Import/Export Options

[Kevin G. Timberlake]

As many of you know, I have been having real issues with importing .tab records into my distributed apps. I just went back to check my filemaker app and found that it is very simple to do this. Is there a possibility Alpha could do the same thing?

[AaronBBrown]

What is a ".tab record"?

[Kevin G. Timberlake]

it is a tab delimited record of information. Like .txt and so on. OBDC and so on. Basically export the records and import the records. In Alpha the user of my databases must possess the full version to exchange data, the runtime won't import, but will export.

[AaronBBrown]

Are you receiving an error message? How have you defined your import operation? Can you send me a sample file that fails?

[[email protected]]

Aaron, if I may, I think what Kevin is saying is that if you're in the runtime control panel, and you choose a table, then file>import, you get a message that only the full version can do this. Kevin, this is because you are, at that point, trying to define an import operation. Probably that "import" should be greyed out. What your client needs to do is go to a form of that table and choose records>append. This will do you want, I think.

Bill Belanger

[Kevin G. Timberlake]

Nope. Lets try this.
I have an app that is a customer database for trucking. 100 drivers use the same database on different computers. They all have different customers input into the app. They want to compile all of the customers into each others app. So I have them export their data from the customers form into a .tab or .txt file. Then they send it to me or each other. The receiver then imports the data file into their database and then they all have the same customers. Duplicates are not a problem, just the importing of the data.

[Kevin G. Timberlake]

Bill, sorry. That is for appending data from tables already in the database. I need to import data from different databases.

[Al Buchholz]

Confused about your confusion

Kevin

Since you have defined the the export operation from each of the other databases and saved them so they can be rerun, can't you define an import operation(in the development version), save it, and then run it on the runtime version? The format of the data coming in is constant since you're using a defined export, so you don't need to build an import operation, just run an existing one.

A5 runtime allows you to run an import, but not create one. In your case I see that working fine as designed....

What am I missing here?

[Kevin G. Timberlake]

Here is the file I am trying to import. The runtime will not allow me to import it, only export it. Sorry for the mixup Aaron.

[Al Buchholz]

Example

Kevin

Thanks for the example file. Here is a database that imports that file using an import operation that runtime can use.

I think this does what you want.

Unzip this example into it's own folder and open with runtime. Then run the import operation that you see in the attached image.

Let us know.

[AaronBBrown]

Here is the file I am trying to import. The runtime will not allow me to import it, only export it. Sorry for the mixup Aaron.

You need to define an import operation ahead of time to be able to import with the runtime.

Does it import fine in the development edition?

[Kevin G. Timberlake]

This is what I love about Alpha..The GENIUS developers here. Al, you are one. That is exactly what I needed. I have tried and tried and nothing but failure, until now. It worked. I cannot thank you enough!:D

[Kevin G. Timberlake]

One last question...I hope.
On the importing, is there a way to have the end user pick the location of the file to import? Some of my customers use "D" drive and some "C" drive. It makes the developer pick the location for the file, but if the location is different from the one in the operation, it fails.

[Al Buchholz]

Select file to import.

Kevin

There is not an option that I am aware of to specify the import filename as an option of an operation.

So to do this, you should convert the operation to xbasic and modify how the import file name is assigned.

Right click the operation and the third option is to show xbasic. That can be copied into an xbasic script that you build from the code tab.

Then modify that script to allow the user to choose the filename. One option is to use ui_get_file().

It's a simple modification that looks like this:
'This line replaces the standard line that is commented out below.
import_filename = ui_get_file("Open a file","ImportFile (*.asc)","customers.asc","X")
'import_filename = filename_decode("customers.asc") ' Standard line......

The entire script is in the attachment. The code can be imported by right clicking in the white space of the code tab and choosing import...

If you want a fancier dialog to open, take a look at xdialog.....

[Kevin G. Timberlake]

It does import correctly now that I see how the operation is constructed. However, the importing file must be located in the exact same location on every users computer IE: C:\file.asc. But if the user uses a drive D:\ for his programs and C:\ only for system backups, this is a problem as the import operation will not allow the user to pick where the .asc file is located. Any way to do this?