Importing Data - Save Position

[Damianjay]

Good afternoon,

I have developed the functionailty for a department to import a dataset which contains data that already exists within FM. I have given them the functionality to compare the record that aleady exists in FM against the record they are looking to import from an Excel spreadsheet so they can pick and choose which fields they would like to accept and then save only those changes to the record. The problem they have now flagged up to me is that if they are required to navigate away from the layout where they are going through this process they lose their position in list of records in the Excel Spreadsheet.

So my question is, is there away that Filemaker can save the position of where they have got up to in the process of accepting/importing the records from an Excel sheet so if they navigate away they will come back to the same point in the list of records??

I do hope that makes sense!!

Thanks in advance for any help offered

Damian

[bcooney]

Hi Damian,

I'd import the Excel data into a temporary table. Then provide the tools to "process" the record. You could have the mark the record "processed" and allow for FInds of "not processed."

hth,

Barbara

[Damianjay]

Hi Barbara,

That sounds like a plan. Could you give me a little bit more detail so I can attempt to write this in please.

Thanks

Damian

[bcooney]

" I have given them the functionality to compare the record that aleady exists in FM against the record they are looking to import from an Excel spreadsheet so they can pick and choose which fields they would like to accept and then save only those changes to the record. The problem they have now flagged up to me is that if they are required to navigate away from the layout where they are going through this process they lose their position in list of records in the Excel Spreadsheet."

How do you do this?

I picture importing all data from Excel into a "processing" table. Is there anyway to relate the FM record to the Excel row? If so, you could have a layout based on the processing table that shows an imported record and allows the user to "compare" it to the existing FM record.

Why are they working in Excel at all?

[Damianjay]

[bcooney]

How do you show data from the spreadsheet without importing?

You're not being a pain at all...I'm thinking that you may have created something that I didn't think possible -- viewing an excel file from within FM.

In my method, you'd have a field in the temp table, flag_processed, that is a checkbox with a value list of "1". The user simply clicks it to mark the record.