Exporting Data as Text

[Peter Schwenk]

Hello:

I've got a FM6 database of email aliases that I would like to export
into a text file formatted in a ready-to-use way for my email server's
email lists. Each line of the email list file would look like this example:

"Doe, John Q." <jdoe@biteme.com>

My database has the people's names and email addresses in it, but it
seems that FM6 only allows for comma- or tab-delimited text file
exports. I was looking into the scripting capabilities of FM6, and it
is not apparent if FM6 can be made to write arbitrarily-formatted text
files. Would I have to get the script to utilize another program for
the actual file creation?

I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could point me toward the proper
way to make FM6 do what I want.

--
- Peter Schwenk
- Systems Administrator
- Mathematical Sciences
- University of Delaware
- Newark, DE 19716

[Glenn Schwandt]

Create a calculation field that concatenates all of your data as required
(or use a text field and the Replace command with calculated results), then
export only that field.

"Peter Schwenk" <schwenk@math.udel.edu> wrote in message
news:bmh3to$eff$1@news.udel.edu...

> Hello:
>
> I've got a FM6 database of email aliases that I would like to export
> into a text file formatted in a ready-to-use way for my email server's
> email lists. Each line of the email list file would look like this

example:

>
> "Doe, John Q." <jdoe@biteme.com>
>
> My database has the people's names and email addresses in it, but it
> seems that FM6 only allows for comma- or tab-delimited text file
> exports. I was looking into the scripting capabilities of FM6, and it
> is not apparent if FM6 can be made to write arbitrarily-formatted text
> files. Would I have to get the script to utilize another program for
> the actual file creation?
>
> I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could point me toward the proper
> way to make FM6 do what I want.
>
> --
> - Peter Schwenk
> - Systems Administrator
> - Mathematical Sciences
> - University of Delaware
> - Newark, DE 19716
>

[Bridget Eley]

The calc can be a little tricky. You need to create a global text field
(which I will call Double Quote) and place a single double quote character
in it. The calc would look something like this:

Double Quote & Name & Double Quote & " <" & Email Address & ">"

OR

Double Quote & First Name & " " & Surname & Double Quote & " <" & Email
Address & ">"

Then export the calc field. You can save the export to a script.

Bridget Eley

in article [email]voo6j4m3l8u301@corp.supernews.com[/email], Glenn Schwandt at
[email]schwandtgat@aoldot.com[/email] wrote on 15/10/03 1:46 AM:

> Create a calculation field that concatenates all of your data as required
> (or use a text field and the Replace command with calculated results), then
> export only that field.
>
> "Peter Schwenk" <schwenk@math.udel.edu> wrote in message
> news:bmh3to$eff$1@news.udel.edu...

>> Hello:
>>
>> I've got a FM6 database of email aliases that I would like to export
>> into a text file formatted in a ready-to-use way for my email server's
>> email lists. Each line of the email list file would look like this

> example:

>>
>> "Doe, John Q." <jdoe@biteme.com>
>>
>> My database has the people's names and email addresses in it, but it
>> seems that FM6 only allows for comma- or tab-delimited text file
>> exports. I was looking into the scripting capabilities of FM6, and it
>> is not apparent if FM6 can be made to write arbitrarily-formatted text
>> files. Would I have to get the script to utilize another program for
>> the actual file creation?
>>
>> I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could point me toward the proper
>> way to make FM6 do what I want.
>>
>> --
>> - Peter Schwenk
>> - Systems Administrator
>> - Mathematical Sciences
>> - University of Delaware
>> - Newark, DE 19716
>>

>
>

--

(to email direct, replace "DOT" with "." and remove ".invalid")

[Peter Schwenk]

Thanks for the info. I found out that four (4) double quotes right next
to each other produces one double quote of output:

"""" & Name & """" & " <" & Email Address & ">"


Bridget Eley wrote:

> The calc can be a little tricky. You need to create a global text field
> (which I will call Double Quote) and place a single double quote character
> in it. The calc would look something like this:
>
> Double Quote & Name & Double Quote & " <" & Email Address & ">"
>
> OR
>
> Double Quote & First Name & " " & Surname & Double Quote & " <" & Email
> Address & ">"
>
> Then export the calc field. You can save the export to a script.
>
> Bridget Eley

--
- Peter Schwenk
- Systems Administrator
- Mathematical Sciences
- University of Delaware
- Newark, DE 19716

[eyebrown@mindspring.com]

In article <bmh3to$eff$1@news.udel.edu>, Peter Schwenk
<schwenk@math.udel.edu> wrote:

>Hello:
>
>I've got a FM6 database of email aliases that I would like to export
>into a text file formatted in a ready-to-use way for my email server's
>email lists. Each line of the email list file would look like this example:
>
>"Doe, John Q." <jdoe@biteme.com>
>
>My database has the people's names and email addresses in it, but it
>seems that FM6 only allows for comma- or tab-delimited text file
>exports. I was looking into the scripting capabilities of FM6, and it
>is not apparent if FM6 can be made to write arbitrarily-formatted text
>files. Would I have to get the script to utilize another program for
>the actual file creation?

I do something similar. Assuming that you want your resulting text file
to look exactly as above, with each entry separated by a carriage
return/line feed or combo (depending on the email server's platform), then
the trick is to make a calculated text field that assembles the data the
way you want it. Then export just that one field as tab-delimited. With
only one field, no delimiting is necessary, hence no tab characters. Use
tab rather than comma, as a comma-delimited export will insert unwanted
doublequotes.

To duplicate the above, make your export field's calculation (three
doublequotes will allow the insertion of a single doublequote):

""" & NameField & """ & " <" & EmailField & ">"

I could have made the whole central text string "" <", but I've had so
much trouble getting the right number of quote characters into these kind
of fields that I do them by themselves. Another workaround is to set up a
global field, g_Quote, that contains one doublequote. Then your calc
becomes:

g_Quote & NameField & g_Quote & " <" & EmailField & ">"

Steve Brown