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From: Salad on 20 Jul 2010 12:26
I don't have A2010 yet.

In a desktop application you can store pictures in a table. Or one
could create a hyperlink to the image. Since Web apps contain a lot of
images and pics, how does one handle pictures? How does a user of tha
app upload a pic (is there a fileopen dialog)? Would one have a web
site that perhaps stores pics in a folder and store the hyperlink to the
picture of that folder in the table?

If it's possible to upload a pic and not need to store the pic in a
field in the table, what method does one use to copy the image to a folder?

From: David W. Fenton on 20 Jul 2010 12:56
Salad <salad(a)oilandvinegar.com> wrote in
news:LeudnX3mi6HPU9jRnZ2dnUVZ_tednZ2d(a)earthlink.com:

> I don't have A2010 yet.
>
> In a desktop application you can store pictures in a table. Or
> one could create a hyperlink to the image. Since Web apps contain
> a lot of images and pics, how does one handle pictures? How does
> a user of tha app upload a pic (is there a fileopen dialog)?
> Would one have a web site that perhaps stores pics in a folder and
> store the hyperlink to the picture of that folder in the table?
>
> If it's possible to upload a pic and not need to store the pic in
> a field in the table, what method does one use to copy the image
> to a folder?

Again, I am not using A2010 yet, either, but I think you're raising
a really important issue that the promotion of the new features of
A2010 for the web have glossed over. That difference is that this
new method of publishing an Access app to the web is not really the
same thing as creating a website at all. Websites have a lot of
stuff wrapped around the database interaction forms, such as site
navigation, ads, etc. None of that can be done from within Access.

Albert, and others -- are there provisions for embedding the Access
app inside a web page that has things in it that aren't part of the
Access app? I would expect not, but MS has really surprised me with
how much they've done in this release, so I'm all ears.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/
From: Salad on 20 Jul 2010 13:15
David W. Fenton wrote:

> Salad <salad(a)oilandvinegar.com> wrote in
> news:LeudnX3mi6HPU9jRnZ2dnUVZ_tednZ2d(a)earthlink.com:
>
>
>>I don't have A2010 yet.
>>
>>In a desktop application you can store pictures in a table. Or
>>one could create a hyperlink to the image. Since Web apps contain
>>a lot of images and pics, how does one handle pictures? How does
>>a user of tha app upload a pic (is there a fileopen dialog)?
>>Would one have a web site that perhaps stores pics in a folder and
>>store the hyperlink to the picture of that folder in the table?
>>
>>If it's possible to upload a pic and not need to store the pic in
>>a field in the table, what method does one use to copy the image
>>to a folder?
>
>
> Again, I am not using A2010 yet, either, but I think you're raising
> a really important issue that the promotion of the new features of
> A2010 for the web have glossed over. That difference is that this
> new method of publishing an Access app to the web is not really the
> same thing as creating a website at all. Websites have a lot of
> stuff wrapped around the database interaction forms, such as site
> navigation, ads, etc. None of that can be done from within Access.
>
> Albert, and others -- are there provisions for embedding the Access
> app inside a web page that has things in it that aren't part of the
> Access app? I would expect not, but MS has really surprised me with
> how much they've done in this release, so I'm all ears.
>
I'm curious too. Let's say the app is at www.accesssharepoint.com/app.
Do you point a hyperlink at a website to the app site?

Although getting away from my original question on pics, what does one
do to drive people to the app? Does on need to get involved with google
analytics?

From: Albert D. Kallal on 20 Jul 2010 16:06
"Salad" <salad(a)oilandvinegar.com> wrote in message
news:LeudnX3mi6HPU9jRnZ2dnUVZ_tednZ2d(a)earthlink.com...
> I don't have A2010 yet.
>
> In a desktop application you can store pictures in a table. Or one could
> create a hyperlink to the image. Since Web apps contain a lot of images
> and pics, how does one handle pictures? How does a user of tha app upload
> a pic (is there a fileopen dialog)? Would one have a web site that
> perhaps stores pics in a folder and store the hyperlink to the picture of
> that folder in the table?
>
> If it's possible to upload a pic and not need to store the pic in a field
> in the table, what method does one use to copy the image to a folder?
>

A good question.

There is a few choices, and I try to answer all your questions.

The simple approach for most forms is to simply insert a image into the
form.
(don't worry, this gets better!)

One nice addition to access 2010, that works both in client based
applications and web based applications, is a new option for imbedding
pictures into a form. In the past when you dropped an image onto a form, we
had linked option and we had the imbedded option. You will now see a NEW
third option called "shared".

If you choose the shared option in the property sheet for an image control
(when working on a form in design mode(, then the option for where you in
the past typed in (or browsed) for the picture becomes a drop down combo
box. That combo drop down will then show all of the CURRENT pictures you
have in the application (all the imbedded pictures).

So, you drop the image control into a form, select "shared", and then select
from the drop down any picture currently imbedded in the application.
Because this is 3 steps, there is also new "one step" to this by using the
image gallery that now appears in the ribbon. This ribbon option is a one
mouse click affair, but is in effect the same as the above outlined 3 steps
(I did not realize for some time this was the case).

Here is a screen shot:

http://cid-b18a57cb5f6af0fa.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/roomboking/imageG.png

I love this new gallery, and it even works for older applications. All it
really is doing is to simply let you view/see all of the images in the
application. And, of course access fixed (finally) the bloating problem with
embedded images. And even better is now that you can share those images, and
then this keeps the file size down even smaller. And, support is built in
for transparency in images.

