Open URL doesn't work the same anymore?

[The Digital Man]

Hi,

 

I had a database written in 6.5 where I used the "OPEN URL" statement to open EMAIL files and PDF files where I had stored their reference (Actual File name and location) in a text field. I was able to reference the text field as the URL location. When you clicked on an EMAIL record listed on the screen it went and actually launched Outlook Express and then opened the email inside of it. Same with the PDF files. It launched Acrobat Reader and then loaded the PDF file. Version 7 does not seem to offer that feature anymore. Am I missing something?

 

I just want to store file references to EMAIL and PDF files and then be able to open them when a user clicks on the appropriate button. I have the filename and path stored in a text field of the record. How do I do this in 7?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Ted S]

Hi Digi,

 

I'm having some trouble understanding your problem but a couple things come to mind:

 

1. There is a bug Open URL that adds an extra forward slash to the URL that can mess things up. I think the extra slash occurs just after the ".com" in a typical address. That might be your problem.

 

2. In pre 7 versions there was a function called "Send Message" that really just sent a command to the OS. In version 7 it has been renamed "Send Event" (assuming you are on a Windows machine).

 

The Send Event function is probably what you are after. To address a simple email message using Send Event you can just enter the value:

 

"mailto:John.Doe@Company.com"

 

That should fire up outlook and pop John's address in the to box.

 

To open a PDF you could enter something like this in either the calculation field:

 

"c:\folder\folder\file.pdf"

 

Is this what you are looking for or am I way off?

[The Digital Man]

Hey Ted,

 

You are sort of on the right track. I went and checked out what you suggested. I was only able to get it to work if I...

 

Wait a minute! ...O.K. I'm back! What I started to say was I could only get it to work if I manually chose the file which is not acceptable since I already have the filename stored in FileMaker and want to open it automatically for the user.

 

But! Suddenly it occurred to me that perhaps the reason it wasn't working was because I was looking at the WRONG "History" record (Which contains the filename in one of its fields). Viola! I was indeed! I needed to be using the "HISTORY SELECT" table occurence rather than just the "HISTORY" table occurence! Once I fixed that your solution worked beautifully!

 

In fact so does the OPEN URL statement. They both work! Life is great again!

 

Sometimes I think it helps to just "think" you are getting help I don't know, maybe the good nights rest helped too. Anyway I do appreciate the time you spent in responding to my dilemma. So now I am wondering just what ramifications there are to whether I use the "SEND EVENT" or the "OPEN URL" command. They both seem to work equally well. If anyone has any sage words of wisdom I'm all ears.