SuperContainer on FM pro 11 Advanced

[sedek]

I'm a newbie at this, so my question might be silly.

 

I have been trying for hours to get the demo for Supercontainer to work on my computer (no network here).

 

I can get it to run, but unable to access it properly with FM pro 11 webviewer.

 

Instructions seem simple, but could it be that you must have FM Pro server and I only have Advanced?

 

If I put this in my webviewer  "http://127.0.0.1:8020/SuperContainer/"    I see the server, but I end up with uploading the same file for all my records.

 

Instructions stipulate I must have this: "http://127.0.0.1:8020/SuperContainer/Files/"     but I get error 404 ''resource not available''

 

I tried moving it elsewhere, creating new paths, trial and error, but I'm not getting anywhere. 

 

Also, the server has this path by default: C:UsersSuperContainerFiles

 

If i try another path and restart it, it will always revert to its default path. Is this normal behavior?

 

Does all this require more experience and knowledge than what I have?

 

 

 

[sedek]

Follow up on my own topic.

 

I finally made it work. However, whenever I upload a file, it creates a new folder and puts a copy of the file in it.

 

Good for a backup of everything, but if the original file is modified, it won't reflect the changes in Filemaker as only the copy will show.

 

Is there a way to change this to a simple link to the original file? I'm trying to build a document management application and this is not very useful.

 

The filemaker demo they provide also did the very same thing on my computer ....

[Ocean West]

This is exactly how SuperContainer works you are only ever copying files in to a known directory path. In fact the name of the file is irrelevant as the plugin and server side engine resolves to the parent folder name, usually equal to the serial ID Or UUID of the record you are on.

 

If you are intending to version content you will need to append a version number to the Path.
 

You can control your own version tracking by appending a revision number to your SuperContainer URLs, like this:

http://yourServer.com:8020/SuperContainer/Files/Asset/4321/revision2?style=nodelete

 

Since SuperContainer treats each slash in your URL as a folder, this will cause it to reference the 'revision2' subfolder inside folder '4321'. By removing the delete option, you can use this to make sure that a history all files is kept.

Always use the nodelete in your URL to prevent users from deleting any resources
Initially, a supercontainer resource is empty, and shows an upload form
When a user submits a resource, the upload form disappears. The nodelete style hides the delete button.
If a user wishes to replace the resource, she clicks a button in the FileMaker layout, which you would script to increment the revision number for the current record.
The change in the revision number changes the SuperContainer URL, so the upload form appears again.
The file has not actually been deleted, but appears to have been. Now the users uploads a new file.
To see historical documents which were "deleted", just decrement the version number.
See the SuperContainer Example file for a demonstration of this technique.

 

Once you implement this you should't be using the OS filesystem to edit or modify these files.

 

Backing up is simple just backup the parent folder

 

I have several deployed clients using this and each have nearly a terabyte of data that is backed up by other software such as CrashPlan.

 

As a manner of my standard operating procedure I typically create a upload path in the following pattern:

http://yourServer.com:8020/SuperContainer/Files/Quotes/2012/06/C42C0313AE37C77F7A3BDBF6C44910F4

Then i have a calculation that will include the date of upload and month of upload and the record ID.

 

"Quotes/" & Year( stampCreate ) &"/"& Right( "0" & Month( stampCreate ) ; 2 ) & "/"  & kUID & If ( revision ; "/r/" & revision )

 

 

my field kUID removes the hyphens of my UUID C42C0313AE37-C77F7A3B-DBF6-C449-10F4

[sedek]

Thank you Ocean West.

 

If I understand correctly, old versions of a document can be kept in a secure way, but a user still has to manually update the FM Pro records for every file that he knows has actually changed.  This seems like a lot of maintenance work without ever being sure that every change/revision is reflected in the database.

 

Would it be simplier for me to upgrade to FM Pro 12 and automate a link to the original file?  After all, a simple sequence of clicks will always offer the user the option to create an exact copy for any type of data he could encounter.

 

In fact, I can already do it the way I want in FM Pro 11.  However, clicking to file will not open it. The way around this is to use ''extract content'' script step but this only works for a predefined kind of file. If I worked with only PDF files for example, that would be fine, but it is not the case.

 

Maybe I could build a script based on the type of file  to automate the opening of each category of file found inside the container field, but I don't know if this can be done. I'm not an expert.  If you have hints on this, I would appreciate.

[Ocean West]

Please keep in mind that using SuperContainer or Remote Container in FMP12 you shouldn't attempt to MODIFY the underlying file. They are READ ONLY.

 

If a change needs to be made you will have to create a method to export the file to the local users desktop and modify it in the original application, and then

re-upload the file after it has been saved and closed. 

 

and or create a NEW record for the new file this way you have a log of modifications.

 

Alternatively if your goal is to organize a shared network volume of files where users can directly touch the files then you can use FileMaker to 

manage the OS by using one of many plugins.

 

I have one solution where documents are scanned and then stored in a general folder the scanner can read the barcode from the known location

on the first page of the document - and the file is named with the barcode value and timestamp - the barcode value is that of a record in our database

using filemaker to scan the folder's contents it will matchup the path to the newly scanned file and rename the file in accordance to the business logic

then import the PDF into super container table and also COPY/MOVE the file to a FileServer that has the hierarchy, School / Campus / Student / Document 

users can refer to the fileServer to review a document and email it out with out having FMP operating - and if you are in FMP you can click on the file

and then email the document that is saved in SuperContainer. - In fact we don't actually send the PDF as an attachment any more we use

the URL to the file and the send the LINK to the file for them to click on the link and have it download to their computer.

 

Have you looked at DocBin?

[sedek]

This is very different from what I had in mind.

 

I don't have the level of expertise it requires.  I will stick to a simple solution with links to the original documents.

 

Thanks for the help.

[SCninja]

As mentioned briefly by Ocean West,

 

Docubin sounds like a viable solution in your case. I would definitely give 360Works' Docubin a look as it implements the features you're looking to take advantage of. It is truly a complete Document Management solution built in FileMaker (with tons of neat tricks and added bonuses).

 

1. Drag and Drop functionality

2. User permissions

3. Search features

 

and a lot more...

 

Signed,