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Re: Container Problem: File Cannot be Found

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Helpful Harry <HelpfulHarry@BusyWorking.com> wrote:

> On 2018-04-09 16:23:16 +0000, Charles H. Sampson said:
> 
> > Charles H. Sampson <csampson@inetworld.net> wrote:
> > 
> >> I'm creating a largish database that contains pointers to music files
> >> (.aif) in containers. The database has reached over 1000 records in the
> >> that use the containers. I've just noticed that over 500 of them now
> >> display the message "The file cannot be found". I got this message once
> >> before when I changed the name of the disc the files are located on.
> >> (They're all on the same disk.) I managed to fix it then, but I don't
> >> remember how. In any case, there have been no new disk name changes.
> >> 
> >> Any ideas? In previous posts, the feeling was that containers are a
> >> mess.
> > 
> > I've been working on this problem for a while and I've discovered a lot.
> > My big conclusion is that containers are such a mess as to be unusable,
> > so I'm giving up on this database and reverting to an organization of
> > audio files that I control.
> > 
> > Now, some details. First and foremost, my problems were caused by
> > changing the name of the disk (partition) that the files were on. Of
> > course, I had put only a reference to the files into the containers.
> 
> The field store the filepath, so that includes the drive / volume name.
> Changing the drive's name means FileMaker can no longer find a drive by
> that name.

Sort of. And that's why my script worked up to a point. But suddenly,
the "filepath" returned by GetAsText didn't return the full filepath.
What it did return was so minimally usable that I abandoned my script.

> > I interpret this as using an alias; OS X's alias has long been able to
> > negotiate name changes, so the problem is basically that FileMaker is
> > not using the full capabilities of OS X. (Worse, in my estimation, is
> > that I'm not allowed to put an honest-to-God alias into the container,
> > but that's another issue.)
> > 
> > In trying to solve my problem, I came across the script function
> > GetContainerAttribute. That function doesn't work, another poor
> > implementation of containers. The problem is with the second parameter,
> > which specifies the attribute being queried. I was interested in the
> > filename attribute. When I tried making that second parameter literally
> > "filename", I got a "table not located" error message. I put "filename"
> > in quotes, which got around the error message but gave no information at
> > all, much less information about the file name.
> > 
> > I went to the FileMaker community and discovered that GetAsText works
> > for containers, returning the full path name of the referenced file.
> > (But see later.) Using this, I could see what was wrong and I wrote a
> > script to fix the problem -- up to a point. After around 550 containers,
> > GetAsText suddenly started producing file names that weren't full names
> > and my script didn't work. I actually handled the file name problem
> > manually for the remaining 50 or so files.
> > 
> > However, I concluded that this fragility didn't bode well for my
> > database and I've abandoned it.
> 
> Despite the product name "FileMaker Pro", it is not actually designed
> to catalogue actual computer files. It's simply a database for dealing
> with textual and numerical data.
> 
> Container fields are only really meant to contain small files for use
> within the database itself. Even then, the sound capabilities are 
> woeful, so Container fields are really only of use for graphics - 
> things like separate images for the two states of a custom button ("on"
> and "off")..

Actually, what I had working was pretty good as to sound. Clicking on
the containers file launched iTunes for the playback. Still, unusable as
a whole. Maybe usable in certain circumstances, as you suggest.

Charlie
-- 
Nobody in this country got rich on his own.  You built a factory--good.
But you moved your goods on roads we all paid for.  You hired workers we
all paid to educate. So keep a big hunk of the money from your factory.
But take a hunk and pay it forward.  Elizabeth Warren (paraphrased)

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Container Problem: File Cannot be Found csampson@inetworld.net (Charles H. Sampson) - 2018-04-02 17:41 -0700
  Re: Container Problem: File Cannot be Found Helpful Harry <HelpfulHarry@BusyWorking.com> - 2018-04-03 13:36 +1200
    Re: Container Problem: File Cannot be Found ursus.kirk@gmail.com - 2018-04-03 10:09 +0200
  Re: Container Problem: File Cannot be Found csampson@inetworld.net (Charles H. Sampson) - 2018-04-09 09:23 -0700
    Re: Container Problem: File Cannot be Found Helpful Harry <HelpfulHarry@BusyWorking.com> - 2018-04-10 09:40 +1200
      Re: Container Problem: File Cannot be Found csampson@inetworld.net (Charles H. Sampson) - 2018-04-14 11:59 -0700
        Re: Container Problem: File Cannot be Found Helpful Harry <HelpfulHarry@BusyWorking.com> - 2018-04-15 10:07 +1200
          Re: Container Problem: File Cannot be Found Erik Appeldoorn <ursus.kirk@gmail.com> - 2018-04-15 08:25 +0200
            Re: Container Problem: File Cannot be Found Helpful Harry <HelpfulHarry@BusyWorking.com> - 2018-04-15 19:24 +1200

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