to just get one one out you can use AppleScript. There is (was) a Scripting Addition which could write the binary data of a container field out to a file. I cannot use it anymore, as I have an Intel iMac. In any case we have FileMaker methods now to do it (Export Field Contents). Here is the AS. Hopefully you can construct the Mac file paths; which are held in FM fields. I no longer any FM 5/6 files for this.

Otherwise there is a plug-in named ImageScan which I think can do all this.

tell application "FileMaker Pro"

tell current record of window 1

set txtPath to cell "thePath"

set imageCell to cell "theImage"

set folderName to cell "folderName"

set folderPath to cell "folderPath"

end tell

end tell

tell application "Finder"

if (folder folderName of desktop exists) is not true then

set newFolder to make new folder at desktop with properties {name:folderName}

update newFolder

end if

set thePath to txtPath as file specification

end tell

set theImage to giconvert imageCell type "JPEG" image thePath

-- requires GraphicsImporter OSAX

-- http://osaxen.com/files/graphicsimporter2.2.html

-- set theImage to giconvert imageCell image thePath -- creates PICT file, huge

-- doesn't seem to work for "GIFf" or "PDF ", but will do them as JPEG

[Fumetsu]

Thank you alot!

Gonna try this.