[FX.php List] New FX features: My $0.02US

Wed Jun 1 10:39:27 MDT 2005

I have two FX features to request. One is definitely a request and the
other I'm not sure if it's just me or an issue with FileMaker or FX that
has to do with the 'errorCode'.

First, it would be nice if all the parameters (i.e. ascend, descend,
etc.) were not case sensitive as when I moved to the latest version of
FX I had to go back and either capitalize or un-capitalize the function
parameters.

The second request, which may not actually be a request if I'm doing
something wrong, is could the 'foundCount' actually reflect the found
count even if there were no records found. In my previous FX/FMU6 setup
I could just check for a found count and do branch logic from there. In
my current FXv311/FMSA7 I have to check for an error code of 401
($CheckData['errorCode'] == 401) as well as a found count to display the
accurate found count as the found count equals -1, I think, when there
are no records found. Is anyone else experiencing this? It just seems
that it worked better in the previous version only having to check the
found count. But then again this could be more of a FileMaker issue.
Thanks again everybody for their contributions.

Vinnie Taranto
Technology Specialist & Database Engineer
Dean of Students Office
University of Florida
MAIN: (352) 392-1261
FAX: (352) 392-1261
TDD: (352) 392-5566
TOLLFREE: (877) 9UF-DEAN
WEB: http://www.dso.ufl.edu
EMAIL: vinniept at dso.ufl.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org
[mailto:fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org] On Behalf Of Krauss Bill
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 12:23 PM
To: FX.php Discussion List
Subject: RE: [FX.php List] New FX features: My $0.02US

My take on the error code issue...

I agree that 'errorCode' is important during development, but it's not
always necessary in a finished site. I debug the functionality of my
site code before putting it online, and I have a check_database()
function I call in every script to make sure the FM database is
available, and to handle any connectivity issues. So, by the time a site
goes into production, I'm pretty sure what to expect.

My main concern in suggesting the data-only structure is reducing the
unwieldiness of the multi-level array structure a bit. I can foresee
situations where in a single script I'd use the regular FMFind() and
then later, knowing the connectivity/functionality is there, using
FMFindData().

I certainly don't want the existing functionality to go away. It just
seemed that it might be useful to have a stripped-down function that
would supply the converse of the FMFind($returnDataSet = false)
condition.

Regards,

Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org
[mailto:fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org] On Behalf Of Chris Hansen
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 5:37 PM
To: FX.php Discussion List
Subject: Re: [FX.php List] New FX features: My $0.02US

Interesting idea.  My biggest concern is that removing this top level 
of the array would also remove the 'errorCode' element, which I feel is 
pretty important.  Of course, an FX error object would still be 
returned in the event of an internal error, and perhaps I could set up 
the behavior of this function to return an FX error object if FileMaker 
returned an error.  I'd like some good feedback on this.  Personally, 
I'd feel more inclined to leave this level of the array, but in this 
case leave only 'data', 'errorCode', and 'foundCount'.  PHP parses the 
entire XML page no matter what, so this would mostly save a bit of 
memory, and reduce array complexity.  What do other list members think?

--Chris Hansen
   creator of FX.php
   "The best way from FileMaker to the Web."
   www.iViking.org

On May 31, 2005, at 5:20 PM, Krauss Bill wrote:

