Digital Workshop

Hi,
I am trying to write a database program that will manage medical equipment for a Ministry of Health - the plan is to eventually have it on the main server and users log on via the intranet.

It will have several users - all of whom are not familiar with the items so I wish to create a folder of JPEG's that my program can access and display.

I have the jpeg title in my Database (Access 2007) and am trying to find a way to have my asset page reference the variable this is stored in and load the picture from the external file. Each new page will have a different picture.
So far no luck with finding the right script commands.
Any suggestions will be more than welcome

Hi bio,

I am a little confused. Not understanding. ( I suspect it is just me, and some others will readily understand and help. )

What is the DB on your 'main server'?

Are the JPEG files on each of the client systems, or are they to be downloaded/distributed?

I think there may be so many different ways to approach this. For example, if all of the image files were on the server, some clever URL parameter coding could display the appropriate image in a browser for the user.

Anyone else got a bead on this?

As Lar says, there are many ways to do this, but more detailed information is required to know what may be the best suggestion, but what you want to do is possible.

Not sure if you know?? if you display an image in Opus, the image name can be a variable, so rather than entering the absolute file reference, you can enter a variable by enclosing the variable name in LT/GT brackets e.g. <TheVariable>, then it is relatively easy to pull in the file reference from the access database and save it to 'TheVariable'

You can also do this with a browser object, using a variable rather than an absolute link, so the image could be from the web or an intranet

Sandy

Many, many thanks for the replies.
Finally figured out it was my computer - about time for a new one its getting unstable - as soon as I shut down and restarted it worked correctly.
What I am trying to do is this: I work as a consultant on clinical engineering in various developing nations and management infrastructure is not a well understood thing.

The program is a database to be kept on a network drive of all assets maintenance and repairs done in the various health departments.

The program I am writing will be kept on several computers such as the secretary of health, the hospitals director, the biomedical engineering team, the finance manager and the asset manager. A lot of these people don't have clinical knowlege of the equipment so can't tell the difference between a Dash 4000 patient monitor and a Spacelabs scout, for example and that is why i want a picture of each item to appear on the record page for that item.

The idea is they will be able to access the database and hopefully use the data to manage more efficiently.

I use Opus Pro for teaching clinicians but the beauty of it for this project is that, whilst there are commercial packages out there that do the job very well, they don't have good acceptance rates here as they are complex, not user friendly and often use technical english.

By involving my countries in the design of the program so it looks snazzy, has their own coat of arms and Ministry name on and is in their own language it is my hope they will take ownership of the program and use it.

I plan to prove it on Access as I am very familiar with it and if all goes well convert it to SQL when I go live.

So thanks for the input - next time something doesn't work the way it should I will go for the reboot first.
Any help or experiences you have that may stop me falling into further traps along the way are always appreciated
Cheers Andy Lyons

From your original post.I did not focus on this part, given some of the other things you mentioned. And from your latest information it seems you have this working... so good. I just want to mention that the "Sample Publications" that ship with OpusPro include some database examples, and one has example set-up for a 'catalog' of products with pictures.

Sounds like an interesting project and a valuable application. Hope all goes well.

hummmpf I wuz robbed - or shortchanged! - I downloaded my copy as postage to here is message in a bottle stuff but sadly my sample pubs doesn't have that catalog application you mentioned - pity it would have been great to see how the pros handle it.

Find it under OpusPro's File Menu: (see attached)

Please allow me to drop my "two cents (pence) worth" on this topic.

OPUS is a fabulous tool for building presentations, demonstrations, and simulations, but I believe you are making a serious error in trying to write an application to do the kind of maintenance/asset tracking I read in your request.

There are several software applications which will already do what you want. The amount of time and knowledge it will take you to build something only a fraction of what already exists -- will be HUGE. You are making a big mistake in trying this in OPUS. Buy an application which already exists for maintenance. I have built simulations of maintenance programs which took the programmers YEARS to build. Those packages will have features you haven't even dreamed of, but you'll want them. Save yourself a lot of money and buy a maintenance application. It will be much cheaper and better in the long run.

thanks Fred - I know what you are saying - the problem is quite complex but I have already been down that path providing them with very good commercial software and if its complicated or even slightly technical then the moment you are on a plane to the next destination it goes in the too hard basket and they revert to no management, in quite a few cases the computer you have left gets "Borrowed" and you loose everything and have to start again next visit! - there have been projects running for ten years on this now and they to date have all failed basically the moment the imported advisor leaves the country - its quite a challenge.
I cant say I will be more successful but I am hoping this approach may have a bit more staying power. If not well at least it hasn't cost big bucks for the software only grey hairs and many sleepless nights! Cheers Andy