Access Database help...
 

Currently I have tasked myself to create an Access database for scouting. I can easily create/delete fields quickly and do cool stuff BUT I am having 1 big problem. I want to put a picture of the robot next to the information I am gathering. After struggling for a couple days I have almost giving up. Access uses hand written code and I am lost at that. I have tried to borrow the code from other databases that do a smiliar thing, but nothing really works properly :( anything that would help would be appreciated. thanks!

Re: Access Database help...
 

I'm not completely familiar with Access, but you could probably do one of 2 things:

- Upload the image data to a BLOB data type and store it directly in a field

or, since Access probably has a limited buffer...

- Upload the image to a directory and store the pathname in the field

Re: Access Database help...
 

I tried the BLOB thing and I can search for the file on the computer and save the pathname but cant display it next to the data collected.

Re: Access Database help...
 

You would use an column of OLE Object data type. OR you can store the pictures in a directory with a common nameing convention (<teamnumber>.jpg) then use vba to retrieve and display that picture in a form.

Greg

Re: Access Database help...
 

How would I use vba to do that, I don't know how to code.

Re: Access Database help...
 

I don't know (sorry), I'm not real big on visual basic. You can probably figure it out through google though, or use the microsoft access help and look up OLE.

Greg

Re: Access Database help...
 

I had this problem last year (I can't write code either)
I ended up figuring out how to put pictures in after the season was over.

1. Create a field in your table to hold the pictures (Design View)
2. Set the Data Type to OLE Object
3. Switch to Data Sheet view and right click in the cell instead typing in data
4. Select Insert Object
5. Select Create From File
6. Chose Browse and select the file or type in the location

The picture won't show up in Data Sheet view, you can only view the pictures through a form or a report

Hope this helps
Lindsey

Re: Access Database help...
 

i am trying to make a scouting database for my palm, with dropdown menus. However, i dont know where to start. Hopefully someone could tell me what program to use and how to make a dropdown menu. Or if anyone has a program they could give me so i could add/ edit it, that would be great. Thanks

Re: Access Database help...
 

I know that last year Wildstang and the SigmaC@ts used a palm scouting database that you could load off of the wildstang site and download it all to SOAP. I don't know if they are doing it again this year but it would be an easier way to do it instead of making it yourself. I would check with Wildstang and SigmaC@t to see if they have it available again this year.

Re: Access Database help...
 

This is an interesting problem :) I have done quite a lot of VB, so I wrote the code that shows an image of the robot on the form in an Access DB. Since you probably use a form for data entry/display, this should be what you want.

The only thing I wanted to point out is that the images are not actually stored in the database. The code only stores the path to the images. So they still have to sit on the hard drive in some folder. Why? Because Access is very inefficient at storing images and has a file size limit of around 1 GB. And this limit is reached very quickly with just a hundred JPEGs stored as OLE objects.

You can grab the example database off our web server here: http://www.sinclairsprockets.com/imagedb.zip. I hope you find it useful. And if you rename the database table you'll need to edit the code.

Re: Access Database help...
 

I just found a very stupid bug in the DB I made yesterday :) Anyway, its fixed now and I uploaded the new version to the web site. If you already downloaded the old one please get the new version instead. Sorry :)

Re: Access Database help...
 

Type "Make It Work " and slam the keyboard repeatedly. - This usually works well for me.

Re: Access Database help...
 

One thing you will need to remember is that you will most likely need to resize the picture to something like 200x200 or 300x300.

I created our team's DB in access and got pictures working in January and I now have queries that figure out how long a person has been on a team, how much money they have brought in and other fun things.

If you have any questions, please feel free to PM or e-mail me: PC@BPRobotics.com.