Soliant Consulting : Clients - Success Story

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Script a wide range of import/export capabilities including backwards compatibility and Outlook/Address Book access.

Data migration is one of the most difficult aspects of working with database applications. The intent was to give users the widest possible support for incoming and outgoing data. The FileMaker Applications are shipped unlocked with ERD documentation, but end users needed simpler, scripted means of moving data in-and-out of the system.

Field mapping for importing Address Book data

The scripts for importing data from Address Book and Outlook via the Productive Computing plug-ins are among the most sophisticated in the FileMaker Applications. This is due to the fact that reconciling different data structures from two systems is always a complex task (Address Book and Outlook both have their own way of organizing data, and both differ from the FileMaker Applications.) The routines that deal with the import from these sources allow the user to dynamically map phone, fax, and email fields to FileMaker Application fields. For each imported record, the FileMaker Application must determine if the user's first or second choice for "main/primary" is available, and properly insert that data into the correct related record. In addition the routines allow the user to either update previously imported records or ignore them.

Administrative functions for modifying user accounts, value lists options, etc.

To offer soup-to-nuts support without requiring users do any FileMaker Pro development, the team defined interface screens allowing administrators to create, modify, and delete user accounts. These accounts need to make use of pre-canned privilege sets, but do maintain the user experience within the solution.

The account creation script takes advantage of the new account manipulation script steps available in FileMaker 7. The Admin uses the custom interface to enter an account name and specify a privilege set, and that information is passed along to the account creation script steps. Relevant feedback is given when a duplicate account name is provided or an invalid password is supplied. The account creation scripts are also structured in such a way as to facilitate reuse—when an upgrade install is performed, all existing accounts are created in the new file, this can save a tremendous amount of work for the Admin. In addition, the loose coupling between the Application account creation scripts and the FileMaker accounts means that Admin can add or change privilege sets, and the end-user can use the native "change password" function provided by FileMaker 7.

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