Hyperlinks in forms Question

[JohnnyBQue]

Hey guys & gals...

Question...I have 3 attachment boxes in my table that appears in a form.

each attachment box contains specific files (not specific as in extension such as PDF, JPEG, etc.) but specific as in Company Documents, Certifications, Resumes.

The issue is there's a lot of document and I see my database growing (fast)...
My question finally is....
Can I use a Hyperlink to open a folder within a specific directory where multiple file are located so i can open the specific file need there RATHER than attaching them in the attachment box individually?.?.....If not any suggestion as to how this can be done (no SQL) unless that route is very simple and basic coding.

My thinking would be to place the file path to the documents in the table and hyper link that column in the table, but not knowing exactly how Hyperlinks work I don't think it would actually work...otherwise it they wouldn't make it that easy...lol

thanks guys...

 

[JohnnyBQue]

Okay may have a temp fix....if I zip/rar the files there only a fraction of the size as if you add the individual together unzipped...the zip/rar file attaches with no issues and it opens with no issues...the user has to make an extra click to "unzip" but that's no big deal....My database is a gig and half (1.63gb) the way it is now (all files attached individually) I'm going to zip everything and re-attach to see the difference is database size...would still like to know about the Hyperlink option tho...

 

[JohnnyBQue]

well the 1.6gb was when I had about have the data I needed to input entered...I went back and zipped all the file and then attached them and entered ALL the data and the database is at 1.94gb......so not much room for expansion....I need to look in to my options here any suggestion would be welcomed.

 

[JohnnyBQue]

Well I can wipe the dum-as name off my fore head ....experimented with the Hyperlink and found that I could hyperlink a file path and when click it goes straight to the file so instead of having attachment field I'm going to make Hyperlink boxes and put the path to the folder that contain the files I need to access and let that be that ...I'll post back how much it reduces the 1.94gb.

 

[denileigh]

I need to do the same thing. Can you tell me how you did that? The table is in a sql backend and the form is in access. I need to open pdfs from the table list in access.

 

[JohnnyBQue]

Below is how I finally solved it...I generated a button (ImgSTIdoc)an on a click command (below) It went and look to see if there was any documents in my records table column call "STIdoc" in the fields of the employee chosen. I placed the file path to the actual document (if any otherwise I left blank). On my form I created a hyper link box that had "STIdoc" as it's control source. I hid this hyper link box so it couldn't be seen when the form opened. So when the button was click and there was something in the record field (file path of the document desired to bring up) the "Else" command below would active the hyperlink and open the directory that the file path lead to in the "STIdoc" column record field in my table. Now this was all based on what employee I had pulled up at the time as to the file path that was in the record field.

My database dropped from 1.97G to 3456K plenty room for expansion. Now I can never change the loction of the files that are to be brought up but this is not an issue because they are controlled documents and will never be moved form this location per ISO...


>>>>>>Private Sub ImgSTIdoc_Click() 'this is the button to click to see documents associated with employee
If IsNull(Me.txtSTIdoc) Then 'if empty
MsgBox "No STI Documents Avaliable", vbInformation, "Make Another Choice..." 'display this message
Me.cboGoToEmployee.SetFocus 'the set focus back to the control that allows you to select an employee
Else 'if document/file path exist open the directory leading to files
Application.FollowHyperlink [txtSTIdoc]
End If
End Sub <<<<<<<

Hope this helped

 

[Minty]

For more future proofing You could create a master location table with the current top level path in it e.g. "\\FileSrv\ISODocs\"
Look this up and add the stored document title to this path. (Obviously you also only have to store the document title.)

Now if you move your documents you only have to change one field in the master table e.g. "\\NewFileSrv\ISODocs\" the rest of the path stays the same...