need some help

[Josh]

This probably isn't the correct group to post in, but didn't see where any other
group would be more appropriate.

I have an existing table which lists the pertinent data for certain motor sites.
Such as motorID, bearingA, bearingB, shaft size, etc. When field people work on
these sites, they frequently make notes and quick drawings to show work they
did. These don't really fit into memo fields or any other type of fields.

Therefore, I scan them, and convert to pdf. using the motorID; such as:
(using MotorID123 for an example) 123note120105.pdf or 123connector2.pdf

What I want to do, is to store the pdf's in a subfolder of where ever the
database is stored. Now, a user brings up the main form and selects "motor123".
This is were I'm getting lost......

My thoughts are:
(a) Have user bring up a "open file" dialog, where the standard windows "open
file" will open to the subfolder where the pdf's are, with only the motor123
pdf's showing. If this is a good idea, how do I do that?

(b) have a separate table that is only storing the names of the pdf.s, with a
hyperlink to the file's location in the subfolder. If this is a good idea, the
only way I can think of to do that is using continuous forms.

Plus, I'm not sure I won't run into Path problems down the road if I change the
location of the main DB.

Any thoughts, suggestions?
Thanks, Josh

 

[Ron2005]

In both of those approaches, you will always have the problem of
changes when you eventually end up having to change the location of the
main DB.

One approach / solution of this is

1) create a control table within the application. (If it is an mdb then
possibly make it a local table not linked.)

2) in that table maintain control information, For instance, the
network (use uttp type addressing and not letter addressing) address
for any and ALL files/directories you need.

3) make the table so you know how to get to every field ( One record
with many fields or multiple records with unique KeyIDs for each unit
of info)

4) Whenever you need to have a default directory (value) then go to
this table and either do a dlookup or open it and get the field that
contains the value you need.

This way, when you end up moving the application, all you need to do is
change the value in that table and ALL of your code will work. Using
the UTTP type addressing also gets around the use of letters that could
be different for individuals and/or departments.

Ron