Snapshots -vs- .pdfs

[BlueDolphin]

Hello all. I'm looking for some opinions on using snapshot files or
..pdf for some reports. We are in the initial stages of creating some
reports in access that will be pulled online through Cold Fusion. In
the past, I have simply created reporting tables with routines that
populated the tables overnight. I then use Cold Fusion to output the
info online as I wanted it to look.

I am in a shop now that wants to use either .pdfs or Snapshot files to
display their access reports online. I have put several pdfs online
in the past (...I didn't make them... just linked them up...), but
have never worked with snapshot files at all. I've heard of some
performance issues related to snapshot files, but don't know much
beyond that.

I'm interested in hearing from people who have been down this road
before. Which is the better approach with the best performance,
flexibility, ease of use, advantages, disadvantages etc... pdfs or
snapshot files?

Thanks tons for your input!

[Danny J. Lesandrini]

I love snapshot files ... hate pdf.

--
Danny J. Lesandrini
dl*********@hotmail.com
http://amazecreations.com/datafast
"BlueDolphin" <bl*************@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:fb**************************@posting.google.c om...

Hello all. I'm looking for some opinions on using snapshot files or
.pdf for some reports. We are in the initial stages of creating some
reports in access that will be pulled online through Cold Fusion. In
the past, I have simply created reporting tables with routines that
populated the tables overnight. I then use Cold Fusion to output the
info online as I wanted it to look.

I am in a shop now that wants to use either .pdfs or Snapshot files to
display their access reports online. I have put several pdfs online
in the past (...I didn't make them... just linked them up...), but
have never worked with snapshot files at all. I've heard of some
performance issues related to snapshot files, but don't know much
beyond that.

I'm interested in hearing from people who have been down this road
before. Which is the better approach with the best performance,
flexibility, ease of use, advantages, disadvantages etc... pdfs or
snapshot files?

Thanks tons for your input!

[Tony Toews]

"Danny J. Lesandrini" <dl*********@hotmail.com> wrote:

I love snapshot files ... hate pdf.

Why? Some clients of clients refuse to install a snapshot viewer but happily will
accept PDFs.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

[MGFoster]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

For Snapshot files to work on the user's web browser they have to have
the Snapshot viewer (executable/plug-in) installed on their PC, just
as to view a .pdf file requires Acrobat Reader. Do you know if your
projected user base will have the Snapshot viewer on their PC? We all
know that the Acrobat Reader can be downloaded for Adobe's website.
Do we all know where to get the Snapshot Viewer?

MGFoster:::mgf00 <at> earthlink <decimal-point> net
Oakland, CA (USA)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0
Charset: noconv

iQA/AwUBP9eCR4echKqOuFEgEQJo4QCeKBwAWG/mA2bfVXbPHwbeS+qTuHIAoMcZ
JtC1lRf6gbwQHL+FLyffb1FP
=r/lq
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

BlueDolphin wrote:

Hello all. I'm looking for some opinions on using snapshot files or
.pdf for some reports. We are in the initial stages of creating some
reports in access that will be pulled online through Cold Fusion. In
the past, I have simply created reporting tables with routines that
populated the tables overnight. I then use Cold Fusion to output the
info online as I wanted it to look.

I am in a shop now that wants to use either .pdfs or Snapshot files to
display their access reports online. I have put several pdfs online
in the past (...I didn't make them... just linked them up...), but
have never worked with snapshot files at all. I've heard of some
performance issues related to snapshot files, but don't know much
beyond that.

I'm interested in hearing from people who have been down this road
before. Which is the better approach with the best performance,
flexibility, ease of use, advantages, disadvantages etc... pdfs or
snapshot files?

Thanks tons for your input!

[Danny J. Lesandrini]

I set up a web site that uses some snapshot files, and I put a link
to the viewer so it could be downloaded and installed. Otherwise
you're right, it's not obvious where to find it, though a quick search
of Microsoft downloads finds it in about 3 clicks.

