Re: Containers, file size and references

I happen to have a large museum as client and they obviously want to
have the images of their paintings in each record of each file (FMP6).
So I had to do something.
I then used the Troi File - www.troi.com - plugin which comes with
excellent examples. I diverted some of them to do the following :
- have a special folder shared in the OS sense full of image files - one
file per image. E.g. Picasso012.fpg. Each folder can contain thousands
of files. In fact not more than around 5000 per folder as the files
names are put together in a field which is limited to 64 K characters.
in FMP6.
- then, create a special Images.fp5 file with one record per image and
in it a container field holding the 'reference' (the path) of the image
file and not the file itrself.
- this Images.fp5 file is part of a 50 FMP file solution put on
FMServer5.5. If the name of the image file amputed of its '.fpg' is the
painting ID, a simple relationship makes the image visible in each
record of each file.
- all that is managed - including the possible renaming of the images
files to meet my requirements - by the Troi File scripts.
It works beautifully on a daily basis.
I even adapted this technique to a more complex solution to be able to
manage 30 000 DVD and tapes cover pictures for a solution to a large
parisian store that rents them- 400 movements in and out of films a
day -.
When creating a film record they wanted to copy-paste the cover image
itself from an internet site to their cover container field. In a few
days they imported that way 2 400 small size images and the films.fp5
file jumped from 60 Mb to 170 Mb. They wanted to stick on that procedure
as it was is the quickest way to get the pictures.
I then automated the process in copying the actual images from Films.fp5
to my Images.fp5 file, then creating one file per image in folders,
erasing the actual images from Films and Images.fp5, and reimporting the
whole set of 'references' to those images into the Images.fp5 file. I
use 20 folders to overcome the 64Kb size limit. The process works every
night for almost real time update.
It was not a small task to build it.
I could share with you my actual programs, but a part is in french. That
could still give you an idea of how it has been built. Please request
them privately.
Remi-Noel



<aditsu@xxxxxxxxx> a écrit dans le message de news:
1129664968.246131.24830@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Hi all,
>
> I'm trying to put files (pdfs and images) into my FM database, and I'm
> studying various options.
> I added a container field, and first I tried dragging a pdf file into
> it. It worked, I could see the (reduced) image in FM, and
> double-clicking it opened the pdf in Adobe Reader. All perfect so far,
> except that the fp7 file size jumped from 88 KB to 11 MB!!! The pdf
> has
> one A4 page, 48 KB, and it is the only file I tried to insert, into a
> single record. After removing the file from the field and compacting
> the database, it went back to 88 KB.
> What is going on? Does FM store the file internally as an uncompressed
> bitmap, or what? How can it be so awful?
>
> The second thing I tried was inserting a file reference to the pdf. It
> worked, and the database didn't increase in size, however the image
> was
> not displayed (it showed a pdf icon and file name instead), and the
> process was not so simple.
> I created a button to make it easier to insert (and select the
> "reference" check box), but it's still less convenient than
> drag-and-drop (or copy-and-paste) which is still possible. If I
> prevent
> the latter actions by making the field read-only, the button also
> doesn't work. And either way, the pdf image is not displayed. Is it
> possible to improve these things?
>
> And finally, I tried inserting an object (create from file). It
> behaves
> just like drag-and-drop (database jumps to 11 MB), regardless of the
> "Link" option. If I select "display as icon", the database grows
> "only"
> to about 3 MB, but obviously it displays an icon instead of the pdf
> image.
>
> Do you know any solution to these problems? If there is a commercial
> plugin that helps, please describe what it does and how it works, and
> I'll try to rewrite it.
>
> Thanks
> Adrian
>


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