I've lurked this ng for awhile trying to solve this but no one seems
to have come up with this one. I'm running FMP version 8.5 (not
Advanced) and I'm hosting the database on a dedicated machine. The
host and guests all run Windows XP. This problem occurs when working
with the database on the host and the guests too. My layout has a
container field, each record has a unique graphic stored as a file
reference. I used the text calc trick (thank you Howard Schlossberg
for that one) and it told me this:

size:3,231
image:../ID_MASTER/ID_A/AcmeInc.tif
imagewin:/E:/COMPANY/ID_MASTER/ID_A/AcmeInc.tif

The directory tree looks like this:

E:\
->\COMPANY
-->\ID_MASTER
--->\ID_A
--->\ID_B
--->\[ID_C through ID_Z]
-->\RECORDS

All of the graphics are stored alphabetically in subdirectories of
ID_MASTER; the FP7 file is stored in RECORDS. Both ID_MASTER and
RECORDS are subdirectories of COMPANY. So we have:

E:\COMPANY\RECORDS\MyData.fp7 = path to FMP database
E:\COMPANY\ID_MASTER\ID_A\AcmeInc.tif = path to graphic file

It looks to me like FMP is ignoring the absolute path to the graphic
and trying to use a relative path based on its own location. I guess
I could just move the FP7 file and fix it that way but I REALLY don't
want to do that. Especially since the correct path is right there.
So my question is, how do I make FMP use the absolute path to the
graphic?

thanks in advance

--
FW

On 25 Apr 2007 19:19:32 -0700, "wolfsofast (AT) gmail (DOT) com"
<wolfsofast (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:


Okay, I've managed to figure it out on my own. Damn, I'm good! On
the reasonable assumption that others will come after me with this
problem, here's the solution.

it goes back to what someone else was saying (possibly Mr Schlossberg)
about the pitfalls of hosting databases using FM Pro. When you import
graphics running FMP on a guest system, the graphic references work
fine. The correct files are located no matter which guest you're on
when you view the records. When you import in the FMP running on the
host system itself, they don't. Oh, they work on the host system, but
nowhere else. There's one caveat, though: If the guest system has
the relevant network path mapped to a drive letter, that path is what
gets saved in FMP and it won't work on any system without identical
drive mapping. (Actually even in that case it still didn't work
consistently.)

So to revisit my example above: The directory COMPANY and all
subdirectories are shared on the network in Windows, but not mapped to
drive letters on any of the guests. In FileMaker the correct absolute
path is expressed as a network path to a share:

imagewin://HostSystem/COMPANY/ID_MASTER/ID_A/AcmeInc.tif



That one works, even on the host. Go figure

So the *morale* of this tale is: when sharing databases, DON'T work
the file from the host system. Work it from the guests instead. And
whatever you do, STAY AWAY from mapping network drives to drive
letters when working with file references and paths in FMP!

--
FW
"hail mungmother"