As far as why I don't like Adobe pdfs, I'm not sure. There's nothing
convenient about them. It takes forever to load into a browser and
I have to watch the splash screen count up the addins, libraries, etc
only to be asked if I'd like to upgrade every time it loads. It's invasive.

Snapshot viewer doesn't have bells and whistles, but it does what it
says it does, without a great impact on my life. It just works.
--

Danny J. Lesandrini
dl*********@hotmail.com
http://amazecreations.com
"MGFoster" <[e-mail]> wrote in message news:cn*****************@newsread1.news.pas.earthl ink.net...

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

For Snapshot files to work on the user's web browser they have to have
the Snapshot viewer (executable/plug-in) installed on their PC, just
as to view a .pdf file requires Acrobat Reader. Do you know if your
projected user base will have the Snapshot viewer on their PC? We all
know that the Acrobat Reader can be downloaded for Adobe's website.
Do we all know where to get the Snapshot Viewer?

MGFoster:::mgf00 <at> earthlink <decimal-point> net
Oakland, CA (USA)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0
Charset: noconv

iQA/AwUBP9eCR4echKqOuFEgEQJo4QCeKBwAWG/mA2bfVXbPHwbeS+qTuHIAoMcZ
JtC1lRf6gbwQHL+FLyffb1FP
=r/lq
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

BlueDolphin wrote:

Hello all. I'm looking for some opinions on using snapshot files or
.pdf for some reports. We are in the initial stages of creating some
reports in access that will be pulled online through Cold Fusion. In
the past, I have simply created reporting tables with routines that
populated the tables overnight. I then use Cold Fusion to output the
info online as I wanted it to look.

I am in a shop now that wants to use either .pdfs or Snapshot files to
display their access reports online. I have put several pdfs online
in the past (...I didn't make them... just linked them up...), but
have never worked with snapshot files at all. I've heard of some
performance issues related to snapshot files, but don't know much
beyond that.

I'm interested in hearing from people who have been down this road
before. Which is the better approach with the best performance,
flexibility, ease of use, advantages, disadvantages etc... pdfs or
snapshot files?

Thanks tons for your input!

[Pavel Romashkin]

Not for online use, but I had my application send out reports as
snapshots. They were small files indeed (well, the reports were'n too
large either) but one must have a snapshot viewer on their PC to view
the file. If I were a user and had a choice, I would not want to
download anything just to be able to view a particular file.
Same goes with PDF, although it is far more widespread and most users
already have Acrobat or Reader, so that's less of an issue. PDF lends
itself to byte serving, so if your reports are lengthy, the user will
see the first page faster.

Cheers,
Pavel

BlueDolphin wrote:

Hello all. I'm looking for some opinions on using snapshot files or
.pdf for some reports. We are in the initial stages of creating some
reports in access that will be pulled online through Cold Fusion. In
the past, I have simply created reporting tables with routines that
populated the tables overnight. I then use Cold Fusion to output the
info online as I wanted it to look.

I am in a shop now that wants to use either .pdfs or Snapshot files to
display their access reports online. I have put several pdfs online
in the past (...I didn't make them... just linked them up...), but
have never worked with snapshot files at all. I've heard of some
performance issues related to snapshot files, but don't know much
beyond that.

I'm interested in hearing from people who have been down this road
before. Which is the better approach with the best performance,
flexibility, ease of use, advantages, disadvantages etc... pdfs or
snapshot files?

Thanks tons for your input!

[David W. Fenton]

tt****@telusplanet.net (Tony Toews) wrote in
<g8********************************@4ax.com>:

"Danny J. Lesandrini" <dl*********@hotmail.com> wrote:

I love snapshot files ... hate pdf.

Why? Some clients of clients refuse to install a snapshot viewer
but happily will accept PDFs.

