Joseph said:
I have a really hard question that I need some MVP help with.
I love what I can do with the reports and forms in Access, but I needed
more
for less. I have two Linux boxes that run Fedora 8. I use MySQL to store
the data, and MS Access to edit the data. I then use Apache and PHP to
access the data on our intranet for my supervisors to have on have data in
real time. Too much to explain all the details.
One of the things that I need to save are pictures of things. I can save
the pictures in binary format into my databases. But how do access those
pictures in Access?
The BLOB method may be useful in answering your questions... if I understand
correctly, that stores, and retrieves, the image in its raw binary form. On
the other hand, if you've stored the binary image file in some different
form...
Larry Linson
Microsoft Office Access MVP
The sample imaging databases at
http://accdevel.tripod.com illustrate three
approaches to handling images in Access, and the download includes an
article discussing considerations in choosing an approach. Two of the
approaches do not use OLE Objects and, thus, avoid the database bloat, and
some other problems, associated with images in OLE Objects.
If you are printing the images in reports, to avoid memory leakage, you
should also see MVP Stephen Lebans'
http://www.lebans.com/printfailures.htm.
PrintFailure.zip is an Access97 MDB containing a report that fails during
the Access formatting process prior to being spooled to the Printer Driver.
This MDB also contains code showing how to convert the contents of the Image
control to a Bitmap file prior to printing. This helps alleviate the "Out of
Memory" error that can popup when printing image intensive reports.
And, Stephen has an ActiveX control available that works in cases where the
graphics filters are not available -- and works better, I've heard, than the
OLE Object and OLE Controls.
Please note that there are other approaches, e.g.,
Application.FollowHyperlink, but those, like OLE and Bound OLE Frames (which
from the symptoms you describe, are what you were / are using) still leave
you "at the mercy of the imaging software registered for the filetype").
Finally, Access 2007 has enhancements that, reputedly, eliminate the
database bloat long associated with OLE Objects and Bound OLE Frames. But,
it still leaves you relying on the software registered for the image type,
which may not be as "cooperative" as we'd like in creating our display. It
also has the capability of having a variable number of Attachments to a
Record, which may be helpful. But, as I have not done much with it yet, I
certainly wouldn't suggest you rush out and replace an earlier version --
not until the first Service Pack, at least.
