I have a very simple database in access, but for each record i need to attach a scanned in document (probably pdf). What is the best way to do this, the database should not just link to a file on the pc, but should copy and keep the file with it, meaning if the original file goes missing the database is moved or copied, the file should still be accessable from within the Database. Is This possible? and what is the easiest way of doing it? If is should i can write a macro, i just dont know where to start. and also when i display a report of the table, i would like to just see thumbnails of the documents.
Thank you.
As the other answerers have noted, storing file data inside a database table can be a questionable practice. That said, I wouldn't personally rule it out, though if you are going to take that option, I'd strongly suggest splitting out the file data into its own table in its own backend file. For example:
Create a new database file called Scanned files.mdb (or Scanned files.accdb).
Add a single table called Scans with fields such as FileID (AutoNumber, primary key), MainTableID (matches whatever is the primary key of the main table in the main database file), FileName (Text), FileExt (Text) and FileData ('OLE object', really just a BLOB - don't actually use OLE Objects because they will bloat the database horribly).
Back in the frontend, add a reference to Scans as a linked table.
Use a bit of VBA to upload and extract files from the Scans table (if you're interested in the mechanics of this, post a separate question).
Use the VBA Shell routine (if you must) or ShellExecute from the Windows API (= the better option IMO) to open extracted data.
If you are using the newer ACCDB format, then you have the 'attachment' field type available as smk081 suggests. This basically does most of the above steps for you, however doing things 'by hand' gives you greater flexibilty - for example, it allows giving each file a 'DateScanned' or 'DateEffective' field.
That said, your requirement for thumbnails will require explicit coding whatever option you take. It might be possible to leverage the Windows file previewing API, though I'd be certain thumbnails are a definite requirement before investigating this - Access VBA is powerful enough to encourage attempts at complex solutions, but frequently not clean and modern enough to allow fulfilling them in a particularly maintainable fashion.
There is an Attachment type under Data Type when you go into Design View of your table. You can add an attachment field here. When you go into the Datasheet view of the table you can select this field for a particular row and a window will open for you to specify the attachment. This will cause your database to quickly grow in size if you add a lot of large attachments.
You can use an OLE field in a table, but I would really suggest you not use this approach. The database is going to be HUGE in no time, and you're going to regret it.
Instead, you should consider adding a field that stores the path to the file, and keep the files in one folder on your network. Then you can use a SHELL() command to open the file. What's the difference between restoring an Access database and restoring PDF files if something goes wrong? This will keep your database at a manageable size and reduce the possibility of corruption.
Related
i wanted to create via Excel or Oracle a database for a Storage room that is filled with all kinds of Computer parts and stuff.
I never created something like that, so i wanted to know if you could help me out giving me an advice how to create a database for a beginner
It should be possible to insert and remove parts or even update them
Hope my question is readable and understandable.
Thanks
A simple option to do that - not only the table so that you could write your own DML statements (to insert, update or delete rows) - but to create a nice application - is to use Oracle Application Express (Apex).
Depending on database version you use, it might already be installed by default. If not, ask your DBA to install it.
Alternatively, create a free account on apex.oracle.com; you'll get limited space (more than enough to do what you want to do).
In Application Builder, use the Excel file you have as a "source" which will then be used by Apex's wizard to create a table in the database, as well as application, true GUI which works and looks just fine.
If you don't have anything at all, not even an Excel file, well ... that's another problem and requires some more work to be done.
you have to know what you want (OK, a storage room)
is a single table enough to contain all information you'd want to collect?
if so, which columns (attributes) do you want to collect?
if not (for example, you'd want to "group" items), you'd need at least two tables which will be related to each other by the means of master-detail relationship, which also means that you'll have to create a foreign key constraint
which datatypes are appropriate for certain attributes? You wouldn't store item names into number datatype, right? Nor should you put dates (when item entered the storage room) as a string in varchar2 column, but into a date datatype column
etc.
Basically, YMMV.
At the moment I have a SQL Server Express instance with a database nearing the 10gig limit. I have a table that stores details about activities, one column being "Note" which can be up to 3000 characters long.
I would like to take this table and convert the "Note" column to use the file system so that it frees up some database space. I also need this column to allow full text searching. I've poured over all the documents on FileStreams that I can find but I still can't figure out the best way to do this.
My main question is how I get my existing data (nvarchar(3000)) moved over to this new Filestream column and allow full text searches to work on this. Everything I've read states that you have to have a column that denotes the file extension being used -- but I don't know how to file my data into the new field using a specific file type. I'd be fine using .txt as the type, if I could figure out how.
Any ideas or best practices would be appreciated. I'm not hung up on the FileStream, so I'd take any other recommendations as well. My company is too cheap to buy SQL Standard, so I'd l
I am using a file consisting of published scientific data. I'm using this file with a program that reads in the first 5 space delimited data fields, and everything after that is considered a comment by the program.