There was a major security hole discovered last fall in the
snapshot viewer, so it wouldn't surprise me that people would want
to avoid it.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc

[Danny J. Lesandrini]

I never understand these security holes. Does that mean that if
I use snapshot viewer, my credit card information is vulnerable?
<grin>

--

Danny J. Lesandrini
dl*********@hotmail.com
http://amazecreations.com
"David W. Fenton" <dX********@bway.net.invalid> wrote in message news:94***************************@24.168.128.78.. .

tt****@telusplanet.net (Tony Toews) wrote in
<g8********************************@4ax.com>:

"Danny J. Lesandrini" <dl*********@hotmail.com> wrote:

I love snapshot files ... hate pdf.

Why? Some clients of clients refuse to install a snapshot viewer
but happily will accept PDFs.

There was a major security hole discovered last fall in the
snapshot viewer, so it wouldn't surprise me that people would want
to avoid it.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc

[Larry Linson]

It may mean that everything on your and your clients computers is
vulnerable. Stealing credit card information isn't the primary target of
viruses and worms, Danny.

"Danny J. Lesandrini" <dl*********@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:br***********@ID-82595.news.uni-berlin.de...

I never understand these security holes. Does that mean that if
I use snapshot viewer, my credit card information is vulnerable?
<grin>

--

Danny J. Lesandrini
dl*********@hotmail.com
http://amazecreations.com
"David W. Fenton" <dX********@bway.net.invalid> wrote in message

news:94***************************@24.168.128.78.. .

tt****@telusplanet.net (Tony Toews) wrote in
<g8********************************@4ax.com>:

"Danny J. Lesandrini" <dl*********@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I love snapshot files ... hate pdf.

Why? Some clients of clients refuse to install a snapshot viewer
but happily will accept PDFs.

There was a major security hole discovered last fall in the
snapshot viewer, so it wouldn't surprise me that people would want
to avoid it.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc

[Danny J. Lesandrini]

I know that Larry. I was being facetious. We've actually had this
discussion before, as I recall. I'me very bad about security, as a
rule, in part because I don't understand how hackers use these holes.
I guess that was what I was getting at. Can you tell me how someone
exploits my Snapshot viewer to get at my private data?
--
Danny J. Lesandrini
dl*********@hotmail.com
http://amazecreations.com/datafast
"Larry Linson" <bo*****@localhost.not> wrote in message news:xd****************@nwrddc01.gnilink.net...

It may mean that everything on your and your clients computers is
vulnerable. Stealing credit card information isn't the primary target of
viruses and worms, Danny.

"Danny J. Lesandrini" <dl*********@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:br***********@ID-82595.news.uni-berlin.de...

I never understand these security holes. Does that mean that if
I use snapshot viewer, my credit card information is vulnerable?
<grin>

--

Danny J. Lesandrini
dl*********@hotmail.com
http://amazecreations.com
"David W. Fenton" <dX********@bway.net.invalid> wrote in message

news:94***************************@24.168.128.78.. .

tt****@telusplanet.net (Tony Toews) wrote in
<g8********************************@4ax.com>:

>"Danny J. Lesandrini" <dl*********@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>I love snapshot files ... hate pdf.
>
>Why? Some clients of clients refuse to install a snapshot viewer
>but happily will accept PDFs.

There was a major security hole discovered last fall in the
snapshot viewer, so it wouldn't surprise me that people would want
to avoid it.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc

[Tony Toews]

dX********@bway.net.invalid (David W. Fenton) wrote:

There was a major security hole discovered last fall in the
snapshot viewer, so it wouldn't surprise me that people would want
to avoid it.

I missed that.

There is a new version available for download just out a month or two ago.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

[Ross Presser]

"Danny J. Lesandrini" <dl*********@hotmail.com> wrote in news:br8l7k$l5ma$1
@ID-82595.news.uni-berlin.de:

I know that Larry. I was being facetious. We've actually had this
discussion before, as I recall. I'me very bad about security, as a
rule, in part because I don't understand how hackers use these holes.
I guess that was what I was getting at. Can you tell me how someone
exploits my Snapshot viewer to get at my private data?

