[FX.php List] New to FX: A few basic questions

[Kevin Futter]

On 5/4/07 10:09 AM, "Alex Gates" <alex at gandrpublishing.com> wrote:

> Hi Stephen-
> 
> I can only help with one of your questions as I'm relatively new to this
> as well.
> 
> The answer to 1 is yes.  The field that you are retrieving data from has
> to be on the layout you specify.
> 
> Sorry I can't help with anything else -
> 
> Alex
> 
> Vision Computer Consulting wrote:
>> 1. I was a lasso programmer who has been doing PHP/MySQL for the last 4
>> years, but I remember that we created a layout that had all fields on it
>> to make them accessible to lasso. What I have noticed is that, unless
>> the related field is on the layout you are accessing, data in that field
>> can't be retrieved. I know that in recent versions of Filemaker one can
>> grab data from many layers of related layouts.
>> 
>> That is a long way of asking whether the field you are retrieving data
>> from has to be on the layout you specify in SetDBData?
>> 
>> 2. Is data entry FM session based or transaction based?
>> 
>> 3. I am using PHP to do data validation (especially  date and time). Any
>> hints on how to format date and time in such a way that FM won't throw
>> and error? How do I setup Filemaker to best accept date and time
>> information?
>> 
>> 4. Is it a good idea to run FM scripts from FX? If so, any suggestions
>> on when it might appropriate to use FX to run an FM script?
>> 
>> Thank you in advance for your help.
>> 
>> Stephen Calia

1. Alex is right - all fields (and value lists) you need must be on the
layout you specify.

2. I'm not sure - I assume it's transacted-based, but that's just an
educated guess.

3. Normally FM accepts dates separated only by periods (.) or
forward-slashes (/). IIRC, anything else is invalid for a FileMaker date -
off the top of my head mind. Your safest be is just to make sure that any
dates you submit to FM are formatted that way. Remember, everything you pass
to FM (or *any* database) via the web is a string, FM makes it into whatever
data type is specified by the target field definition, as long as it
qualifies.

4. No, it's best to avoid running internal FM scripts from the web, for a
variety of reasons - they can compromise security, there can be data sync
issues, they can be expensive server-side and slow down the transaction
queue, etc. I've done it, but only as a last resort.


-- 
Kevin Futter
Webmaster, St. Bernard's College
http://www.sbc.melb.catholic.edu.au/



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