external linking problem

[Duncan Rounding]

I've just been testing this with Excel 2007 (saved as .xls) and Actinic 10.0.2. It appears to work correctly for me. I tried it with 19507 characters in the Full Description field (Excel can't display that many characters in the cell but they do still exist) and it was fine but at 20800 characters Actinic crashed on start up.

There must be some other reason why this is happening to you.

Attached is a very simple spreadsheet that I used to test with. Maybe you could try it and see if it works for you.

[feemish]

Thanks Duncan for looking at this with me.

I linked to your excel sheet and yes it linked ok.
However I then started linking a couple of other products and hey presto its broken again.
I've attached your excel sheet, with just two extra products.. it now crashes on linking. This is weird. Please see if the adjusted sheet crashes for you.

[Duncan Rounding]

It wouldn't link at all at first because the Prod Ref was not originally formatted as Text. I deleted the Prod References, formatted the cells as Text then entered the same references again and it worked fine. You give it a go now and see if it works.

[feemish]

thanks for that astute observation!
I'll have a look at the spreadsheet I'm having trouble with and see if this something to do with it.

[feemish]

weirder and weirder... really gone down the rabbit hole !

The spreadsheet I am linking has all the product references in a 'general' field... not a 'text' field.

But it links up ok with no errors!

I'll say again.. the product references are in a 'general field' and it links up fine with no errors.

So what the score with that? How is it linking if the product references have to be in a 'text' field?

It links all products sucessfully, including short descriptions, full descriptions images etc...
It only fails as soon as I make a full description cells have more than 255 characters ! Then it wont link.

[Duncan Rounding]

have you tried the one I posted above?

[feemish]

yes. It works. thanks

but I'm confused as to how my troublesome spreadsheet is linking at all... as all the product references are in a general field...

and it is linking with no errors....

until a 'full description' field exceeds 255 characters.

[Duncan Rounding]

I think you would be better off linking using another Access database, especially if you have a large number of products as it could affect the time to check the site when making a snapshot or uploading. You can import the Excel data into an Access table quite easily and then link that instead which may be more efficient.

[feemish]

I have tried changing the product references to a text field.

I created a new column, formatted as text.
I then exported my product references to a csv file and then copied them into the 'text' field.. This has made no difference.

The file links ok (as it did when the product references were 'general' field)
adding more than 255 characters to a 'full description' field causes the link to crash.

[feemish]

I think you would be better off linking using another Access database, especially if you have a large number of products as it could affect the time to check the site when making a snapshot or uploading. You can import the Excel data into an Access table quite easily and then link that instead which may be more efficient.

yes that might be worth trying.
I was hoping to stay on a spreadsheet as I'm quite happy using them and have no experience of access databases... but maybe it is time to learn. ?

[cren]

Hi Feemish,

Can you try this with just one product in the spreadsheet and let me know if it fails still?

ie; One row only with the description field over 255 characters?

[Duncan Rounding]

You can emulate this with just Excel anmd Access, ie without Actinic.
It makes no difference on the number of rows - I've tried many combinations.

[feemish]

Hi Feemish,

Can you try this with just one product in the spreadsheet and let me know if it fails still?

ie; One row only with the description field over 255 characters?

Hi Cren,

You're onto something buddy!
Though I'm not sure what.

I deleted all the other products and just left the one with over 255 characters and it linked ! Weirdness.. how did you come to that idea and whats going on ?

[cren]

If I recal correctly, Its a bug/feature of ODBC. If you can ensure that there is one row in the 1st 8 rows of your spreadsheet with more than 255 characters then the link should work fine. Try adding all your products back in but make sure that the description field of row 1 contains at least 255 characters. (can be row 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 but has to be within the 1st 8 rows)

ODBS scans the 1st 8 rows to determine the datatype so if your field contains less it gets formatted as text and not memo.

[feemish]

Colin, you are a genius.

(well at the very least you have an excellent memory, good knowledge of ODBC, and an admirable benevolant disposition)

I think by George you have it !

This has had me confused for days, and support didnt suss this out either.
Thanks very much, I'm going to test this out fully but it looks like thats it. phew.