Imaging

[DrEvil]

Hi guys,
I'm creating a document imaging part of the MS Access database that is
linked to MySql database via ODBC. I was hoping to have one or more tables
that will house images within MySql and then serve them back to MS Access app
per request. I'm using ActiveX from
http://www.viscomsoft.com/products/scanner/ and I'm able to control my
scanner (feeder, resolution, aspect ratio, color...etc) without any problems
including scanning multiple documents and saving them on mapped drive as one
file (PDF in my case). What I would like to do is be able to write this image
to as a OLE or BLOB to my database table. There is a part in help file that
talks about WriteBinary function, but for some reason I'm not able to get
this working. here is what help file says..

Write binary data types for storage of images embedded in the database
table. e.g. Access, SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL.

Public Function WriteBinary(
ByVal pField as UnKnown
) as Boolean

Parameter
pField
the field of olefield.

No Return Value

Example
Visual Basic Syntax
Scanner1.WriteBinary Recordset.Fields("pic")

This is all they say about it, I tried contacting the support but only thing
they said was; Now it only write the binary to access database, not a SQL
server database. You may see our write database sample

As you guys already know there are very few options when it comes to
controling scanners via MS Access and apart from saving, this ActiveX is
working pretty good.
I addition to image I was going to save date/time, user, link# (caseno),
once imaged I was planing to link/search these images by link# (caseno).

Thank you

Amir

 

[Larry Linson]

The referenced example has a sample of writing a BLOB, and you should be
aware that a BLOB is just binary data, not formatted for OLE. It doesn't
address
scanning, but that should be a separate issue than image handling.

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.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Office Access MVP