storing large numbers of images in ms access

Question

I have a inventory/Contact database where I need to store a lot of images (10k items, 1k people). Now, obviously ole object is out of the question due to the sheer bloat.

Is there a better way to do this, such as storing the pathway to the image ( would be stored in a folder with the database) and having that image displayed where I need it(this would be great because some items are repeated)? Is there anyway to do this? (also, i really need to have a filebrowser to the actual image instead of typing the path manually (that would be hell))

Answer 1

Here is a concept

Sub Locate_File()
   Dim fDialog As Office.FileDialog
   Dim file_path As String
   Set fDialog = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFilePicker)

   With fDialog  
    'Set the title of the dialog box.
    .Title = "Please select one or more files"

    'Clear out the current filters, and add our own.
    .Filters.Clear
    .Filters.Add "All Files", "*.*"

    'Show the dialog box. If the .Show method returns True, the
    'user picked at least one file. If the .Show method returns
    'False, the user clicked Cancel.
    If .Show = True Then
       file_path = .SelectedItems(1)
       Copy_file(file_path,Right(file_path, Len(file_path) - InStrRev(file_path, "\")))
    Else
       MsgBox "You clicked Cancel in the file dialog box."
    End If
  End With
End

Sub Copy_file(old_path As String, file_name As String)
  Dim fs As Object
  Dim images_path As String
  images_path = CurrentProject.Path & "\images\"
  Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
  fs.CopyFile old_path, images_path  & file_name
  Set fs = Nothing
  'Update your database with the file location of images_path & file_name
End

You may need to make changes and you must require the Microsoft Office 12.0 Object Library for FileDialog to work. Much of the FileDialog code was taken from Microsoft