Snapshot links

[ddreese]

I love the idea of these snapshot links. I'm asked for ad-hoc reports all the time and it will be great to e-mail a snapshot link to the person requesting the data and have them see the layout and found set instead of exporting everything to excel.

One thing it seems to be missing is storing the sort options in the snapshot link. I tried my first chart today (which is pretty handy) and I thought I'd generate a snapshot from it. The only option I noticed was current record/records in found set. Seems like a silly oversight.

[iMarcW]

It stores the sort order you have selected when you create the snapshot link (as well as the currently selected record, layout, etc.), it just doesn't let you specify a different sort order than the current one.

So if you want them to see the records sorted by last name and start out looking at John Doe's record (which may be, for example, record #43 in the sorted list), then arrange the found set that way and the recipient of the snapshot link will see it the same way.

[ddreese]

Doesn't seem to be working that way for me. Check out my attachments. Chart1.png is my view/sort order when I'm creating the snapshot link.

I close the database, click on my snapshot link file i just created, FM fires back up and shows the results in Chart2.png, which is the same data set but not sorted.

Maybe it's a windows issue.

[iMarcW]

It might be a bug specific to charts, but I tried the same thing in a database on my end and when I double-clicked the link, it opened the file with the records sorted and the chart intact. I did a "show all records" before closing the db so I could be sure the file was sorted as a result of opening the link file.

Could it be that one of the sort fields is accessible by the user who created the link, but not by the user that opened the link?

The link file is just an XML document, open it in a text editor, look near the bottom and see if you can find anything that looks incorrect.

[iMarcW]

Okay, now that I am using snapshot link under different circumstances, I'm having the same problem.

It *does* store the sort order, so following my own advice, I looked at the snapshot link file in BBEdit, and all of the sort fields appeared to be listed correctly in the document.

What's interesting is that if I sort by standard fields, like state and zip code, the sort carries through fine, but normally I sort this particular record set by stored calc fields that make certain terms sort correctly, like spelling out state names from two-letter postal codes, substituting "Saint" for "St." in city names and removing "The" from the beginning of titles.

I made sure that indexes of all of the sort fields were stored in the database and it didn't make any difference, so I think the database is just neglecting to sort when asked to sort by certain kinds of fields.

ddreese, what kinds of fields were in your sort order when you tried the links? Standard or calculated? Indexed or unindexed?

[bruceR]

Does everybody understand the difference between what happens when you open a snapshot link on an already-open file; and on a closed file?

If the file is closed, the startup script runs and much of the snapshot is aborted except for record set.

If the file is open, the full snapshot instruction set (as I understand it) is run.

[iMarcW]

I did not consider that startup scripts would run before an opened snapshot link. Your post and a good reading of the help page set me straight on that.

But I just tried my two snapshot links, one sorted by a non-calculated field, and the other sorted by calculated fields, on an open, hosted file, and got exactly the same result. The former was sorted when it opened, and the latter was not.

Going further, I tried the same thing with an open *local* copy of the same file, and the second snapshot link, which this time was sorted by four fields--three calculated and one non-calculated-- and it sorted *only* on the non-calculated field when it opened, ignoring the other three.

Covering all the bases, I tried a snapshot link that sorted on some calculated fields and one non-calculated field--the third of four fields in the sort order-- on both hosted and local versions of the file, both closed and open. Every time, the file sorted solely on the non-calculated field.

Definitely something weird going on here.

[ddreese]

iMarcW, you are correct. It's a calculation field I was sorting on. I initially thought about that at first, but it doesn't make sense why I could sort on it without using a snapsnot link vs. with.

Bruce - Interesting, but running it open (changing records and sort order) or closed yielded the same results.

I assume this is a bug that will get resolved - I hope anyway.

[m3nme]

I have read the snapshot feature descriptions, and I have to admit that I just don't get it. Why is this feature better than just printing or saving to pdf? I know it is a dumb question.