Keep in mind one more interesting and significant aspect about the new image
gallery system, is that you can go in there and replace an existing image
with a different image. In the case of a client only application, thus if
every form, every report etc. has a corporate logo, and you needed to change
it, since there is only one instance of that image, then you can use the
image gallery on the ribbon, and replace the ONE image. Since there is only
one instance of the image, then whole application is completely changed by
that act. So, every form/report that was based on this image will reflect
this change.

I should point out the same effect also occurs and works well in web based
applications. So, once again if you use the image gallery management system
and replace that one image, then you publish, then every place in the web
site is now instantly updated.

This simple image change thus dramatically improved image handling and the
ability to place images inside of your Access applications. (both web and
client)

So the above issue is one suggestion and you thus drop the image on your
form and publish to the web.

The next question what about the case where you want to upload images, or
you don't want the image to be part of the application itself?

Let's say you wanted to have a family album with person's name and you want
the users to type in their name and then upload an image of themselves. In
this case you can use the new attachment field and bind an image control to
that. This little simple trick works absolute wonders, because not only does
it allow you to upload images to the website, but even more incredible is
behind the scenes somehow SharePoint actually generates a full path URL you
can use and link to. In other words if I upload an attachment field as a
word document or in this case a picture, then you get a URL within your
website that you could actually e-mail to somebody.

Regardless if you need the URL or not, the attachment feature lets you
upload images and attachments into a database, and it does so inside when
using a web browser (it launches the file browse dialog). In fact in my room
booking application, this continuous form show some images, and while the
new image control does allow to be used in continuous forms, I in fact used
the attachment field for this example application, because the idea was to
allow the manager of the application to setup the room pictures. Here is a
screen shot of the continues web form:

http://cid-b18a57cb5f6af0fa.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/roomboking/roombook1.png

(note, after you click on above link.click on the link again to zoom in
better)

Here is one of those forms opened up:
http://cid-b18a57cb5f6af0fa.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/roomboking/webctrl.png
(again, after you view above..click again for better view)

So this handles the case where you need users to upload pictures and
photographs perhaps even for parts catalog or whatever. And like I said, I
don't know the details behind the scenes, but while you can view those
pitchers inside of an access form as above, there's also that great addition
of an absolute URL being generated for each uploaded attachment.

Last but not least, there might be a case where you have a large existing
web site of lots and lots of pictures. In this case I would just simply drop
in the new web control onto the form bind it to a column in the database
that has the URL that points to this image on the other web site. While I
think the new web control has more uses in client only applications such as
showing flash or cool things like java in a form, the web applications also
can use this control also.

So, you simply drop in the new web control into your form, and bind the web
control to a column in your database that points to the picture on that
other web site.

In a nutshell, you don't have a resource library in the traditional sense of
a web site, but the above scenarios I Point out above tends to be quite
flexible, and for the most part right now I found to be more than adequate.

Albert D. Kallal (Access MVP)
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
nospam_kallal(a)msn.com


From: Salad on 21 Jul 2010 11:40
Albert D. Kallal wrote:

> The next question what about the case where you want to upload images,
> or you don't want the image to be part of the application itself?
>
> Let's say you wanted to have a family album with person's name and you
> want the users to type in their name and then upload an image of
> themselves. In this case you can use the new attachment field and bind
> an image control to that. This little simple trick works absolute
> wonders, because not only does it allow you to upload images to the
> website, but even more incredible is behind the scenes somehow
> SharePoint actually generates a full path URL you can use and link to.
> In other words if I upload an attachment field as a word document or in
> this case a picture, then you get a URL within your website that you
> could actually e-mail to somebody.
>
> Regardless if you need the URL or not, the attachment feature lets you
> upload images and attachments into a database, and it does so inside
> when using a web browser (it launches the file browse dialog). In fact
> in my room booking application, this continuous form show some images,
> and while the new image control does allow to be used in continuous
> forms, I in fact used the attachment field for this example application,
> because the idea was to allow the manager of the application to setup
> the room pictures. Here is a screen shot of the continues web form:
>
> http://cid-b18a57cb5f6af0fa.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/roomboking/roombook1.png
>
>
> (note, after you click on above link.click on the link again to zoom in
> better)
>
> Here is one of those forms opened up:
> http://cid-b18a57cb5f6af0fa.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/roomboking/webctrl.png
>
> (again, after you view above..click again for better view)
>
> So this handles the case where you need users to upload pictures and
> photographs perhaps even for parts catalog or whatever. And like I said,
> I don't know the details behind the scenes, but while you can view those
> pitchers inside of an access form as above, there's also that great
> addition of an absolute URL being generated for each uploaded attachment.
>
> Last but not least, there might be a case where you have a large
> existing web site of lots and lots of pictures. In this case I would
> just simply drop in the new web control onto the form bind it to a
> column in the database that has the URL that points to this image on the
> other web site. While I think the new web control has more uses in
> client only applications such as showing flash or cool things like java
> in a form, the web applications also can use this control also.
>
> So, you simply drop in the new web control into your form, and bind the
> web control to a column in your database that points to the picture on
> that other web site.
>
> In a nutshell, you don't have a resource library in the traditional
> sense of a web site, but the above scenarios I Point out above tends to
> be quite flexible, and for the most part right now I found to be more
> than adequate.
>
> Albert D. Kallal (Access MVP)
> Edmonton, Alberta Canada
> nospam_kallal(a)msn.com
>

Thanks Albert for answering the question. A lot of the social
networking sites (sns) permit the uploading of files and the concept of
an attachment field makes sense. Although I wouldn't expect an Access
app to be a sns, the ability of someone to upload a pic would/should be
expected.
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