Windows XP

Filemaker 11 Advanced

 

The following is a script "Send Event":

 

"cmd /c COPY " & "C:MarinaPro v14.0MPDMSMPKey.fp7" & " " & "C:WindowsSystem32MPDMSMPKey.fp7 /y"

 

If the Options setting is "Text", all is well and the file is copied.

 

However, if the same event has an option setting of "Calculation", the file is not copied.  Why?

 

Also, if I re-structure the Send Event as a calculation, thusly (using a field entry as the directory name):

 

"cmd /c COPY " & "C:" & Marina DB::MP Folder Name & "MPDMSMPKey.fp7" & " " & "C:WindowsSystem32MPDMSMPKey.fp7 /y"

 

I get the following Filemaker intercept, "A number, text constant, field name or "(" is expected here.".  Again, Why?

 

The problem is here, ["cmd /c COPY " & "C:" &], the Reverse Solidus () does not like to be next to the trailing quote marks.

FileMaker treats the backslash () as an escape character; that is, the tells FM to treat the following character as literal text, and not as a command or control character. (For example, if you wanted a literal quotation mark in a text string in a calc, you would escape it with a backslash to tell FM that it is literal text, not the end of the string.)

 

Therefore, you must precede the literal backslash with another one to escape it:

 

"C:"

FileMaker treats the backslash () as an escape character; that is, the tells FM to treat the following character as literal text, and not as a command or control character. (For example, if you wanted a literal quotation mark in a text string in a calc, you would escape it with a backslash to tell FM that it is literal text, not the end of the string.)

 

Therefore, you must precede the literal backslash with another one to escape it:

 

"C:"

Many thanks, you were spot on.  I was not able to find this information in "Filemaker Advanced Help".

It's in there (kind of) but not easy to find, and not very thoroughly explained.  The topic is "Identifying text constants and special characters in formulas".