[bruceR]

iMarcW, you are correct. It's a calculation field I was sorting on. I initially thought about that at first, but it doesn't make sense why I could sort on it without using a snapsnot link vs. with.

Bruce - Interesting, but running it open (changing records and sort order) or closed yielded the same results.

I assume this is a bug that will get resolved - I hope anyway.

What do you mean by "the same results"?

If you mean that there are apparently issues with properly restoring a sort order based on a calc field, I agree, there appears to be a problem there. If you mean that opening a snapshot that links to a closed file will produce exactly the same result as opening a link that points to an open file - that just isn't the case. But it will depend on the nature of your startup script. If you don't have a startup script, no problem. But for instance if the startup script goes to a particular layout - that's the layout you're going to go to, whether the snapshot points there or someplace else.

[bruceR]

I have read the snapshot feature descriptions, and I have to admit that I just don't get it. Why is this feature better than just printing or saving to pdf? I know it is a dumb question.

Rather than read about it, I suggest you actually try using it. Snapshots have no similarity whatsoever to printing or saving to PDF.

A snaphot is a set of detailed instructions in XML format that tells FileMaker what to do when opening a FileMaker file.

It says, open this FileMaker file, give it this window name, go to this layout, show this record set, this sort order, and select this current record.

[m3nme]

BruceR, I appreciate the courtesy of your response. However, I did not make my post very clear. I had done a snapshot link, and I had then opened it and studied it. I then changed the data and saw that the snapshot link picked up the new data.

What I do not understand (and I readily admit that it is just something I don't understand yet) is what is the value of a Snapshot over a pdf. If the recipient has access to the database, then running the same report as the sender had to run before making the snapshot would provide the same results as the link. Be patient. I am trying to understand a real world scenario where this would be useful. I know there are many, or FM wouldn't have created it, but I don't see it yet.

Tks

[Fenton]

Real world scenario: There is a problem in the data, say missing something it should have, which is affecting an automated operation. In this case let's just say that it requires multiple Finds, incl. Omit, incl. Constrain Find to see this data in a found set. You have remote access to the file, but are not onsite. The data is something you cannot (or do not want to) edit yourself, because it requires (tedious) work looking for other info, and verifying it.

You want the business owner or a fellow developer on-site to see this data and fix it. Yes, you could send them a PDF, but they cannot edit from a PDF, nor easily Find the data. A Snapshot Link could find the data for them, on a "developer" layout, which is not normally visible to them (assuming they have access, and can be trusted).

I would seldom use it, but I can see how it could save a lot of tedious instructions.

[bruceR]

There is absolutely no similarity between a snaphshot link and a PDF. It is unclear why you're even bringing this up. A snapshot link is about a FileMaker found set.

You mention "why don't they run the same report." This makes quite an unfounded assumption. WHAT same report? Maybe the person creating the record set doesn't remember the report they ran. Maybe they got half way through it and processed 25 of the 113 records. So they do an omit on the processed records and want to hand off the job to you. What do they tell you?

Maybe the record set truly WAS the result of a specific report. But you want to assign that found set to somebody for them to process or review. Maybe running the report is difficult, and you need to tell the boss to look at the record set but he doesn't know how to run the report. Maybe the person you're assigning the job to does not have privileges to run the report. Here, find everybody with salaries over $85K, have FileMaker send them an email. The person who is supposed to handle this job cannot look at salary info.

What is the found set of records you held last Tuesday at 10:15AM before you took the new call and navigated away to handle the rush order?

Maybe as Fenton mentions, the dataset is the set of unique user choices. Maybe it is the result of a recent import operation. You imported 100 records and you want somebody to work with them. It's two days later. What 100 records was that? By taking a snaphshot link you can directly select to that record set.

[m3nme]

Fenton, I appreciate your courteous and helpful response. Very good examples that let me finally get it into my head. I can see where this could be very useful.