FM - Advice about Accessing and Tracking Related Documents
My boss just asked the following question: "Filemaker as a conduit to proper storage…. i.e., if I drag a pdf doc to a particular spot on Property info record… could the pdf doc be filed according to scripting conventions? Would be way too cool if we could."
We scan documents that have to do with our various tenants often. I have created a folder icon with a variable path so it opens the right folder for each tenant. However, would there be a way of showing a list of the name of each file in FM, and/or showing that doc in a portal? Thanks.
We scan documents that have to do with our various tenants often. I have created a folder icon with a variable path so it opens the right folder for each tenant. However, would there be a way of showing a list of the name of each file in FM, and/or showing that doc in a portal? Thanks.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
ChallengeDay, IF your solution could show the list of folders dynmaically, then it would be best, since is is self-contained within FM. It would be nice if all someone had to do was save a file to a folder and it auto-showed in the container field or some list. I may also want to have 2-4 tabs that show the 2-4 most common types of tenant files so users don't even have to open an attachment. Playing around with this.
Tocacar, No, I've never asked this question before, and did not find TomDWallace's original answer. However, I did find a similar question to mine where someone refered to him and then he jumped in with an abbreviated answer. Clicked on him, but he doesn't have a contact link so I could get more detail. However, with what I have, I'll put my head together with our website guy who knows PHP and see what we can do.
Tocacar, No, I've never asked this question before, and did not find TomDWallace's original answer. However, I did find a similar question to mine where someone refered to him and then he jumped in with an abbreviated answer. Clicked on him, but he doesn't have a contact link so I could get more detail. However, with what I have, I'll put my head together with our website guy who knows PHP and see what we can do.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
This is achieved with a webviewer on the filemaker page. I use an html upload form and then php to handle and store the files. The php scans a directory relating to the ID of the filemaker record and lists all the files for that one record. These become weblinks to display the files in the webviewer. There are quite a few steps to this and obviously requires a web server with php with enough disk space for all your files. It can be hosted totally separately from your filemaker server. The response times are very good and it behaves fairly seemlessly in the filemaker window. I have customised it for displaying .PDFs for example.
ASKER
Talked with my web guy and he'd rather not upload that many files to our external web server (we're talking about 700 x 5-10 at least), so I'm going to try the ChallengeDay's container soluton. ChallengeDay, do you have an example? I'm trying to picture it. I've already done a lot of buttons with variables equal to file paths that open documents based on the record that one is on and I'm very familiar with portals. While waiting for your reply, I'm just going to splash around a bit and see what I come up with.
Also, not sure of the function of your GetAsText(FileContainer), but I've never worked with containers, so the question may be answered by splashing around.
Also, not sure of the function of your GetAsText(FileContainer), but I've never worked with containers, so the question may be answered by splashing around.
ASKER
And to clarify, we have 5 standard or most common documents that I am creating 5 seperate Tabs taht will contain the container fields in.
Hi rvfowler,
Sorry, don't have a working sample, and unfortunately no time right now to create one.
However, I found this video which gives a good starting point.
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-use-container-fields-with-filemaker-pro-10-297123/
Ignore the image in the video, what you'll get will be the document icon (since you are using documents and not pictures).
You'll want to use the "reference" option. It's mentioned at about 4 min in in the video.
Yes, splash around! Post back here w/questions.
Sorry, don't have a working sample, and unfortunately no time right now to create one.
However, I found this video which gives a good starting point.
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-use-container-fields-with-filemaker-pro-10-297123/
Ignore the image in the video, what you'll get will be the document icon (since you are using documents and not pictures).
You'll want to use the "reference" option. It's mentioned at about 4 min in in the video.
Yes, splash around! Post back here w/questions.
>Also, not sure of the function of your GetAsText(FileContainer), but I've never worked with containers, so the question may be answered by splashing around.
What you'll find is that the container shows you an icon, but you'll also want to know the path. Remember, users will be inserting the files you won't know ahead of time what the path is. It'll be up to you to train them to save them in the right folders and insert them into the container.
GetAsText(FileContainer) will give you the full path and name of the file referenced.
What you'll find is that the container shows you an icon, but you'll also want to know the path. Remember, users will be inserting the files you won't know ahead of time what the path is. It'll be up to you to train them to save them in the right folders and insert them into the container.
GetAsText(FileContainer) will give you the full path and name of the file referenced.
ASKER
And... even more fun: Is there a way to create folders dynamically because each month we lose tenants and we gain some?
Yes, you can have FM run a batch file using the SendEvent script step. Yup, lots of fun :)
ASKER
I think I have asked too many questions for one post, so am breaking this up. Credting Tocacar for bringing me a resource even though we didn't use it.
To display a list of the contents of the folder, use a web viewer which runs a simple PHP script showing the contents of the folder. Each item in the list can be a link which dowloads/ displays the doc (presumably a PDF?).
TomDWallace (an EE expert) has provided detailed instructions on how to do this in answer to another question (I think the question asker was you actually, I may be wrong...). I haven't got time to search for the question to provide a link here, but I'm sure if you run a few searches, you'll find it.
Good luck