Detect attached picture

[miszczykr]

Dear users,

I am using FileMaker Pro 5.5 and I have a database with users working over the network (both mac and pc), win2000 and FM servers. Each record contains at least one picture and they are suppost to be stored on a server as a reference to a picture.

Problem: Is there a possibilty to detect whether a picture was attached as reference or not? I have a solution how to store them as a reference (from now on), but the database consists of few thousand records already and i would like to modify wrong attached pictures.

Any suggestions?

[BobWeaver]

Since this is a one time only maintenance issue, and you have Macs available, you can create a simple applescript to get the reference to the field data. If the picture was stored as a reference, then it will return a valid file path which should be recognizable. If the actual picture was stored, then you will get either unrecognizable garble or an error message which you can trap. I forget which because I haven't done this recently. Check the applescript forum for more info.

[BobWeaver]

Just an afterthought: why not temporarily move the graphics files to another directory. Then create a list layout with a thumbnail size graphics field. Scroll through the list and see which ones still show the picture. These will be the ones that are not stored as references. Although, this may not be too useful if you have many thousands of records.

[miszczykr]

Thank you Bob, I will try both of them ...