Briefly, they send you a carefully constructed corrupt snapshot file, which
because of the snapshot viewer vulnerability can cause your machine to
execute "arbitrary code" - i.e., anything the hacker wants to execute, up
to and including a remote shell or a graphic remote access program like
vnc. Of course, they have to hope you open the snapshot file.

[Exponent]

PDF is a very well established, widely available, flexible, portable & robust format with a very large
installed userbase, and no relevant viewer/version/compatibility issues of which I'm aware.

Snapshots containing images are a particular cause of problems, and some versions of the snapshot viewer
won't cope with any more than a very few small images. Also, with pdf you can tune image resolution and
compression whereas, IIRC, images in snapshot files are uncompressed (read huge).

If your clients don't mind excluding non-Windows users, or anyone who can't be bothered to download and
install the viewer (or who can't because of a tight security configuration), then snapshot will do fine.
Otherwise, consider pdf.
--
__________________________________________________ _____
http://www.ammara.com/
Image Handling Components, Samples, Solutions and Info
DBPix 2.0 - lossless jpeg rotation, EXIF, asynchronous
bl*************@hotmail.com (BlueDolphin) wrote:

Hello all. I'm looking for some opinions on using snapshot files or
..pdf for some reports. We are in the initial stages of creating some
reports in access that will be pulled online through Cold Fusion. In
the past, I have simply created reporting tables with routines that
populated the tables overnight. I then use Cold Fusion to output the
info online as I wanted it to look.

I am in a shop now that wants to use either .pdfs or Snapshot files to
display their access reports online. I have put several pdfs online
in the past (...I didn't make them... just linked them up...), but
have never worked with snapshot files at all. I've heard of some
performance issues related to snapshot files, but don't know much
beyond that.

I'm interested in hearing from people who have been down this road
before. Which is the better approach with the best performance,
flexibility, ease of use, advantages, disadvantages etc... pdfs or
snapshot files?

Thanks tons for your input!

[Ian Hinson]

"MGFoster" <[e-mail]> wrote in message
news:cn*****************@newsread1.news.pas.earthl ink.net...

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

For Snapshot files to work on the user's web browser they have to have
the Snapshot viewer (executable/plug-in) installed on their PC, just
as to view a .pdf file requires Acrobat Reader.
A Microsoft article at
http://www.microsoft.com/accessdev/a...s/snapshot.htm
explains (among other things) how to embed a snapshot into a web page.

The HTML they give looks like this:

<OBJECT ID="SnapshotViewer" WIDTH=640 HEIGHT=480
CLASSID="CLSID:F0E42D60-368C-11D0-AD81-00A0C90DC8D9">
<PARAM NAME="_ExtentX" VALUE="16722">
<PARAM NAME="_ExtentY" VALUE="11774">
<PARAM NAME="_Version" VALUE="65536">
<PARAM NAME="SnapshotPath"
VALUE="http://MyWebsite/Webreports/catalog.snp">
<PARAM NAME="Zoom" VALUE="0">
<PARAM NAME="AllowContextMenu" VALUE="-1">
<PARAM NAME="ShowNavigationButtons" VALUE="-1">
</OBJECT>

A CODEBASE line can be inserted after the CLASSID line so that the browser
will download and install snapshot.ocx automatically from the specified
location on the http server. (Example of this is also given in that MS
article)
Do we all know where to get the Snapshot Viewer?

Can download it at the link above.

I find snapshots convenient since they're directly supported by Access.
But, unlike PDFs, snapshots do not embed fonts so can't get too fancy in
case the recipient doesn't have the same fonts.

[David W. Fenton]

tt****@telusplanet.net (Tony Toews) wrote in
<0a********************************@4ax.com>:

dX********@bway.net.invalid (David W. Fenton) wrote:

There was a major security hole discovered last fall in the
snapshot viewer, so it wouldn't surprise me that people would
want to avoid it.

I missed that.

There is a new version available for download just out a month or
two ago.

That was created to patch the hole.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc