SuperContainer File Updating

[AlanC877]

Hi Guys,

I work for a company which is transferring a number of its key processes to filemaker databases and allowing staff to access them on computers and iPads through IWP.

I’ve been working around the IWP issue of not being able to convert a record into a PDF. I’ve created a server side script which creates the PDF on the server. It writes over a single file each time someone selects to convert a record to PDF so only one file needs to be referenced. But, I cannot reference a file in IWP, it has to be inserted into the database to work so I am stuck. We have been looking at getting super container for a number of reasons and I was wondering if it would fix this problem?

So basically, if I upload a file to filemaker using super container and then I edit that file, are those changes made to the file in super container in the database automatically?

[Valentin]

SuperContainer comes with a companion plugin which can also be used for server side scripts, you would use the SCGetContainer function to upload the file once you've created the PDF.

To edit the file you would download it onto local machine or on server and then upload the edited version.

[AlanC877]

Thank-you for your help, I think that helps but I want to make sure that you completely understand my question.

Say that I have a word document. I upload this word document into my database using supercontainer and host the database with IWP. I then edit that word document on the server. Its location and name stay exactly the same but I do not manually update anything in my filemaker database. When users download a copy of the word document from the database through IWP will the version be the edited version or the one that I initially uploaded into filemaker?

[Jesse Barnum]

I am assuming that when you edit the file on the server, you re-upload the file using SuperContainer (SC does not allow you to edit in-place, you would download the file, edit it and then re-upload it).

Assuming this, your IWP users will see your edited version.

[AlanC877]

No, I was needing to know if the users would get the edited version if I didn't re-upload the file to the super container. The whole point of this system is that it needs to be completely computer automated after the IWP user presses the 'Convert to PDF' button.

I realised, however, that I had over-complicated the system. I can use a normal filemaker container field and reference the file as long as it's stored in the web folder in FileMaker's program files. FileMaker automatically saves over that PDF file when the user hits the 'covert to PDF button' and, as only a reference to the file is stored, the user gets the latest version of the PDF when they download it.

We will still likely buy super container for our IWP uploading needs however, thanks for your assistance.