File Import Question

[Hdawg]

Hello I have written an internal help desk program in MS Access 2k3 and
the client has asked that I add the functionality to allow end users
the ability to click on a command button and have a prompt appear to
allow attachments to be saved and associated with a specific ticket.
I am looking for advice on the best approach to this. There is also
another potential complication in that there will not be a single
filetype that would be uploaded. The customer wants the end user to
have the ability to upload txt, html ,doc,msg , xls, etc. I would like
to have this done so that the user simply has to select the file
location, highlight the file and click ok and it's associated with the
ticket and then the help desk staff see something akin to a hyperlink
that they can click on to pull up the file. I am essentially looking
to be pointed in the direction of the best approach and then I should
be able to figure it out from there...I think.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

Daniel Hidalgo

[Justin Hoffman]

"Hdawg" <hd*****@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@z14g2000cwz.googlegr oups.com...

Hello I have written an internal help desk program in MS Access 2k3 and
the client has asked that I add the functionality to allow end users
the ability to click on a command button and have a prompt appear to
allow attachments to be saved and associated with a specific ticket.
I am looking for advice on the best approach to this. There is also
another potential complication in that there will not be a single
filetype that would be uploaded. The customer wants the end user to
have the ability to upload txt, html ,doc,msg , xls, etc. I would like
to have this done so that the user simply has to select the file
location, highlight the file and click ok and it's associated with the
ticket and then the help desk staff see something akin to a hyperlink
that they can click on to pull up the file. I am essentially looking
to be pointed in the direction of the best approach and then I should
be able to figure it out from there...I think.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

Daniel Hidalgo

The question of how to retrive the full path of a file selected by pressing
a button, must have been answered many thousands of times, so leaving that
detail to one side, it seems to me that the next question is 'do I store the
filename in a database table?'
In my opinion, it would be better to simply have a storage area for these
documents, and each ticket number would have its own folder, e.g.
C:\HelpDesk\Tickets\T1000001\
C:\HelpDesk\Tickets\T1000002\
C:\HelpDesk\Tickets\T1000003\
The advantage of this approach, is that you do not have to synchronize table
entries with actual files which get moved, deleted or re-named. The down
side is that coding complexity increases somewhat.
Anyway, have you thought about your general strategy?

[Johnny Meredith]

I have this exact functionality in a database that tracks income tax
audits. The user clicks a button, selects a file, enters a breif
description of the files, and viola. The file is copied to an
"attachments" directory (a subdirectory in the "backend directory") and
the path is stored in the database. I decided to generate the file
names on the fly to prevent duplicate file names, and to also remove
any meaning from the file name itself (that's what the description is
for.)

Send and email to j[deleteme] meredith AT g MAIL dot COM and I'll reply
with the code and instructions.

Johnny