Media files in FM Database

[z178]

Forgive me for this very elementary question... Am not sure if filemaker is different from other databases in the context of this question.

Whats the advantage of saving media files like swf, mov, jpg, pdf files in container fields? In other words, Whats the disadvantage of storing only the relative filepath in filemaker ( the actual files are saved in a folder separately ). Would filemaker allow an applescript to check if all links to such a saved file are valid every time I open a database?

Also, Is it possible to script filemaker open a media file (Let say a pdf file) with adobe acrobat than the system default "Preview" ? Is it done using Applescript or using some other technique?

Edited August 30, 2007 by Guest

[Søren Dyhr]

Whats the advantage of saving media files like swf, mov, jpg, pdf files in container fields? In other words, Whats the disadvantage of storing only the relative filepath in filemaker

That they opens in the correct application if they're referenced, but as you point out is there a problem if they go amiss, say a firewire drive isn't turned on or such!

Is it possible to script filemaker open a media file (Let say a pdf file) with adobe acrobat than the system default "Preview" ? Is it done using Applescript or using some other technique?

Yes it is, since the free version of Acrobat Reader isn't AS scriptable could it be done this way - please note that your version might be another than mine, so you need to change the calculated applescript accordingly!

Export Field Contents [ Untitled::aContainer ] 

Perform AppleScript [ Calculated AppleScript: Let(tt=GetAsText ( Untitled::aContainer ) ; 

"set theApplication to the path to application "Adobe Reader 7.0.5"¶ 

set aVar to path to desktop as text¶ 

set aVar to aVar & "" & tt & ""¶ 

set theFile to aVar as alias¶ 

tell application "Finder"¶ 

open theFile using theApplication¶ 

end tell¶ 

delay 2¶ 

set p to posix path of aVar¶ 

set p to "rm " & p¶ 

do shell script p" 

  ) ] 

...the last 3 lines gets rid of the temporary stored file on the desktop, without filling the waste basket.

--sd

ShowEmbedded.zip

[z178]

Thanks for the great info