Global Path Variables Unusable?

[Stephen Andrews]

I'm relatively new with Alpha5 and have been perplexed with a problem in using variables for paths. If we hardcode the path using logical drives everything works fine. But when we switch to using a variable we get errors.

To be specific, we want to assign a bitmap file to a bitmap object depending on the employee's ID. Where EmpID is this numerical ID, we assign the bitmap with the code:
pict = alltrim(str(EmpID,9,0))
photofile = "o:\pers$\photo"+chr(92)+trim(pict)+".bmp"
topparent:Bitmap1.bitmap.filename = photofile
This works fine. The 'o:' drive is "\\percy\a5share". But we want to remove the hardcoded path.

We have a global variable which we initialize as:
ppath = "\\percy\a5share\pers$"
If we change the photofile assignment to
photofile = ppath+"\photo"+chr(92)+trim(pict)+".bmp"
we get errors when we try to assign this to the bitmap filename. In the trace window, these two assignments show up as identical. We cannot figure out why the bitmap object doesn't accept them in the same manner. Any ideas?

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Global Path Variables Unusable?

Stephen

Here is one method that works. Place a dummy bitmap in the same directory as the database. In the object properties, specify this bitmap. Since it is in the same path, no path information is saved. The bitmap could just be a small white screen. On the form OnFetch event, you could place something like this

var_path = "C:\My Documents\My Saved Images"
pic = var_path+chr(92)+"smiley.jpg"

topparent:Bitmap1.Bitmap.Filename = pic

var_path is a variable that saves the path to the bitmap and could be a global defined elsewhere. The bitmap object for this example is named "bitmap1". The best part of this process is that you can get the bitmap name from a field in the record. So if you are linking by employee id, you can use the id to determine the picture nname to show.

Actually, you may want to look at using a field with the type "image file reference" to link to an external bitmap instead of a bitmap object.

Jerry

[Stephen Andrews]

RE: Global Path Variables Unusable?

Jerry,

What you described sounds almost exactly how we set it up ... only that the var_path referenced a server location ("\\percy\a5share\pers$") instead of a C: drive location. Also, our var_path was that of the application instead of the image subdirectory. We did in fact assign a blank image to the object as you suggested.

Oddly, we did find another solution however which seems bizarre. This primarily involved (1) creating a dummy image on the user's C: drive, (2) copying the appropriate bitmap to this dummy image and (3) assigning this image to the object. The code is as follows:

pict = alltrim(str(EmpID,9,0))
newfile = "c:\socsvcs\image.bmp"
oldfile = ppath+chr(92)+"Photo"+chr(92)+trim(pict)+".bmp"
if file_exists(newfile) then
file_remove(newfile)
end if
if .not.file_exists(oldfile) then
oldfile = aa.bcbss.ppath+chr(92)+"Photo"+chr(92) +"not_avail.bmp"
end if
file_copy(oldfile,newfile)
topparent:Bitmap1.bitmap.filename = newfile

This almost suggests that newfile is a "file" type as opposed to a simple character string. As for your suggestion of trying the "image file reference" I'm unclear on how this is done. I don't see that as a field type nor as an object type.

Whatever, in witnessing this strange behavior today, I feel like I've had some "shock and awe"! Thanks again, Jerry.

Steve