Hi all-
We would like to expand the functionality of our FileMaker invoicing
system to allow us to store the faxed order confirmations of our
vendors. My question: would it make sense to store these as images in a
container field in each order, or is it necessary to store just the
reference to avoid bloating the database? The files in question are
about 15kb each, so it seems to me it wouldn't be too much of a burden
to store them directly, but am I setting myself up for problems down
the road? Also, since our users access the database over a network,
they would need to all be able to "see" the files if just the
references were stored, which might complicate things. Thoughts?
Opinions?
Thanks in advance,
Nate

I think the most important consideration is "how many records" are we
talking about in your solution in which you would require a fax image
to be stored.

If it's less than, I don't know, 50,000 records I would think you'd be
just fine. You could go up to even 100,000 or more maybe, or even
higher, but I would get queasy if any of my filemaker files got over a
gigabyte even though now those old limitations are removed.

Another consideration would be, do you ever want to do anything else
with these fax images? If you want them to be available on a web server
or local network server volume anyway, then you might want to do that,
and store a reference.

I saw what you said about people being able to view them over a
network, but I don't get a good idea of what kind of network you are
talking about, so I'm not sure how to advise there.

These are just thoughts that pop into my head that I hope can be
helpful, I think others will chime in with better thought out ideas.

Thanks for the reply Paul,
We are talking about 8,000-10,000 orders per year (and growing :-) ).
Our network is a Windows based LAN running off a Microsoft Exchange
Server. Users are using FileMaker Pro 8.5 clients to access FileMaker
Server. I worry about keeping track of the individual fax files if we
are just storing the references. Is this a valid concern or should that
be a trivial problem to take care of? I guess I'm just attracted to the
idea of having all the files right in the database (only having to back
up one file, etc.), but I don't want to create scalability problems.
Thanks again,
Nate

I have always found embedded image handling to be mush faster than
referenced whenever I have tested it

regards

Chris

I assume from what you've said that the pictures appearing on the order
forms are those of stock items that people are ordering?

Perhaps you could store the images as global fields, thereby ensuring
that there is only one image per item in your stock list. The images
that would appear on the actual orders would be a calculated field,
based on the item number they choose.
ie See http://www.hphomeview.com/temp/Image01.jpg.

Then one layout would consist of a page where the images were stored and
entered. See http://www.hphomeview.com/temp/Image02.jpg

The working layout would be the order form. See
http://www.hphomeview.com/temp/Image03.jpg Entering an item number
would cause the image to immediately appear but this would simply be a
copy of an internally stored one and so should not take up space.

This may not be viable if your stocklist is really huge but I thought
I'd throw it out in case it helped.

NScheffey wrote:

That is a good idea for storing pictures of stock items, and one I
have contemplated implimenting. However, I was asking about storing
Faxes, specifically faxed confirmations from our vendors, in the Order
record. I think I am going to go with storing the embedded image, as
others who have implemented similar solutions have recommended it.
Thanks,
Nate


On Jan 28, 5:49 am, Colin Croft <ccr... (AT) iinet (DOT) net.au> wrote: