OLE objects

[Inky Chandler]

A database contains a table in which pictures are stored
in an OLE field.

These pictures used to display in my forms and reports.
For some reason all of a sudden it only displays the file
name and not the actual picture.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Inky

 

[Exponent]

A suitable OLE server must be installed and registered to handle the relevant file-types. This is commonly
MS Photo Editor, and this problem arises often since Photo Editor is not installed by default in later
versions of Office (or not even available?). Alternatively, installing new graphics applications can break
this when the new app replaces the previous one as being registered to handle the particular filetypes.

But note that there can be significant drawbacks with this approach (quite apart from your users being
stuck with having this app associated with the file-types), usually the most serious of which is an overhead
of between 10 and 100 *times* the filesize for jpeg images (even when linking). To store compressed images
inside the database it is usually better to store only the raw binary data, or when working with external
image files just store the path and load the file into an Image Control.