Managing Image Import

[Stuart Taylor]

I have several projects (in a project database) and each project has an image folder:

Project 1

> image 1.jpg

> image 2.jpg

> image 3.jpg

Project 2

> image a.jpg

> image b.jpg

> image c.jpg

I import the images for each project - great

1 week later

I add images to project 1

do i have to reimport all of the images in the Project 1 folder or is there a way to only import the new images in the folder.

The images are stored as a reference so they need to stay in this folder ... my project image folders run into hundereds so this could get very longwinded.

best

Stuart

[Fenton]

Take a look at the Matching Records option in the Import dialog, also [x] Add new records at the lower left. You can match on the File Path. This will give you a unique match. You must either Show All Records first, or at least Find all of the project folder you're importing into, so it can test existing records.

The thing is, Import Matching gets kind of slow, if there are thousands of records. So, if you know which folders had additional images, finding their records first before the import, and importing only that folder will save some time.*

If you imported the File Path earlier you can use that. If you didn't, you can parse a file path from GetAsText(container field). It will be the long absolute path, the last value. But the prefix will be "imagemac:/" or "imagewin:/". So you need to convert that to "file://" (2 slashes; and don't ask me why every different syntax needs a different number of slashes; I'm sure there a very good reasons, but sheesh :-).

*This could be further automated with AppleScript. It can compare a FileMaker Timestamp field with the modification dates of Finder folders (a FileMaker timestamp and an AppleScript date are the same syntax, more or less). It gets a little complicated however; ie., not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

[Stuart Taylor]

Thats really great ... many thanks Fenton.

I had messed with this once b4 and not been too successful ... will crack on and get it right with your advice.

I would love to use applescript for much of my work but work in xplatform environments.

slightly off topic ... but as i have been looking for alternatives...

I have had a lot of success with dynamic web viewer content and have worked out how to resize the images (and refresh the content at set intervals if needed, of and rollover buttons and animations are now possible) ... the thing i like about this is that it avoids the need to import at all if your image is named with the record ID for example ... (not sure how it will do with printing) ...

another great thing is it loads after the window appears so the window becomes active before the image loads. This was a nightmare for me as it really slows down the record displaying when displayed from a container.

This is great for list views as its now ok to put image thumbnails without worrying if the user has sized the image well as the list will appear quickly become active then load the images without any lag... fantastic.

Thanks again.

best,

Stuart

Edited August 31, 2006 by Guest