Attempting something simple proving to be very difficult

[joel_r]

Greetings all, long time reader, first time caller, etc.

I've been thinking of the best forum to put this post and it seemed like this is the one for my problem, since it involves extensive use of AppleScript. Perhaps I would get better visibility elsewhere on the board, but I figured why not start here and work from there.

In plain english, I'm trying to do the following:

1) select a special text file defined by user input

2) run a perl script that generates an .svg graphic based on that text file

3) insert the .svg into a filemaker image container (not as reference)

4) insert the text file path into a filemaker text field

5) delete the .svg

I recognize that this is a little tricky for multiple reasons. Here is the approach I've worked out so far.

tell application "FileMaker Pro"

set plasmidfile to (choose file with prompt "Select your plasmid:") as string

set "Map location" of current record to plasmidfile

end tell

tell application "Terminal"

perl /Users/joel_r/Documents/Scripts/ape2svg.pl -i plasmidfile

# this perl script generates an .svg file with the input file name at the beginning and .svg appended at the end

set picturefile to plasmidfile & ".svg"

end tell

tell application "FileMaker Pro" 

# i want filemaker to put the .svg into the container field (not as reference!)

# i want filemaker to put the path into the text field

end tell

# then i will ask applescript to delete the .svg 

As you can see, I'm having problems. Chasing around the internet hasn't helped me that much (some information is obsolete, some too technical for my understanding). So here I am, hat in hand, asking for assistance. Thanks in advance!!

[John Clark Photo]

Briefly and without testing but should get you on the right track

 

set plasmidfile to (choose file with prompt "Select your plasmid:") as string

tell application "FileMaker Pro"

go to yourdatabase

go to yourlayout

set cell "Map location" of current record to plasmidfile

end tell

tell application "Terminal"

 

perl /Users/joel_r/Documents/Scripts/ape2svg.pl -i plasmidfile
# this perl script generates an .svg file with the input file name at the beginning and .svg appended at the end
set picturefile to (plasmidfile & ".svg" as string)

end tell

tell application "FileMaker Pro"

go to yourdatabase

go to your layout

--create a filemaker script and reference it from applescript 

do script "your import picture into field script with store as reference unchecked"

set cell "path ref" of current record to picturefile

end tell