Container Field from table vs Container Field Exported

[wattmhite]

I currently have a main table and a separate (Phone Log) Table that includes a container field which stores thousands of documents.

The Phone log table is displayed in our main table and connected to each customer by his/her 4 digit customer number.

I currently have the setup where upon clicking a displayed container file in the phone log table, a script is run that exports that container field to another container (preview) field within my main Table and displayed full screen. From there my users can email or print or scroll the document from within the larger container.

This solution seems to be having significant long term issues (been using for about 3 years now) sometimes filemaker quits unexpectedly, sometimes containers aren't updated with the correct file when clicking/etc.

I've been looking for another way to do this, I've created a duplicate Phone Log Table and changed the script so that when a user clicks on the small container in the portal a field is (set) to the phone log record number and that container is displayed large. This seems to vastly improve the time it takes to display the file in the large container but since its also in a portal its not scrollable.

My question: In your opinion what is the best/most efficient and reliable way to go about this?

 

Thanks

Matt

[Ocean West]

Matt,

What may be better would be to grab the unique id for the attachment then place that in the main file in a global - then just show the related container - allowing them do preview export - or even open it in browser / pdf reader. vs export/import.

Are you containers stored in the database or are you using remote containers - as that will increase performance. 

Also for a portal you may not need the thumbnail of the file - as the could impede performance - sometimes you can just add a "generic icon" that matches the file extension. (pdf, doc, jpg, png) etc. using various techniques.

If you have historical files that are store that are not set to be interactive here is a great way to fix that. 

http://www.teamdf.com/weetbicks/252/change-containers-from-files-to-interactive-content-in-an-instant

http://clickworks.be/en/rename-container-files

Edited July 17, 2015 by Ocean West