Hi,

Is it possible to show a directory tree in Filemaker using custom menus. I want to use the menu to navigate to a specific job and I want it to mirror the folder tree they set up.

Oreste

Short answer. No, I don't think so. It is possible to show the files in a directory. I've been messing about with the free zippshell plug-in. It can run a command line script via a script or calculation and return the results to a FileMaker field.

This example returns a file/folder list of whatever folder you put the FileMaker file in. Yeah, it's not real pretty, and this one is not very flexible, since I made it only show its own directory. But I believe something like this can do sort of what you want.

zippshell is currently Mac-only, though it may eventually be cross-platform. The Abstrakt Shell plug-in could be used on Windows XP (it does not work on Mac Intel machines).

http://www.zipptools.com

[ P.S. Add the -R option after ls for a recursive listing going down through all subfolders of the current folder. I left it off. ]

zipShell_calc.fp7.zip

Edited July 24, 200718 yr by Guest
-R

Hi Fenton,

Ok this is cool. Is there a way to make this into a portal or something similar. Maybe a set of buttons and the text goes underneath so I can highlight and select it. I got it to show the files in each part. I am learning the unix so I can have it only show folders.

Ok, I got the field structure to show up, now I am working on selecting each line I think I may have a portal directly on the side of the with each field record and a container field for an arrow. When the arrow is pressed it loads the next level down in the hierarchy and new portal records. In this way I am creating two side by side results. One is the portal and one is your result field. It would simulate the folder tree style.

I've been playing around with a file. I added a "recursive" choice, so that it can dynamically read down thru all the subfolders also. The results are organized Unix-like, which is a text list, with subfolders listed once at the top, then again as a full path further down, with their enclosed files.

On the left side I put a portal, a Cartesian self-relationship, which basically just produces a row for each record, so I have somewhere to put numbers ("@@"), and so a single script can load that line into a global field for further action. There is nothing in the records really.

Once a single line is loaded into the global, you can choose to Open the file or folder. I used the zippshell plug-in to "open" the file also. But I handed off to AppleScript if it was an alias; Unix doesn't do the aliases (at least not that I know).

I imagine I could make a cuter interface if I ran a script to populate the list, perhaps taking the folders and putting them somewhere else or something. But then you'd have to hit a button to do that; no big deal, but I was seeing how far you could go getting a dynamic list without scripting; and using it for opening files.

_zipShell_calc.fp7.zip

Edited July 26, 200718 yr by Guest
Moved topic to Plug-ins

I just got a chance to try out zippShell myself recently - what a great tool. Thanks for mentioning it!

Hi

I testing the File from _zipShell_calc.fp7.zip and is wonderful.

The problem is only:

I would like to use it with Filemaker server. And Show File From my Comany Fileserver on Mount with APF.

apf://

File:/

Macfile://

is not working

someone can help me?

Thanks Yves from Switzerland

Another option that is cross-platform is the Troi file plugin. In addition to the many file functions, the newest version has added an ExecuteShell function. Not free but worth it if you want something that's likely to be supported and updated for a long time to come.