button picture from attachment

[bilalo]

I have a table items with two attributes: description (text) and picture (attachment field)
I want to make a form that contains a buttons for each item, items with picture are shown in the button's picture, otherwise their description is shown in the button's caption as follows:

I used the following code to do it

Dim rs As Recordset
Set rs = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset("SELECT description,picture.FileName FROM Item")
rs.MoveFirst
Do Until counter = 7
      Me.Controls("Item" & counter).Caption = rs![description]
      Me.Controls("Item" & counter).Picture = IIf(IsNull(rs![picture.FileName]), "", rs![picture.FileName])
      counter = counter + 1
      rs.MoveNext
Loop
rs.Close

The form works fine directly after I add/modify the attachment fields in the table, but if I open the form without making any updates to the attachment fields, it shows the following error: can not open the file "Hamburger.bmp"



Note that all the pictures in the attachment fields are embedded inside the table and I don't want to use any external folder to store pictures

Any idea why pictures are shown after updating them only? What should I do to make embedded picture attachments accessible after reopening the db without updating them?

[June7]

Attachment field is a type of multi-value field. I don't use multi-value fields.

Is there only one image in Attachment field?

If you want to provide db for analysis, follow instructions at bottom of my post.

[bilalo]

Yes each item has only one picture. Also some items do not have a picture
Do you think the attachment is not the best choice for my case?

Attachment field is a type of multi-value field. I don't use multi-value fields.

Is there only one image in Attachment field?

If you want to provide db for analysis, follow instructions at bottom of my post.

[Micron]

Why don't you just embed the picture in the button and do away with the attachment field?

[bilalo]

Why don't you just embed the picture in the button and do away with the attachment field?

The items are not entered by me, the user enters the items and specifies whether each item has a picture or not

[June7]

Since you get an error, I presume can't dynamically set button Picture property with image from attachment field. Image would have to be loaded from external location. I expect that is what is happening when image is first attached.

Only alternative I see is code setting visibility of image controls and textboxes.

[Micron]

the user enters the items and specifies whether each item has a picture or not

Well I'm confused by that. Your post is about getting pictures to show up on buttons so that someone can select an item that either looks like the picture or matches the text if there is no picture. I don't see how that's related to the user specifying whether or not the button has a picture on it. AFAIK, a command button image has to be linked or embedded, and since you don't want to link, that leaves you only one option.

[bilalo]

Yes I agree with you, I think there is no way to load embedded pictures into buttons

[bilalo]

Well I'm confused by that. Your post is about getting pictures to show up on buttons so that someone can select an item that either looks like the picture or matches the text if there is no picture. I don't see how that's related to the user specifying whether or not the button has a picture on it. AFAIK, a command button image has to be linked or embedded, and since you don't want to link, that leaves you only one option.

I am working on a restaurant software that allows users to specify their items (description/picture), and they have the choice to show a caption or a picture on the button. I am trying my best to avoid links so that users do not have access to the the image folders and do not accidentally rename the folder or delete it.

[June7]

Where do these images come from? Users find them wherever they want? When user finds image code should be able to copy to a folder location users are not even aware of. Save image name in field, not folder path. Hard code path. Since image path is only in code, users should not know it. Do what you can to prevent users viewing code.

I said "should be able" because I ran into issues of programmatically copying files. Used to be able to do it until office computers were upgraded.

Is this a split db?

[isladogs]

I am working on a restaurant software that allows users to specify their items (description/picture), and they have the choice to show a caption or a picture on the button. I am trying my best to avoid links so that users do not have access to the the image folders and do not accidentally rename the folder or delete it.

If the images are small f8les, you could add them to the Image Library for the app without significantly bloating the app size.
The images are then part of the app.

I would also lock down the app as far as possible so users can globally choose pre-defined images and/or text for all those POS command buttons but not alter individual buttons.

For info, there are 3 possible settings for command button images: linked, embedded and ​shared.

[bilalo]

If the images are small f8les, you could add them to the Image Library for the app without significantly bloating the app size.
The images are then part of the app.

I would also lock down the app as far as possible so users can globally choose pre-defined images and/or text for all those POS command buttons but not alter individual buttons.

For info, there are 3 possible settings for command button images: linked, embedded and ​shared.

What is a shared image?
My problem with embedded images is that they can be added to buttons only directly after attaching them. But if I close the db and then reopen it, they are not visible anymore to buttons.
Does shared images solve this problem?

[bilalo]

Where do these images come from? Users find them wherever they want? When user finds image code should be able to copy to a folder location users are not even aware of. Save image name in field, not folder path. Hard code path. Since image path is only in code, users should not know it. Do what you can to prevent users viewing code.

I said "should be able" because I ran into issues of programmatically copying files. Used to be able to do it until office computers were upgraded.

Is this a split db?

Yes, it is a split db, and that is exactly what I am doing currently, I ask my users to put all their pictures in a specific folder and then they open a form that allows them to attach each picture to its corresponding item as links and I save the pictures paths inside the db. And then their is another form that loads those images and puts them inside buttons.
But I still think this is not the optimal solution, users are allowed to add maximum 18 pictures (60 KB each) to the db, therefore I am not afraid of bloating the app size. But, if I can allow the users to save their pictures inside the db without using an external folder, that would be much preferable and less error prone.

[June7]

Well, if must embed image in table, then code would have to extract to folder location in order to use for embedding in button. Image file could be deleted after embedded into button.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/off...chments-in-dao

https://sourcedaddy.com/ms-access/wo...nt-fields.html

However, this entire process is not making sense. Won't these user-embedded images on buttons be lost every time a new version of frontend is distributed?

[Micron]

I think this is a POS app that's for sale.
One could also consider other options. Maybe an image control (has picture property) but probably requires image pairs (normal and highlighted). Or maybe tranparent borderless buttons over images, or stop trying to control everything a user might do. Does M$oft worry that you might delete your folder full of Word documents?