I've been attempting to implement Steve Cassidy's solution, starting
with copying and pasting a preview version of each report into a
container field. It took a bit of fiddling because I had to find each
report individually, copy and paste it, show all records, go to the
next record, find that individual record, and repeat. It's a kludgy
process and it runs very slowly, about 20 records per minute. I have
18,000 records!
The script I am using is below. Am I missing something or making it
harder than it needs to be?
Thanks in advance...
Transfer Images
Show All Records
Go to Record/Request/Page
[ First ]
Enter Browse Mode
Loop
Go to Layout [ Report ]
Set Field [ Global Patient No, Patient No. ]
Enter Find Mode
Set Field [ Patient No., Global Patient No ]
Perform Find
[ Replace Found Set ]
Enter Preview Mode
Copy [ ]
[ Select entire contents ]
Go to Layout [ Report Image ]
Enter Browse Mode
Paste [ Echo Image ]
[ Select entire contents ]
Show All Records
Go to Record/Request/Page
[ Next ]
End Loop
On Oct 15, 2012, at 4:17 AM, Steve Cassidy wrote:
On 15 Oct 2012, at 04:59, Jay Erlebacher wrote:
Thanks.
But the essential problem I have is this: How do I get a formatted
report exported from FMP6 together with the associated fields?
Exporting into iPhoto does not allow me to associate the fields so
I need another workaround.
Your help is much appreciated!
Hi Jay
I see a lot of people here are missing the essential point... that
you have a FMP6 database which, using data stored in various fields,
is able to print a nicely formatted report. And you want to capture
that report into a new sql (or similar) software system.
I reckon, given that you are working in FMP6, that any solution is
going to be a bit kludgy. You'll probably have to live with that.
What springs to my mind is the old Enter Preview Mode, Copy and then
Paste trick (in a script). I used this for many years as a way to
preserve a report in the database as-printed. I don't remember all
the details, but that is essentially it:
Prepare your report for printing as usual
Enter Preview Mode
Copy
Go To Layout (with the container field used to store the report)
Go To Field (the container field)
Paste
You can do that in a loop, going through all your records one by
one. By this method you can get an image of every report reasonably
quickly (well, overnight perhaps, depending on how many reports
there are!!). I cannot recall, and perhaps never knew, what format
those images are stored in. But I believe it is something useful/
manipulatable.
Next step is to export those reports with the other field data. I'm
not sure about that one – again it's a while ago – but I believe it
can be done somehow. You may have to resort to a plugin (such as
Troi File) that would enable you to name the exported images with
some kind of unique ID. It may even be necessary to use a plugin to
get the images out; you did mention that FMP6 does not export
container fields, but I can't recall that.
However, rather than messing around with plugins, it may be simpler
to purchase a copy of FMP12. Get the report images as above, import
the images and other required data (the key fields you mention) into
a new FMP6 database (which will presumably be simpler than the whole
system) and convert that to FMP12. From FMP12 you can easily export
the report images with a suitable file name. By this method, you end
up with a nice copy of FMP12 to play with. (You'll need it anyway,
because the lovely commercial program you are being forced to use is
sure to be short of a few screws...)
I'm hoping that these ideas might trigger some memories in others
out there who remain more familiar with these old techniques. If
not, get back to the list and I'll have a look through the archives
to see if I can pull out some useful nuggets.
Best of luck!
Steve
