Hi,

I have quite a big MS Access 2007 database that contains the various issues from the Project i'm working on. These issues rely heavily on pictures and other support documents that are currently stored on a NAS together with the back end.
The pictures and documents are retrieved by the database using hyperlinks.
We are now looking at a way to migrate this database to a more reliable system (SQL Server, MySql or Share Point) in an effort to make this database available to the final customer.

I have been combing the internet to find a walk-through but all explanations only relate to the database itself and not on how to move also the support files.

Can anyone help?

Welcome to UA!!

In this regard the backend shouldn't make much difference.

Are you planning on still using access as the front end?

The backends you mention do not support hyperlinks... so you will need to store them as text and then programatically link to them using something like

Following on what Danny said, the storage of external documents is a whole different factor from the internal hyperlinks to them. In fact, it seems to me that migrating the documents should be optional here. What is the motivation for thinking about moving the support files?

Hi,

Thank you all for the reply.

the reason for moving also the documents is that without them the database is meaningless. The ideea of this database is to collect issues with support pictures and keep track of them as they are being solved.
Last year i used the attachment feature in MS access 2007 but because of the number of pictures i ended up with 7 separate databases to cover my entire project. this year i started saving them in folders on the network storage and hyperlink them to the database.( the back_ end is the the same folder as the attachments)

So far it is working fine locallly and reports are good but as the project draws to an end i need to find a solution to move everything to the customer and i need to find the best solution to do it.
So far i only found descriptions of how to migrate the front-end and back end but no one seems to tackle the issue of the attachment folders.

What i really need is some kind of a walkthrough or a step-by-step description if it's not too much to ask.

" need to find a solution to move everything to the customer "

I see, you are physically going to remove the image files from your network and install them on a totally different network under the customer's control? That was not clear earlier.

If that is the case, then, yes, you do have a hefty project ahead of you. It seems to me that the method you select depends, in part, on your having access to the customer's network, say via a VPN. If you do, then it should be reasonably straightforward, if not very speedy, to copy/paste the image files from your location to theirs.

Instead of searching in database venues, you might find more relevant information in forums dedicated to network management and document storage.

Iulique,

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Welcome to UtterAccess!

I totally understand the need to be able to move the folder with the attached files. It could be to just a different drive on server to get more space. It could be to a different server. It could be ti a totally different network or location. Whatever the reason, what needs done is the same.

Here is an example I created of how I solve the issue of moving the folder with the attached files:

Document Links 2

Thank you all for all your replies but i think i found a very simple solution to my problem:

The best way is to just copy the parent folder containing all hyperlink targets and the backend to the new location. next step is to go in all tables containing hyperlinks and convert those fields to memo. from here is just a simple exercise of replacing the target address old header with the new one. e.g.: say the old folder address was //old_path/Database back end/... replace that with //new_path/Database back end/...
After that simply restore the hypelink fields to hyperlink and re-link the front end.
Simple!

Two words of caution:

1-DO NOT set the hyperlink field to text as it will limit the number of characters and you may lose the hyperlink
2- the Replace function has to be run 3 times as it seems to stop when it encounters the "#" character. The hyperlink filed contains three sections "display text # file name # any reference within the file" and they all have to be modified

my guess is with a bit of VBA coding all this exercise can be automated

Anyone?

What I do in these situations is I don't store the path at all. Just the filename or subfolders and filename. I then ensure that I save any associated files in a folder relative to the back-end or front end (If basing it off the front end I use an FE deployer app that copies the FE to the users PC but passes the original location, for reference, via the /cmd parameter back to the local FE) and use the property to achieve something like this .

I am not experienced with SQL server but I think my approach based off the relative path to the original location of the FE would work. Alternatively look into database properties, you can make a custom property to save the 'Master Path' and then if the location ever changes thats all that needs to be amended.

It would look something like this