Hi

My status:
Im a beginer in the access vba langue and as all beginers i thaugt something that turned out to be realy complicated to be an easy task.

Baground info (skipable):
Im working on an database over pictures for archivation and have been working on it a couple of years. And over the cristmas weeked some bigshot desided it would be good to have a thumbnail on eatch picture in the database (since they are in .jpg thumbnail isent possible but links are true ole pakages, that they found out for them self before dumping it on our laps). Did an ecourse on access and it explained how to make personalised letters with info taken from a database. And thats where i got the idea but after getting toons of books and 1 week of trying im still non the wiser

The Problem:
The trouble with ole pakages are they arent auto updating and you have to enter them for eatch new post. (Kind of a pain since its alredy over 5.000 posts that needs to be updated and another 1.000 in an papperclip base)

What i would like:
A cmdButton that opens a coresponding filename to a field in the database.
For example "field name": A00001, A00002, A00003... opens A00001.jpg A00002.jpg A00003.jpg... (not in access but on the asigned program on the computer for .jpg files) or a way of making the ole objekt to auto update the pakages for eatch post

greatfull for any help at all
Andreas

Hi and welcome to Wrox!

It's never a good idea to store photos inside the database, so asking to link them from a directory is a smart move on your part.

Thumbnail or not, you can merely put an image object on your form, size it small. Set its Size Mode property to Zoom.

On the button's ON CLICK event, you'd just assign the photo depending on the file name stored in your fields.

For example

Me.imgThumb = Me.txtFilePath & "\" & Me.txtFileName & ".jpg"

If your path and name were instead calculated string variables based on something else,

Me.imgThumb = strFilePath & "\" & strFileName & ".jpg"

__________________
Greg Serrano
Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality
Air Quality Division

Hi
Thanks for your reply, wish i was as fast noticing it + im an expert on putting thing up :(

I under stand the "Me.imgThumb = strFilePath & "\" & strFileName & ".jpg""

Is it like somthing?:

Private Sub cmdTestbuton_Click()
Dim strFilePath As String
Dim strFileName As Field

strFileName = Lopnr & ".jpg" 'Lopnr is the field name where the filename is stored a number in this case
stFilePath = "c:\testobj"

Me.imgThumb = strFilePath & "\" & strFileName & ".jpg"

But i dont understand the variable for "Me.imgThumb" exept the ME part that means the curent form rigth?

It's more like.

Dim strFileName as String (not Field)
strFileName = Me.Lopnr & ".jpg"

Yes, the "Me" in Me.imgThumb is the active form. imgThumb is an image control placed on your form. What you're doing is leaving it unbound in design view. Then on the fly, you're assigning it to the photo located in strFilePath & strFileName.

__________________
Greg Serrano
Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality
Air Quality Division

Hi again
Tried a few difrent objekts (grafic, bound and unbound ole objekt) as imgThumb I only get runtime error 438 objekt dosent support the property or method. I now i do something wrong (exept speling like a 3 year old as a friend pointed out) what objekt class should i assign as Img control and how do i "leaving it unbound in design view".

The object type should be image, not bound or unbound object frame (OLE). To leave it unbound in the design view, you do not assign a file name in its Picture property in design view. You assign it later in your code.

Oh, my apologies. I missed the correct syntax. It is:

Me.imgThumb.Picture = strFilePath & "\" & strFileName & ".jpg"

or if strFilePath already has the last "\" in it and strFileName already has ".jpg" in it, then it's simply:

Me.imgThumb.Picture = strFilePath & strFileName

__________________
Greg Serrano
Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality
Air Quality Division

Yes it works you are awsome man :D

Hi again
I continue in this tread tho it address the same problem. The thumbnails is great and this is suggar on top but...
This time i actualy stumbled on how to open an external app in the button wizzard, when i tryied to make next post, new post and so on to tie the updating of the thumbnail to them.

And i almost got it to work.

Private Sub OpenPic_Click()
'On Error GoTo Err_OpenPic_Click

Dim strFileName As String
Dim strFilePath As String
Dim stAppName As String

strFilePath = "\testpics\"
strFileName = Me.Lopnr & ".jpg"
stAppName = "C:\Windows\system32\mspaint.exe"
Call Shell(stAppName & strFilePath & strFileName, 3)

Exit_OpenPic_Click:
Exit Sub

Err_OpenPic_Click:
MsgBox Err.Description
Resume Exit_OpenPic_Click

End Sub

This will open "paint" and load the current pic from the database.
The problem is i cant make it read the file path:

Call Shell(stAppName & strFileName, 3) 'Works if i put the picture in C:\*.jpg

OR

stAppName = "C:\Windows\system32\mspaint.exe \testpic\"
Call Shell(stAppName & strFileName, 3) ' Also works then it opens C:\testpic\*.jpg


or accept any other dir than C: if it for example put:

"strFilePath = D:\testpic\" it read out C:\D:\testpic\

this make a problem tho the database and pictures are stored on an external drive for bakup reasons.

Solved it :D
Call Shell(stAppName & strFilePath & strFileName, 3) Print out:
C:\Windows\system32\mspaint.exed:\testbilder\1.jpg

Call Shell(stAppName & " " & strFilePath & strFileName, 3) Print out:
C:\Windows\system32\mspaint.exe d:\testbilder\1.jpg
And it works