Image Control Table

In February I started working on adding 7500+ images to my
museum's collection database. I received a lot of help
from this forum esp. Larry L. I now have the ability to
add photos to each form by simply storing the path to the
photo. Doing this eliminates bloating the database. One
final question on this remains though. When entering the
path into the field on the form it is changing the photo
for that item. However a part of the set-up was to create
a image table then link it to the artifact table; this was
done but... the path to each image is not being stored in
the image table. Should I be storing them in the image
table first and then matching them to the correct record?

I'm not sure, John, what you actually have... if the path, filename, and
extension of the image is stored in the image table, and there is a foreign
key in that table to the artifact table, you should be able to retrieve both
in a very simple query. That query would contain both tables as data
sources, and the key of the artifact table would be joined to the foreign
key in the image table.

What other information is in the image table besides the path, filename, and
extension? If the answer is "none except the foreign key", then perhaps it
would be as well to store the imagepath in the artifact table itself.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP


"John Gavin" wrote in message
...
In February I started working on adding 7500+ images to my
museum's collection database. I received a lot of help
from this forum esp. Larry L. I now have the ability to
add photos to each form by simply storing the path to the
photo. Doing this eliminates bloating the database. One
final question on this remains though. When entering the
path into the field on the form it is changing the photo
for that item. However a part of the set-up was to create
a image table then link it to the artifact table; this was
done but... the path to each image is not being stored in
the image table. Should I be storing them in the image
table first and then matching them to the correct record?

Is a foreign ke y rhe same as a link? Basically there is
noting in the image table other that the three samples I
put in there when I created it. I put all of my paths etc
in the field in the form and it seems to work alright... I
just can't understand why it is not updating the Image
table at the same time?
-----Original Message-----
I'm not sure, John, what you actually have... if the
path, filename, and
extension of the image is stored in the image table, and
there is a foreign
key in that table to the artifact table, you should be
able to retrieve both
in a very simple query. That query would contain both
tables as data
sources, and the key of the artifact table would be
joined to the foreign
key in the image table.

What other information is in the image table besides the
path, filename, and
extension? If the answer is "none except the foreign
key", then perhaps it
would be as well to store the imagepath in the artifact
table itself.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP


"John Gavin" wrote in message
...
In February I started working on adding 7500+ images to
my
museum's collection database. I received a lot of help
from this forum esp. Larry L. I now have the ability to
add photos to each form by simply storing the path to
the
photo. Doing this eliminates bloating the database. One
final question on this remains though. When entering the
path into the field on the form it is changing the photo
for that item. However a part of the set-up was to
create
a image table then link it to the artifact table; this
was
done but... the path to each image is not being stored
in
the image table. Should I be storing them in the image
table first and then matching them to the correct
record?


.

A "link"? In Access that is a specific term normally reserved for "linking"
tables in a separate database; but it is sometimes used generically to mean
something else. A "foreign key" is a field (or fields) entered in one table
that matches a field (or fields) in a related table to identify the related
record (usually it is the key of the record).

Please describe the pertinent fields in the artifact table (doesn't have to
be all the description, etc. of the artifact, but the unique identifier, the
field that should lead you to the appropriate image in the image table, and
other identifying and "linking" information) and all the fields in the Image
table.

I believe I understand that the actual image files are stored on disk as
image files, not saved in your database. From the last post, it seems that
the Image table may not be used at all, if it only contains the three
samples.

Updating one table does NOT automatically update another, even if you have
defined a relationship. Thus, I need to understand the circumstance... what
are you doing, and where, that you want to update both tables.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP


wrote in message
...
Is a foreign ke y rhe same as a link? Basically there is
noting in the image table other that the three samples I
put in there when I created it. I put all of my paths etc
in the field in the form and it seems to work alright... I
just can't understand why it is not updating the Image
table at the same time?
-----Original Message-----
I'm not sure, John, what you actually have... if the
path, filename, and
extension of the image is stored in the image table, and
there is a foreign
key in that table to the artifact table, you should be
able to retrieve both
in a very simple query. That query would contain both
tables as data
sources, and the key of the artifact table would be
joined to the foreign
key in the image table.

What other information is in the image table besides the
path, filename, and
extension? If the answer is "none except the foreign
key", then perhaps it
would be as well to store the imagepath in the artifact
table itself.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP


"John Gavin" wrote in message
...
In February I started working on adding 7500+ images to
my
museum's collection database. I received a lot of help
from this forum esp. Larry L. I now have the ability to
add photos to each form by simply storing the path to
the
photo. Doing this eliminates bloating the database. One
final question on this remains though. When entering the
path into the field on the form it is changing the photo
for that item. However a part of the set-up was to
create
a image table then link it to the artifact table; this
was
done but... the path to each image is not being stored
in
the image table. Should I be storing them in the image
table first and then matching them to the correct
record?


.