Filemaker New Start

[mrhooper]

Hello,

I have not worked in Filemaker for a number of years. Recently was volunteered to develop a new database to track jobs through a growing Print shop. I plan to start simple and add things as needed.

My first task is to import customer data from a form generated by our ftp upload form. Next I would like to be able to have a button on the page that will create a new folder on the job server and copy the uploaded files to the folder.

My question is this: Will I need any specific plugins to perform these tasks? I was thinking I could manage it with some combination of FM script and applescript. Would like to know if anyone has any advice or can point me in the right direction before I get started.

Thanks for any advice.

[Fenton]

You should be able to do this with FileMaker and AppleScript. Though there is also a free shell plug-in you might want to use, zippShell, available at the zippTools web page (which you may also want to use, to run scripts from field exit, etc.).

There is not a whole lot of difference in functionality between AppleScript and a shell scripting plug-in, since AppleScript can run shell commands via the do shell script command, and AppleScript has been updated to make this easier, with such commands as "POSIX path of". But, because their rules for escaping characters are somewhat different, it's sometimes easier to use a real shell plug-in instead. Another difference is that a plug-in can run directly in a calculation, whereas an AppleScript must be run via a script.

I'm not sure what you mean about the "ftp upload form," like where is it, how do you access it? Is it a file on an ftp server?, or is it a file on a regular mounted server? You will find that files on a mounted server are much like local files, as far as AppleScript and shell are concerned. If you have the path you can get/put the file. You can create folders. You can also on an ftp server, but you'd use a different tool, such as curl.

I also don't know what you mean by "button on a page"? The word "page" is so vague.

I'm not a Unix geek (and I mean that in the best sense of the word), more of a dilettante. But it's all doable, and likely for free; though there are other commercial ($) plug-ins which may make it easier.

[mrhooper]

Thanks for the reply. I will definitely look into zipshell.

The ftp form I was referring to is generated from the ftp server I am using called rumpus. It has a web interface and the form it generates includes name, email, phone number and other details about the uploaded job. This form can be emailed or sent as a shell command or to an applescript.

I guess I was referring to a "page" as in a web page. I was hoping to use FM server to publish this on our intranet.

Again thanks for the input. I am now discovering how much FM has changed since the last time I worked with it. Most changes seem to be for the better, and am getting organized and setting everything up.