[FX.php List] Query question

[Jonathan Schwartz]

Troy,

Your plan would work great...if fx.php was able to execute an FMP 
constrain found set.  But it can't. That's the reason for the 
workarounds.

HTH,

Jonathan

At 7:43 AM -0800 1/26/07, Troy Meyers wrote:
>Bob,
>
>I guess I don't understand enough to see how this would not be 
>practical. I don't want to sidetrack your search for the best 
>method, but for my sake and perhaps others, could you tell me what 
>part of the idea is the bad part?
>
>I don't know how to write this PHP code yet, but I had thought it 
>would be possible since it's more powerful than CDML where doing 
>what I suggested wouldn't be possible without tricky FileMaker 
>scripts. It seems to me that PHP should be able to do this without 
>FileMaker scripts. Here goes:
>
>The form is submitted and the user has filled in several fields, 
>let's say all of the ones you originally mentioned:
>
>CITY -- 1 value here
>STATE - 1 value here
>ZIP - 1 value here
>CATALOG NUMBER - could be a bunch of different cat. numbers
>
>The PHP that deals with the form submission would gather the form 
>parameters into variables, and instruct FileMaker to do a search 
>using all of the filled out fields EXCEPT the catalog number.
>
>Next step, in the same PHP file, use PHP string manipulation in a 
>loop to parse out catalog numbers one by one, getting rid of commas 
>and spaces and newlines, etc. and construct a Constrain find 
>_request_ for each until the catalog number field is empty.
>
>PHP would then ask FileMaker to do the Constrain Found Set, just 
>once, for all the new requests just added.
>
>Then use the result from there, as you normally would.
>
>As I said, other than the fact I'm too green to know how to write 
>this and try it, it seems simple. Why wouldn't this work?
>
>-Troy
>
>
>>  Troy,
>>
>>  It's really not practical though; my clients need to be able to 
>>  login, do different reports on the fly, and I really don't want to   try
>>  to do this with a script. For one thing, the searches are going   to be
>>  mix-and-match using 4 or 5 fields in addition to the field that   can
>>  contain as many as 30 or 40 different catalog numbers.
>>
>>  I'm afraid the FOREACH that Dan suggested is going to be my only 
>>  option, but I certainly don't like it much.
>>
>>  Another thought I just had though, would be to use an EDIT to edit a 
>>  key field to contain the catalog values, and then retrieve the portal 
>>  results that get triggered when I set this key field. I may try that; 
>>  any thoughs on that idea, guys?
>>
>>  Bob
>>
>>  On Jan 25, 2007, at 5:29 PM, Troy Meyers wrote:
>>
>>  > Bob, > > As you know I'm new to PHP, but wouldn't the best plain
>>  FileMaker   > way to do this be to do a 'Find' with the fields that are
>>  common to   > all first, and then do a single 'Constrain Found Set' with
>>  the   > catalog number queries each as its own record/request (i.e.
>>  ORing   > them)? > > If that works in FileMaker, wouldn't there be a way
>>  to set this up   > in PHP? > > -Troy > > >> This is funny: when I did a
>>  search of the old FX emails from the     >> past, >> I found that I'd
>>  asked this exact question once before, and no     >> one had >> a
>>  solution other than to re-query for each different situation. >> >> My
>>  problem is that I need to create a report where there might be 20 >>
>>  different catalog numbers, and then the searcher might also include a >>
>>  city or state or zip code. I hate to think that I'd have to do 20 >>
>>  different queries to build a single table of results... >> >> I'd sure
>>  love to hear a solution for this one... >> >> Bob Patin > >
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-- 

Jonathan Schwartz
FileMaker 8 Certified  Developer
Associate Member, FileMaker Solutions Alliance
Schwartz & Company
jonathan at eschwartz.com
http://www.eschwartz.com
http://www.exit445.com
415-381-1852