program design

[leeegglestone]

Im starting to design some software/system for work even though its not in my job description, and learned a little of it at college so thought id speed the process up rather than waiting for the IT monkeys downstairs to get their act together.

I will be including a database which needs to be written into by forms and info displayed.

I have a small question too
Is it possible for me to have a field in my table that links to one record, and has either the file path of one or multiple files to it or be actually attached.
If so then would i be able to pull up the data from the database, then launch the actual file via the program, view it withinin the program, or view it with the external sofware that relates to the type of file (likely to be pdf)

Basically im wanting to scan loads of files, and depending if i can get one file or one section scanned into one pdf file, or if i have to save them as seaparate pages determines this. These are gonna then be linked into the database where i will create records for each.

Im trying to speed up Paperless office in a way, even though i have problems with the scanner and the way it can save the scans, but thought id at least start designing a reasonable system

anyone help??

[cosi]

You would have to have two tables.
Record Table

Record_ID  (primary key)
[ record information...  ]

Record_Files Table

RecordFile_ID  (primary key) <-- not entirely necessarly, but might be useful
Record_ID_FR  Foreign Key that points to a Record Table Entry
Filename

For example:

These entries in Record
0      Joe    .... more of joe's info...
1      Max   ....
2      Dani   ....

Record_Files
0      0  JoeFile1
1      0  JoeFile2
2      1  MaxFile
3      0  JoeFile3
4      2  DaniFile

To find Joe's files, you know Joe's ID is 0, so get all from Record_Files that has the Record_ID_FR = 0.

Good luck! I'd recommend picking up a book on database design practices. Usually just reading the intro chapter can give you a good idea of how to do things.

Ed

[mnemtsas]

The previous posters advice is good, but didn't answer some of your question. Yes you can open some files in VB forms given that they support OLE. Try searching your MSDN documentation for OLE. So word, excel and so on will definitely work.

I'm not sure about PDF. You'll certainly be able to open it using the ShellExecute API call, given, of course, they have Acrobat Reader installed.

Cheers,