Is there a way to search for an attachment?

Can you provide some context for this.

It sounds a bit odd that a single record has so many attachments that you need a search facility to find the one you want.

if you are referring to an "Attachment" Field, see this link

How to: Work With Attachments In DAO
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb258184.aspx


.

I understand.  But if I have several records and each record has one or more attachments and I want to find the records that have, for example, an attachment named "attachment1" and also "attachment2", and then another record that only has "attachment2", I want to have the result display both records since they both have the attachment.

I think your best bet would probably be to write a function that you pass a record ID and the name of the attachment field, and the name of the file your are looking for.

You then use code similar to what is described in the link that capricorn1 provided to:

1.  Determine whether that record contains an attachment
2.  If it contains an attachment, loop through the attachments and check to see whether the attachment name matches what you are looking for.  If you find it, set the functions return value to True, otherwise, set it to false.

That will at least allow you to identify the records that contain the attachment.

This is why many developers don't use Attachment datatypes (files stored IN the database)

The issue is that since one record can store multiple attachments, you must "Loop" though the attachment field for each record.

Besides you are not telling us how/where you need the results displayed.
The exact interface required will increase the complexity here.

Are you looking for a full solution here, or can you create the system to list/display the images on your own?
...and you just need us to help build the list of matching file names...?

JeffCoachman

...as fyed states, you need to reference the Attachment Filename and the recordID it is associated with, ...
... this makes "displaying" the image more complex as well.

So the code would have to first collect the search term.
Then loop all the records
Then inside the record loop, gather the attachment name (matching the search term) and the record ID
Then store this two dimensional data "somewhere" (array, table, ...etc)
Then display the filenames in a (listbox, combobox, ...etc)
...Then when a filename is selected in the list/combobox, do something *roughly* like this psuedo syntax:
    TableName.RecordID.AttachmentField.(AttachmentID).Open

From where I stand this all seems possible, ...but I don't have time to dig much further right now.

So here again, you need to be very specific on exactly what parts of this system you need help with...

I know that fyed is great at these types of questions, (attachments loops, ..etc) so check back with him first, (as  I am short on time.)

In any event, this code works fine to collect a list of attachment names matching the search term, and displaying them in a listbox:
(again, this does not store the RecordID, which is also needed, ...so perhaps this will give you a good start on the solution...)


'Code Start
Dim rstRecords As DAO.Recordset
Dim strAttName As String
Dim strSearchTerm As String
Dim rstPictures As DAO.Recordset
Dim strAccAttNames As String

strSearchTerm = Me.txtSearch

Set rstRecords = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset("YourTable")
 
rstRecords.MoveFirst
    'Loop the records
    Do Until rstRecords.EOF
        Set rstPictures = rstRecords.Fields("YourAttachmentFieldName").Value
        'Loop the attchments
        While Not rstPictures.EOF
            strAttName = rstPictures.Fields("Filename")
            If InStr(strAttName, strSearchTerm) > 0 Then
                strAccAttNames = strAccAttNames & "," & rstPictures.Fields("Filename")
            End If
            rstPictures.MoveNext
        Wend
        rstRecords.MoveNext
    Loop
    'If no matching names were found
    If Len(strAccAttNames) = 0 Then
        MsgBox "No matching files found."
        strAccAttNames = ""
    Else
        'Strip the leading delimiter character from the string of accumulated file names
        strAccAttNames = Right(strAccAttNames, Len(strAccAttNames) - 1)
    End If
    'Load the list of names into the Listbox rowsource (Listbox rowsource set as "Value List")
    Me.List1.RowSource = strAccAttNames
    'Refresh the listbox.
    Me.List1.Requery
'Code End


I may be able to play around a bit with this over the weekend, to see if I can get you a bit closer, ...but no guarantees.

But again, check with fyed first, as I may have even over-thought this...
;-)

JeffCoachman

;-)

hmmm.

I don't see an "Open" or "Activate" property  of the attachment object, so you may have to load the selected file as a temp saved file, and open it in an image control...

hey cap, is that you?

I see your little smiley...
;-)

I use the info in your links all the time.

But the link info will only "store" or "Save" the attachment, not get the attachment name ("FileName" )
(and also deos not discuss storing the RecordID, which seems neede in this case)

So here, all of the experts posts may be similar, but still remain distinct.

You can also see that I posted a working example of the code,
(loop records, accumulate the names, load the names in a listbox, ...etc)
so this is not just a re-post of the code in the link)
...if your smiley was meant to indicate that my post was an extension of the basic info in the link.
;-)

As you can see, I am taking this year off from EE for the most part.
I am just sticking my head in on a few interesting questions form time to time
I'm so busy that many times I don't even have time to follow up.

So no top expert here should be worried about me...

I just want to coast under the radar this year.

;-)

Jeff

Jeff,

Here is a sub I use to extract attachments.  You will see that you have to open a second recordset (denoted by <<======) to get the name of the file:

Public Sub ExtractAttachment(TableName As String, FieldName As String, Optional Criteria As Variant = Null)

    'Opens a recordset base on TableName, and extracts all attachments from field: FieldName
    'If no criteria string is provided, loops through all records in the table and extracts all of the attachments
    
    Dim rsMain As DAO.Recordset, rsAtt As DAO.Recordset
    Dim strSQL As String
    Dim strPath As String
    
    On Error GoTo ProcError
    
    strSQL = "SELECT * FROM [" & TableName & "]" & (" WHERE " + Criteria)
    strSQL = Replace(Replace(strSQL, "[[", "["), "]]", "]")
    Set rsMain = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset(strSQL, , dbFailOnError)
    
    'Select the folder to extract the files to
    strPath = CurrentProject.Path & "\"
    
    'Loop through the records
    Do While Not rsMain.EOF
        
        Set rsAtt = rsMain.Fields(FieldName).Value          '<<======
        While Not rsAtt.EOF
            If FileExists(strPath & rsAtt.Fields("FileName")) Then
                Kill strPath & rsAtt.Fields("FileName")
            End If
            rsAtt.Fields("FileData").SaveToFile strPath
            rsAtt.MoveNext
        Wend
        
        'Delete the attachments from the table
        If fnAdmin() = False Then
            rsAtt.MoveLast
            While Not rsAtt.BOF
                rsAtt.Delete
                rsAtt.MovePrevious
            Wend
        End If
        
        rsMain.MoveNext
    Loop
    
ProcExit:
    On Error Resume Next
    If Not rsAtt Is Nothing Then
        rsAtt.Close
        Set rsAtt = Nothing
    End If
    If Not rsMain Is Nothing Then
        rsMain.Close
        Set rsMain = Nothing
    End If
    Exit Sub
ProcError:
    If Err.Number = 3420 Then
        Resume Next
    ElseIf Err.Number = 3820 Then
        MsgBox "Selected file already exists in this record!"
        Resume Next
    ElseIf Err.Number = 3839 Then
        'Kill
        Resume Next
    Else
        Debug.Print Err.Number, Err.Description, "LoadAttachment"
        Resume ProcExit
    End If
    
End Sub

Select allOpen in new window

...sounds like a plan to me...
;-)