2 example lines (of thousands):
FeII 1608.4511 0.521 55.36 -1300 M03 Journal of Physics
FeII 1611.23045 0.0321 55.36 1100 01J AJ
The program reads it as:
FeII 1608.4511 0.521 55.36 -1300
FeII 1611.23045 0.0321 55.36 1100
These numbers are each measurements and most (don't get me started) have associated errors that are not listed in this file. I would like to store this information in a useful and updatable way. That is, say the first entry FeII 1608.4511 has an error of plus/minus 0.002. Consider when a new measurement is made and changes it to: FeII 1608.45034 plus/minus 0.0005. I would like to update the value, the error, and record some information about the publication that it came from.
The program that uses this file is legacy code and is both crucial and inflexible: and it needs the file to look like the above output when it's read in. I would really like for there to be a way to update the input file to include things like errors on the values and publication hyperlinks in comments. I would also like a kind of version control ability to return the state of this large file today; or in 5 months after 20 more lines are updated with new values.
Any suggestions on how best to accomplish this? Should I store everything in some kind of database?
Databases are deeply tied to identity. If a database can't identify a row by the data that's in it, a database isn't going to help you.
If I were you, I'd start by storing the base file in a version control system, not a database. At 20 changes per 5 months, I'd probably make those changes manually and commit each batch of changes. (I don't know what might constitute a batch for you. Could be a single change every time.)
Since the format of the existing file is both crucial and brittle, I'm not sure whether modifying it is a good idea. I think I'd feel better about storing error ranges and publication hyperlinks in a separate file, and using a script to put the pieces together for applications that can use error ranges and hyperlinks.
A database sounds sensible, SQL Server Express is free and widely used.
You can read in the text file including all comments and output the edited data in the same format. You can use a number of front ends including Access, for rapid development, or something you create yourself in VB.Net, or even Excel, at a pinch.
You will need to consider the structure of the table(s) but it should not be too difficult, and you can get help here.
For updating the information in the file introducing errors and links, you don't need any database; just open the file, iterate through the lines and update each one.
If you want to be able to restore a line state, you definetively need some kind of database. You can create a database in Sql Server or Firebird for example, and store in it a row for each line historical state (with date of creation off course); your file itself would be the repository for current values and you would be able to restore the file with a date and some simple fetcing of the database information.
If you can't use a database like Firebird or SQL Server, you can store the historical data in a simple text file, it's up to you. Just remember that you necesarely will need, like #CatCall commented, a way to identify each line in order to create a relation between the line in the file and the historical data stored in your repository.
I'm using SQL2008 to load sensor data in a table with Integration Services. I have to deal with hundreds of files. The problem is that the CSV files all have slightly different schemas. Each file can have a maximum of 20 data fields. All data files have these fields in common. Some files have all the fields others have some of the fields. In addition, the order of the fields can vary.
Here’s and example of what the file schemas look like.
Station Name,Station ID,LOCAL_DATE,T_1,TD_1,RH_1,CL_1,RS_1,RI_1,PR_1,RD_1,SH_1,CL_2
Station Name,Station ID,LOCAL_DATE,T_1,TD_1,RH_1,CL_1,RS_1,RI_1,PR_1,WS_1,WD_1,WSM_1,WDM_1,SH_1
Station Name,Station ID,LOCAL_DATE,T_1,TD_1,RH_1,RS_1,RI_1,PR_1,RD_1,WS_1,WD_1,WSM_1,WDM_1
Station Name,Station ID,LOCAL_DATE,T_1,RH_1,RS_1,PR_1,VI_1,PW_1,WS_1,WD_1,WSM_1
Station Name,Station ID,LOCAL_DATE,T_1,RH_1,RS_1,WS_1,WD_1,WSM_1
Station Name,Station ID,LOCAL_DATE,T_1,RH_1,RS_1,PR_1,VI_1,WS_1,WD_1,WSM_1
I’m using a Data Flow Script Task to process the data via CreateNewOutputRows() and MyOutputBuffer.AddRow(). I have a working package to load the data however it’s not reliable and robust because as I had more files the package fails because the file schema has not been defined in CreateNewOutputRows().
I'm looking for a dynamic solution that can cope with the variation in the file schema. Doeas anyone have any ideas?
Who controls the data model for the output of the sensors? If it's not you, do they know what they are doing? If they create new and inconsistent models every time they invent a new sensor, you are pretty much up the creek.
If you can influence or control the evolution of the schemas for CSV files, try to come up with a top level data architecture. In the bad old days before there were databases, files made up of records often had, as the first field of each record, a "record type". CSV files could be organized the same way. The first field of every record could indicate what type of record you are dealing with. When you get an unknown type, put it in the "bad input file" until you can maintain your software.
If that isn't dynamic enough for you, you may have to consider artificial intelligence, or looking for a different job.
Maybe the cmd command is good. in the cmd, you can use sqlserver import csv.
If the CSV files that all have identical formats use the same file name convention or if they can be separated out in some fashion you can use the ForEach Loop Container for each file schema type.
Possible way to separate out the CSV files is run a Script (in VB) in SSIS that reads the first row of the CSV file and checks for the differing types (if the column names are in the first row) and then moves the files to the appropriate folder for use in the ForEach Loop Container.
what is the best way to store long texts (articles) in a database? it doesnt need to be searchable.
i want to allow ppl to read the first chapter of every book in my bookstore. dumping it into a database field makes it difficult to style paragraphs using css..
EDIT: access database
If it is sql server 2005 USE VARCHAR(MAX)
EDIT,
It seems he saif access,
so i would go with memo
Up to 63,999 characters. (If the Memo
field is manipulated through DAO and
only text and numbers [not binary
data] will be stored in it, then the
size of the Memo field is limited by
the size of the database.)
or OLE Object (if you can)
An object (such as a Microsoft Excel
spreadsheet, a Microsoft Word
document, graphics, sounds, or other
binary data) linked (OLE/DDE link: A
connection between an OLE object and
its OLE server, or between a Dynamic
Data Exchange (DDE) source document
and a destination document.) to or
embedded (embed: To insert a copy of
an OLE object from another
application. The source of the object,
called the OLE server, can be any
application that supports object
linking and embedding. Changes to an
embedded object are not reflected in
the original object.) in a Microsoft
Access table.
Up to 1 gigabyte (limited by available
disk space)
you have several options:
store it as a long single string with no formatting, which will look bland on the screen.
store it as a long single string with embedded html and css, which will be a bad choice if you ever want to make your site have a different look/feel.
normalize it so you have tables to store books, chapters, paragraphs, etc. you could then format and style the text as you load it into the application.
The main difference between long text (CLOB / TEXT / VARCHAR(MAX)) and long data (BLOB / IMAGE / VARBINARY(MAX)) is that the former is subject to character set conversions while the former is not.
If you need to make character set conversion on the database side, use CLOB and similar.
If you always want to retrieve your data as you atored it, byte-to-byte (as opposed character-to-character), use BLOB and similar.
I don't know which database you're using, but if text doesn't need to be searchable, then you can simply store the HTML formatted text (for instance, value coming from an FCKEditor or components like this). If you need also searchability, then you can store both HTML an plain text in two separated fields.
Fields can be nvarchar(MAX) if you use MS SQL Server 2008 or any equivalent datatype on other databases.
EDIT:
Seems you're using Access, so go for Memo data type!
If you decide to store HTML, consider to store only a generic markup (div, p) to divide your text, than later apply CSS formatting, wrapping stored text within another div specifing formatting classes for children elements.
I wouldn't store any of the documents in the database, but store the data in files in the file system, and the only thing that's in the database would be a pointer to the data files.
You don't give any details in your question that would suggest any need whatsoever to store the documents in the database itself.
And there are very few circumstances where it's advantageous.
Use a CLOB.
For SQL Server
TEXT / NTEXT for SQL Server 2000
VARCHAR(MAX) / NVARCHAR(MAX) for SQL Server 2005 onwards
I would propose storing the first chapter as pdf file. This is secure and allows for good formatting. Then use a blob, clob, varchar, or text field depending on your product (see the other answers).
Or you could use images and look into something like amazone's "look inside". It would work with the same db techniques.
Alternatively you could use something like markup.
I personally do not like to put html in my database. Even if it is only for output. Too easy to put in some javascript. But maybe I'm just too cautious.
The following applies to Jet 4.0 only, being the version of the Access Database Engine in the era Access2000 to Access2003 inclusive:
I wouldn't store any of the documents in the database, but store the data in files in the file system, and the only thing that's in the database would be a pointer to the data files.
You don't give any details in your question that would suggest any need whatsoever to store the documents in the database itself.
And there are very few circumstances where it's advantageous.
If you are using ACE, being the version of the Access Database Engine in the Access2007 era, the Attachment data type would be an option, however I don't really know how it works, I've never used it so I can't recommend it nor say whether it's better or worse for this purpose. I'm also wary of new data types in the first release of a major version of the Access Database Engine. I just remember all the issues with byte and decimal fields at the introduction of Jet 4 and don't want to commit to something that may never work properly. The Attachment type in the ACCDB format was introduced for Sharepoint compatibility, and that outside dependency is something that gives me pause. Will the ACCEDB data type change someday if Sharepoint changes the way it works? I'm not sure I'd want to take that risk.
Put it in a TEXT field, and put it with their <p> so you'll be able to style paragraphs.
As it doesn't need to be searchable, it won't impact your sql performance.