Automatically run Weekly Script

[Answers]

I have a price list database that needs to be updated every week, we do this by importing the new information every week. My question is about automatically running the script every week. I want the records updated every Saturday so on Monday we have the current pricing information. I'm not sure how to have a script run at certain time intervals. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Answers]

I just realized that with Filemaker server I can schedule a script to run, daily, weekly or whatever. I guess that would solve my problem. I'll have to try it & see how it works out.

[Fitch]

Those aren't FileMaker scripts the server schedules, but Windows command/batch files or Mac shell scripts/AppleScript applets. The server itself cannot directly run a FileMaker script, either, so your script would have to communicate with a FileMaker client that is connected to the server.

That being the case, my preferred method for doing this would be to create a local FileMaker file that has one script; this script performs the external script on your hosted file and then quits FileMaker. In the file options, set this script to run when the file opens.

Now use a cron job or Windows task scheduler to open this file once a week and you're done.

[IdealData]

I do something similar by running a cron job ot initiaite some e-mail messaging with data from a FM file. It could easily be a Windows schedule to do the same. The trick is you need a spare machine to run it on.

[Fitch]

In FileMaker 6 and earlier it was not safe to run FileMaker Pro (client) on the same machine as FileMaker Server. This is no longer the case; your server can now also be your "robot" machine.