I have a container field that displays the contents of an image file located on a specific PC directory. The path and filename never change, but the image in the file can be edited/replaced by the user. I haven't found any standard feature to cause FileMaker to refresh the container displayed on a layout when the image changes. Is it possible to run a looping script (with delay) as a "background operation" to handle this?

Thanks for any suggestions.

I'd think that anything that causes a screen refresh (like going to another record, or an explicit Refresh Window command) should do it.

Thanks for the response.

I thought so, too. But going to another layout and back doesn't do it. Right now I'm using a script that consist of GoToField and InsertPicture to force a refresh. Should the container be a calculated field?

It CAN be a calculated field, but if the image is stored as 'reference only' it's pratically the same thing. It sounds like it's not.

I've also tried making it a global and adding the Always Validate option. It didn't help. Neither does a Refresh Window operation tied to a button on the same layout.

(Yes, the container is "reference only".)

Let me add one more puzzle: closing the application (but not FileMaker) and restarting it doesn't update the contents of the container, yet the container is global! It must have something to do with the file cache in XP.

Edited September 25, 200619 yr by Guest
added update

Are you sure about that? Because it works fine for me (I'm not sure how either global or validation can help here).

O.K., I think I've found something.

My InsertPicture script step used "imagewin:/C:/MyPath/MyFile.png" in the Specify Picture File dialog. No specific file was ever placed into the container on the layout. (It depended on the InsertPicture, which seemed to work.)

When I placed the same text "imagewin:/C:/MyPath/MyFile.png" in the container itself, the container tracks any changes to the image file.

This means (I think) that there is at least one subtle difference in behaviour according to how the image gets into the container in the first place. (on XP, anyway)

If anyone knows why this is so (by design or otherwise) please feel free to add to this!

I recently added a container field with a calc. for displaying an image through a reference to an existing and large db. No image was showing on the previously recorded records. Only when a change in the record was made would the image display. I could not picture myself going one by one to each and every record to update them !

I used Records --> Replace Field Contents and entered the same calculation I had in the container field... all records are now showing their images. No not quite... only those with an existing image file !!

Philippe