Reattaching Media Links in Containers

[LA Wrytr]

I have recently made the switch from PC to Mac and have discovered that in Filemaker the many hundreds of containers I have set up that have links to media files wont play, because they are PC-based OLE files and won't launch in Mac.

I gather there is some way to automate Filemaker to get the address of those links in those containers, reattach them - which I'm guessing might solve my problem without me spending a week doing them all by hand. (Why doesn't Filemaker just have a button for this???)

After a lot of searching, I've discovered the following link of advice online. I believe they are addressing my issue, but as someone who is not particularly Filemaker savvy, I can't follow what they are saying enough to implement their advice.

"Using a file path to display an image in a container"

http://www.supportgroup.com/getanswers/?issue=20070146120#calccontainer

Help in this area would be greatly appreciated!

Edited July 24, 2009 by Guest

[bcooney]

Welcome to the forums.

Yes, this article shows you how to set up a calculation field, result container, that will display a referenced image (providing you know its path).

I'm not familiar with PC-based OLE files. If you had them referenced correctly, do you have any chance of running them on a Mac, anyway? What do you mean by "links" in FileMaker? Do you mean that these files are stored as references--and so you have their path?

Btw, perhaps you should take a look at SuperContainer.

Edited July 25, 2009 by Guest

[LA Wrytr]

Hi, thanks so much for the welcome, and for replying to my post.

re: "Yes, this article shows you how to set up a calculation field, result container, that will display a referenced image (providing you know its path)."

I gather that my first steps are finding out the path of the original clips and knowing how to describe the new path. I haven't been able to figure out how to do that however.

re: "I'm not familiar with PC-based OLE files. If you had them referenced correctly, do you have any chance of running them on a Mac, anyway? "

I'm not sure. Filemaker says "Although Mac OS does not support OLE, you can view, cut, copy, and paste OLE objects that were inserted in a FileMaker Pro for Windows database. OLE objects on the Mac retain all of the original file characteristics, but you cannot edit, open, or change the OLE object." So I can "view" it, but not "open" it.... Seems to me I need to be able to "open" it.

re: "What do you mean by "links" in FileMaker? Do you mean that these files are stored as references--and so you have their path?"

Ah, I should be using the term "reference" instead. I don't know how to read their exact paths yet.

I guess I need help understanding how to create scripts (calculations?) that discern the reference path for material in a container, and then how to redirect each container to reference material from an indicated source. Automating this will save me a week of mind numbing "reattaching"!