I have a db with thousands of QT films on my machine & is well. So I put the fm file & the folder with the films into a FMSA9.03 server. Surprisingly, all my containers are empty. So now I remember that FM uses full HD addresses to locate files and, naturally, the FMSA has a very different server structure.

So the question is very simple: is there a way to calculate a container QT address based on saying that "all the files FM is looking for are in this folder or a subfolder" or otherwise to amputate a part of the old address and replace with a new address?

Many thanks

Edited February 3, 200917 yr by Guest

If you can create a calculation, with a result of Container, which produces the valid file path (in FileMaker syntax), then FileMaker will show the file. It is much the same as storing as reference only; but it's calculated instead of gotten by insertion.

So, all you really have to do and know is to have a folder structure on the file server machine* which can be calculated from the database. You have most of this already, which you can see using a calculation (result text), GetAsText (your container field). The last line will be the absolute path to the file, which you can get with:

Let (

txt = GetAsText ( Contain );

GetValue ( txt; ValueCount (txt))

)

If you just want the file name, so you can reconstruct a new path to match the server's folder structure:

Let ( [

txt = GetAsText ( Contain );

path = GetValue ( txt; ValueCount (txt));

pat = PatternCount ( path; "/");

pos = Position ( path ; "/" ; 1 ; pat )

];

Right ( path; Length (path) - pos)

)

Thank you very much.

I'm a little perplex. I used your first option, creating a calc field that returns the address of where FM expects the file to be. First thing I realise is that I need to have the network disk where the file is mounted on my desktop and then show FM that it is mounted for it to do the work of populating the other containers. This means that the films are not served by the server, which is one of the reason I put there in the first place.

Secondly, is there a way, like in html, to make fm search for files relative to the FM file that hosts them? Also, I don't understand at all what the second calc does. If I give a path address upto a certain point in the old address will it replace the old part with the new part? I have thousands of files so to do it by hand would be a ... Thank you again

Sorry about not understanding the 2nd calc. I miscopied it. Now that I have it working, it is rather interesting. I tried fiddling with it , but without success to see if it is possible to define which / to parse. The QT address at the moment is

moviemac:/DD/FILMS/TALENT FILMS/Fabian Bielinsky/Coca Cola Subt.mov

All my films are in the TALENT FILMS folder, so what would be good would be to keep /TALENT FILMS/Fabian Bielinsky/Coca Cola Subt.mov & have a text global field with the front part i.e.

moviemac:/DD/Library/FileMaker Server/Data/Databases

Once they are stuck together, it would be easy to move the folder to any machine, change the front part of the address in the global text field & in theory, the right address should appear. Is this possible?