Printing a file from a container field

[MacHammer]

Hi,

I'd like to be able to store a PDF file in a container field, and then somehow issue a print command that will open the file and print it. I can't seem to find a way to issue commands to the object of the container...

With the common uses of FM including asset management of images, I'd think this would be possible...

Hmmm.

Any help you can provide will be appreciated. Thank you.

Mac Hammer

[gannon]

Hello Mac Hammer,

A PDF can be included on Mac as an image, but this has a cost!

FileMaker converts all images to jpg format internally, for compatibility between Mac/Win worlds. So consider the space of the PDF file and the JPG converted version of it if included as a image.

You could then show the PDF in a field set to be full page, but what about many pages PDF?

A PDF entered as a QuickTime movie works fine for screen browsing through the PDF, but is not really printable...

A possibility would be to export the PDF file to a local folder, and with an applescript, open it with Preview and launch the printing of the PDF file.

Note that storing many files within the Database can explode the size of the file. Think about the backups and the network load.

Hope this helps.

Edited April 4, 2007 by Guest

[MacHammer]

Thank you.

What about this thought:

According to Filemaker 8 Functions and Scripts Desk Reference by Love, Lane, and Bowers, page 414, "URL Syntax for Access to Container Objects",

You can format a reference to a file housed on the FMP 8 Server:

,,, and as in:

http://my.filemakerserver.net:8080/fmi/xml/cnt/data.tiffgif?-db=Customers&-lsy=web_search&fild=photo[1]&-recid=303

"This URL will extract container data from a specific field (called photo) from the record with recid=303. Even though photo is not a repeating field, the syntax "photo[1]" is still necessary. The web server will return this container data as GIF data, assuming the .gif suffis correctly mapped to the TIFF MIME type on the server".

I'm not sure that this is getting me anywhere. It seems 1) complex, and 2) tedious to set up just to see if it can work or not.

If anyone has experience with this, I'd like that input, as well.

Don't get me wrong...I love Filemaker, but it seems that I keep getting asked to make it do things that are either difficult or impossible for it to do. I hoped this would be something simple! :

Mac

[gannon]

If you have FileMaker Server Advanced running and configured, it should not be so difficult to try the idea given in your book.

But is seems more difficult than a simple AppleScript on Mac or VBscript on PC...

FileMaker is very skinflint regarding the functionalities made available for file manipulation. While other systems offer a large set of file manipulator functions and File System access, FileMaker does ... nothing.

Look for plugins that would do the work for you, but AppleScript can be a great friend!