Set of Reminders following an order

[malagasy]

I have a database and would need some tips on how to do something.

I have a Customers table, Invoice table and would certainly need a Reminder table for what i want to do.

When a customer makes an order, an invoice is created and sent to customer via email.

I'd like to be able to have a set of reminders automatically created when the invoice is done to remind me

1/ to process payment 7 days later

2/ to send a customer satisafction survey 5 weeks later.

3/ to let me know when customer membership is about to expire (50 weeks later).

I guess i would need a script but what to put in it ?

What if I want the email to be sent automatically?

Thanks for your help

[T-Square]

It sounds like you'll need to use a plug-in of some sort; AFAIK FM doesn't have triggers or event-based features, which are the only way I know to get things to happen automatically.

One alternative would be to create a script that runs on startup and gives you the reminders; this of course, depends on FM being started up each day. This script would perform a series of Finds based on calculated data and display a report for you of each result set. Perhaps like:

Go To Layout["SomeLayout"]

Enter Find Mode[]

Insert Calculated Result [select; "MyTable::MySearchField"; "<" Get(CurrentDate) - 7 ]

Perform Find

Enter Preview Mode[Pause]

/* Repeat for other timeframes */

If you want the email sent, instead of going to Preview Mode, you can insert a Loop that cycles through the found records and sends out a email to each entry found:

Loop

Send Mail [No dialog; To: EmailField; Subject: "Whatever You Want, including a database field"; Message: "Your Message, such as 'Pay up deadbeat'"]

Go to Record/Request/Page [Next; Exit After Last]

End Loop

On all these, you should definitely check the FM Help, as I am notorious for missing something really simple.

HTH,

David

[malagasy]

What kind of script should I go for ?

Thanks

[T-Square]

I'm sorry; I don't follow?

There's only one type of script that you can create (from the Scriptmaker menu option). But perhaps you wonder how to set up a startup script. To do this, first create your script (e.g., MyStartup), and then go to File->File Options and set the Perform Script option to your script (e.g., MyStartup).

WRT what goes in the script, try putting in the steps I gave before (substituting your real fields for my fake ones) and examine the results. The first set of script steps should search your database for all entries that have a date older than 7 days ago (you might want to set the formula to use an equals sign instead of the less than symbol I originally used), and, once these have been found, goes to Preview mode so you can see how it'll look printed up.

HTH,

David