I have a database that works without issue but I need to export content to an ancient legacy system. I need to completely populate a set of fields with placeholder info. (i.e.0, \0 null) that people can overwrite with relevant content to any given part of the field set before sending the export file to the dinosaur. All the fields must be populated to begin with but I don't know the best way to do this. Any help on this would be terrific.

I don't understand this part:

[placeholder info] that people can overwrite with relevant content to any given part of the field set

The system has to have all the fields populated as the legacy system I am addressing uses delimiters and the fields have to have content in them in order for the delimiter to properly separate the fields. From there, people will make changes to some of the fields as very rarely are all the fields filled with relevant data, hence, folks will overwrite some of the place holder data with relevant content prior to exporting the set to the dinosaur. The export part works without a problem, it's the auto population part that's the gotcha.

Thanks for responding

Best

Bob Moran

Am I understanding correctly that you want to populate the fields in your Filemaker solution with some initial values - and only then will users enter the real values? I don't think that would be a good approach, on many counts. It would be much better to focus on the export part, and leave the solution to function normally. What is the exact output format required?

It's just a tab.txt file with fields separated by a dilimiter like a "|". That's it. The export works when content is in the field like Fred|Jones| etc etc.,etc.,etc. If there is a way to put info into the export, that would be great as the db itself runs perfectly and needs no change on the logic side whatsoever.

Thanks again,

Bob Moran

If there is a way to put info into the export, that would be great

Two ways, actually. The best option is to export as XML and use a custom XSLT stylesheet to transform the output. I believe there are examples on this forum that are very similar to this.

The other way is to define a calculation field that concatenates all fields (delimited by "|"). Then export this field only as tab-delimited (this assumes records are still return-delimited).

I'll give it a shot, particularly on the xml side. Thank you

Best

Bob Moran