I have a (canned) query that retrieves the pathname to a bitmap file. When passing the
query to a report writer, I would like to have the actual bitmap in a field in my result
set. Is it possible to force the  query to include the (empty) bitmap field, which I can
then populate after the query is run, or is it possible to add the bitmap field to the
result set after the query is run?

If neither of these are a possibility, what other strategy would you employ?

"Bruce" <bvanderw@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:9330FF60-DE94-4466-95A1-113A93A705FB@news.elevatesoft.com...
>
> I have a (canned) query that retrieves the pathname to a bitmap file. When
> passing the
> query to a report writer, I would like to have the actual bitmap in a
> field in my result
> set. Is it possible to force the  query to include the (empty) bitmap
> field, which I can
> then populate after the query is run, or is it possible to add the bitmap
> field to the
> result set after the query is run?
>

Try something like

select afield, cast(null as blob) newfield from table

Robert

Bruce <bvanderw@gmail.com> wrote:


I have a (canned) query that retrieves the pathname to a bitmap file. When passing the
query to a report writer, I would like to have the actual bitmap in a field in my result
set. Is it possible to force the  query to include the (empty) bitmap field, which I can
then populate after the query is run, or is it possible to add the bitmap field to the
result set after the query is run?

If neither of these are a possibility, what other strategy would you employ?

=========================


I would tend to employ "another strategy", mainly because if you are returning a lot of bitmaps your app will slow down (even in these multi-gig-
memory days).

My preference is to return just "short data" in my query object (i.e. strings, numbers etc) & write the bit-map returning stuff into an object.

i.e. in your case (very roughly & just a suggestion) I might:

1. return the file-name in the query.
2. write bit-map retreiving code into an object that "owns" the query.
3. Use this object to retreive either just the current bitmap, or just those that are in the current view, of the user dynamically at run time.

I do a lot of this for customers & it always seems to work significantly faster than trying to put the whole thing "inside" the query.

A really helpful component for this is a freeware component called the THTMLViewer. It does a great job of displaying images, if you pass it a simple
string, including the file-name, and it has features like zooming, proportional, centering etc., all handled via basic HTML syntax in the string you pass.

It is not data-aware ... but that is the whole point.


Adam