> I was thinking about that and almost put it in my request, but then
> remembered you can already do a regular "FMFind()" request with the
> $returnDataSet parameter set to "false" to get the count.
>
>     	$result_set = $query->FMFind();
>
> 	$count = $result_set['foundCount'];
>
> And if FMFindData() is implemented, you could always use the PHP 
> count()
> function on the returned dataset to get the number of records:
>
> 	$data_set = $query->FMFindData();
>
> 	$record_count = count($data_set);
>
> Getting the count this way would still be a two-step process this way,
> but I think I prefer it, because what I like about the FMFindData() 
> idea
> is that it removes one of the levels of the multi-level array. I think
> adding foundcount would necessarily put that level back in.
>
>
> bill
> 	
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org
> [mailto:fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org] On Behalf Of Steve
Winter
> Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 4:04 PM
> To: FX.php Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [FX.php List] New FX features: My $0.02US
>
> Bill,
>
> This sounds like a very good suggestion to me, the only thing that I'd
> like to see, in addition to the actual data, is the foundcount
returned
> with that data set...
>
> Cheers
> Steve
>
>
>> Here's a request for something that might also streamline things a
> bit,
>> but on the other side of the array.
>>
>> Most of the time I don't need the full set of information contained
>> returned by FMFind(). All I really need is the record values. For
>> example, many (if not most) of my scripts contain some variation of
> the
>> following:
>>
>> 	// do the query
>>    	$result_set = $query->FMFind();
>>
>> 	// pull the data
>> 	$data_set = $result_set['data'];
>>
>> So, a query that just returned the data would cut down on processing
>> and
>> memory usage. I wouldn't propose changing the structure of the
> FMFind()
>> function -- but perhaps you could add a new one called FMFindData()
>> that
>> doesn't return all the "extra" metadata? This could be considered be
>> the
>> flipside of the $returnDataSet parameter.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Bill Krauss
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org
>> [mailto:fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org] On Behalf Of Chris
> Hansen
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 2:37 PM
>> To: FX.php Discussion List
>> Subject: Re: [FX.php List] Feature Request
>>
>> The new functionality won't work exactly as Gjermund suggested.  As I
>> said, this was already in the works, so I had my own ideas on how to
>> implement it.  The way that I think that this would most often be
>> implemented would be as an _optional_ fourth parameter when creating
> an
>> FX object, like this:
>>
>> $myQuery = new FX('192.168.1.9', 80, 'FMPro7', false);
>>
>> That last 'false' says, in essence, "we won't be using that last
layer
>
>> of the array."  How does that sound to everyone?  I should note that
>> 'true' (unquoted) is the default value, both for legacy purposes, and
>> because of how FileMaker works.  Of course if people really want to,
>> they can change this by tweaking FX.php.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> --Chris Hansen
>>    creator of FX.php
>>    "The best way from FileMaker to the Web."
>>    www.iViking.org
>>
>> On May 31, 2005, at 7:50 AM, Michael Layne wrote:
>>
>>> Not exactly sure how it will work based on example below, but that
>>> would be GREAT.  On occasion, I have a solution with both MySQL and
>>> FM7SA, and when doing any PHP OTHER than FM, you of course don't use
>
>>> the "[0]".  would be one less thing to keep up with.
>>>
>>> Thanks!  Hopefully it will be clear how to add the
>>> parameter/functionality.
>>>
>>> Michael
>>>
>>>
>>> On May 31, 2005, at 2:58 AM, Chris Hansen wrote:
>>>
>>>> Yep, this was already in the works.  The default behavior is still
>>>> the same, but can be changed via an optional fourth parameter of
> the
>>>> FX constructor function, or via a new function added for the
>> purpose.
>>
>>>>  If anyone has thoughts or suggestions about this, let me know.
>>>> Thanks!
>>>>
>>>> --Chris Hansen
>>>>   creator of FX.php
>>>>   "The best way from FileMaker to the Web."
>>>>   www.iViking.org
>>>>
>>>> On May 30, 2005, at 7:45 AM, Gjermund Gusland Thorsen wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> $omptimizeLiveWithoutRepetitions = True; //False;
>>>>>
>>>>> To avoid the [0] on $value[0]
>>>>>
>>>>> [0] is only 3 characters, but multiplied with number of fields and
>
>>>>> foundCount,
>>>>> this is alot of redundant RAM usage on a server with some traffic.
>>>>>
>>>>> Gjermund
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> FX.php_List mailing list
>>>>> FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
>>>>> http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
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>>
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