Add hyperlink to existing record point to Folder

[Zydeceltico]

Hi all.

I am developing a db to record quality control inspections at a manufacturing plant. The front end of this db exists on a rugged tablet. The back end resides on a network drive.

Sometimes we need to take pictures associated with those inspections. Currently, photos are taken with either a phone or a camera. They are then downloaded to a specific folder on a network drive (e.g., F:\JobPhotos\Job6267\ ).

I have a tblQCInspections. That table has an existing field called PhotoLink.

I have a frmInspection to record single inspection events. This form is based on tblQCInspections.

Real Process: 1) inspect product filling out electronic inspection form (frmInspection). 2) find flaw. 3) take picture of flaw. 4) create new folder in F:\JobPhotos for that specific job. 5) download photos from phone to that specific newly created job folder. 6) Desire to return to newly created inspection record in tblQCInspections and add a hyperlink to the photo folder on the F drive.

I think I can manage all of the navigation and appending of records.

What is unclear to me is if I can add a hyperlink to a folder instead of a file. I want it to act like the "Insert Hyperlink" command in Outlook.

Thoughts?

I know I could just attach photos as single files but sometimes that could be a lot of files.

I'd rather have the user click a hyperlink to a folder and have Windows Explorer open up to that folder.

Is this possible?

Thanks in Advance!

Tim

 

[moke123]

Personally I, as do many others, dislike the hyperlink datatype. Just store the path to the folder in your DB as text and use shell execute or application.FollowHyperlink to open the location.

 

[Zydeceltico]

Agreed. How do I accomplish what you're suggesting? Do you have an example I could follow and mod?

 

[GinaWhipp]

Have a look at...
https://www.access-diva.com/d15.html

 

[Zydeceltico]

Thanks Gina!

 

[GinaWhipp]

You're welcome!

 

[Zydeceltico]

Have a look at...
https://www.access-diva.com/d15.html

Gina,

This has me thinking. We have many jobs all with a consistently formatted, incremental job number with a single-character alphabetic prefix (e.g., A6256).

When there is an issue with a job, we will take multiple photos of the issue and place them in a folder named, e.g., A6256. This folder will reside on a network drive inside a parent folder called "Job QC Photos."

The full path would then be, e.g., F:\Job_QC_Photos\A6256\.

There is no folder created unless there is an QC issue which would happen after the inspection itself. (Thinking "outloud").

So I guess real world process would actually be:
1) QC issue found while inspection record is being conducted (new record is created in tblInspection - field "LinkToPhotos" does not have any data recorded at this time. I assume the datatype of this field would be Hyperlink).
2) QC takes pictures, creates folder on network drive and uploads photos to that folder.
3) QC goes back into database to add folder path of new photos to field "LinkToPhotos" in existing record in tblInspection.

So my question then is: What is best practice to do this?

I guess I would need a form (frmAddPhotosToRecord) that will:

1) allow me to navigate to a folder
2) store the path to that FOLDER in a variable (varPathToFolder)
3) Place the value of varPathToFolder in field "LinktoPhotos" in tblInspection.
4) The recorded value/path would then be clickable from tblInspection (and any subsequent query or report forms).

How can I utilize your info to accomplish this?

Thank You - as always!

Tim

 

[GinaWhipp]

So, *thinking out loud*...

1. There should be a directory set up names *Quality Control* which you can hide. Any time a QC gets created it should create a folder in that directory.
2. Pictures get taken and uploaded to the subfolder
3. Once back in the database click a button to upload the files in said directory to table with path and description and whatever else you want to store in the table. (You're going to need a function for that.)

Then use a Form, like the one from my sample post so End Users can open the files. You really don't want them to navigate to the actual files as they could get *accidentally* deleted.

Note, I do not use the Hyperlink Data Type, nor Application.FollowHyperlink. See bottom of page for what I do use.