Access project image files

[big moose]

I have a sql2000 database with a Access 2003 project front end that I am
trying to update to a vb.net front end application. In the access data
project, word documents were inserted into the database as "image" files.
Does anyone know how to open these in .net? I received a request in
vb.net2008 to import a reference to
"Microsoft.ReportDesigner.Images.ImageControl" but can find nothing about
this anywhere.

Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.

 

[Sylvain Lafontaine]

I hope that you have took notice of all the newsgroups that you have posted
to.

On SQL-Server, *image* field are not necessary images; the type "image" is
simply a varbinary of a length that might be greater than 8000 bytes and the
fact that this type is called "image" doesn't mean that it's associated with
some special capabilities to display images or other types of documents like
Word document.

Access has a special type of field that is called OLE Object and that can be
used to store images and Word documents. When linked to a SQL-Server, this
field is usually linked to a field of type image. However, it's not exactly
the image or the document itself that is stored in the database; as Access
add an header of variable length but usually of length 76 bytes before the
data of the image or the document itself. Also, I'm not sure if the length
is 76 bytes, so you will have to make some verification. I'm not sure also
if the length is always exactly the same length or not. For images, I do
know for sure that this length is constant but for other types of document,
I don't know.

So, if you want to display these documents in .NET, my thinking is that you
will have to strip this header and take only the following bytes.

Of course, this is true only if your original ADP application use the
standard way of Access of displaying images and other types of documents.
If this application is using its own method of storing, retrieving and
displaying Word documents; you will to adapt your code, of course.

 

[big moose]

I posted to multiple groups since no one seems to know how to handle this
problem. Must I wait for each group to respond before asking another? That is
not how real business works unfortunately.

I do appreciate your effort to respond and providing some insight into this
problem. I am aware that an "image" file does not necessarily refer to a
picture but rather a blob generally. My own research would suggest that
these are stored as "byte() arrays" and must be opened somehow with a .net
datareader as a "stream" but so far have not been able to accomplish that.

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

I posted to multiple groups since no one seems to know how to handle this
problem.

As I already pointed out to you in another newsgroup, if you feel you need
to post to more than one group (HINT: it's seldom necessary), the courteous
way is to cross-post (send the one message to all groups at once), rather
than multi-post (send individual messages to each group).

If you're using Microsoft's web interface to post, you should see an
"Advanced Options" link at the bottom of the page. You can type the names of
the various groups into the Newsgroup box, separating each newsgroup name
with a semicolon.

Must I wait for each group to respond before asking another?

When you cross-post, all responses to your post will be available together,
regardless of what group the responder was in.

That is not how real business works unfortunately.

Your approach is the equivalent of asking multiple consultants to work
independently on your problem simultaneously. That's not how real business
works.

 

[Sylvain Lafontaine]

My mistake, the length of the header is 78 bytes and not 76 bytes. For some
examples, see:

http://www.thescripts.com/forum/thread361635.html

http://www.thescripts.com/forum/post1655639-3.html

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/articles/20050911.asp

http://microsoft.apress.com/asptoda...tored-as-an-array-of-bytes-within-a-db-column

http://microsoft.apress.com/asptodayarchive/71859/pulling-images-from-an-access-db

http://microsoft.apress.com/asptodayarchive/71861/pulling-images-from-a-database

http://microsoft.apress.com/asptoda...bs-from-a-sql-database-using-a-browser-part-2

http://microsoft.apress.com/asptoda...ing-blobs-from-a-sql-database-using-a-browser

or search the web with Google with terms like « image stream net header
strip access ».

Again, many of these codes will be useful only if your original ADP project
use the standard way of Access for manipulating external documents (OLE
Objects).

 

[Stephen Lebans]

You're missing the point. Posting to multiple NG's is acceptable as long as
you cross post, not multipost. This was explained to you in detail in one of
your duplicate posts but I cannot remember which NG.

I will not answer a question that is multiposted especially when the OP(you)
insists on not following standard NG Etiquette.

--

Stephen Lebans
http://www.lebans.com
Access Code, Tips and Tricks
Please respond only to the newsgroups so everyone can benefit.