Locating .mdb file for pathway to images in v7

[Shirley Beech]

Please could someone help.

I have a corrupt pathway from Actinic v7 to my images. I am trying to locate the .mdb for the images to be able to do a "Find and exchange" to the correct name. I have transferred my images to another directory, and have over 1000 to transfer. Very time consuming.

Any ideas would be very helpful, other than not throw the computer out of the window!!

Cheers

Shirley

[wjcampbe]

Just trying to understand your post here.

First do NOT throw the computer out the window. It is totally blameless.

Now - are your image pathways corrupt BECAUSE you moved all the images, or was that a futile attempt to repair a "corrupted database" error message?

If you moved them after the message, move them back and in Actinic, run Housekeeping | Compact databases, tick both options. Once Actinic reports the database compaction is complete, re-open and check. If you still have a corrupt database, then you need to use the compact & repair option in MS Access.

If the move came first (i.e. you moved all your images and now you get an error message) it depends on your reason for doing it. If the images were inside the site folder, and you are moving them outside it - don't.

If the images were outside the site folder and now you have moved them inside the site folder, open ActinicCatalog.mdb in the same site folder, look for the product table - you will find the product image pathing here. Then look for the CatalogSections table - you will find section/subsection image pathing here.

[Shirley Beech]

v7 Lost pathway

Dear Bill,

Sincere thanks for your help. Something went amiss with the pathway and Catalogue would not recognise the pathway. An extra "C" and slashes appeared in the pathway. The images were in 3 directories depending on how the images were acquired, i.e. scanned, digital camera, or web.

I then decided to open a Directory within Site 1 and I have transferred all the images in there. The images are now being recognised, but I am trying to find a much easier way to sort out the pathway than manually doing it. It is taking me ages.

Tomorrow I will try and follow your suggestions. Actinic did suggest compacting and I did this, but it did not clear the problem.

Kind regards and sincere thanks.

Shirley.

P.S. I wouldn't have thrown the computer out of the window, honest!!!

[wjcampbe]

With the images in a directory, it will still be a bit of a nightmare to sort the database locations. If ALL the images were directly in site1 folder, you would just need to delete everything EXCEPT the actual file name.

EXAMPLE C:\My Documents\scanned\fluffytoy.jpg would become just fluffytoy.jpg - with the directory(folder) it becomes \directoryname\fluffytoy.jpg

[Shirley Beech]

Bill,

You really are helping me see the "Light between the Trees". However, I am not getting very far with the opening ActinicCatalog.mdb. The reason I have 2 ActinicCatalog.mdb and ActinicCatalog1.mdb. ActinicCatalog.mdb opens OK but says some something about "Magic 7" etc. When I try to open ActinicCatalog1.mdb - I get the following message.

C:\Program Files\Actinicv7\Sites\Site1\ActinicCatalogue.mdb.ConvertDataBase.
To correct this database to the current version of Microsoft Access, close database, point to Database Utilities on the Tools menu and then click ActinicCatalogue.mdb.Convert database.

Another message from the Catalogue.mdb. You cannot make changes to the database objects in the database Actinic Catalogue. This was created in an earlier version of MA.

Bill sorry if I am asking a stupid question. I am naturally a little scared of what could happen. I would guess I have to go into what is mentioned in Catalogue1 and follow the steps.

Would it be an idea if I took a snapshot, and put the site on my laptop, and worked on it from there. Rather than upset Catalogue on my main computer.

I really am appreciating your help.

Kind regards

Shirley.

[Jan]

ActinicCatalog.mdb is the correct file. Open this and you will find images paths in several tables.

catalog section for section images
product for product images, thumbnail images, exetended info images etc.

When you have opened the database.mdb, you can open the tables, find the columns you want to change and then use find and replace to correct the paths.

Take a copy of actiniccatalog.mdb as a safety measure before you start to change the images.

Change one image path at a time (ie. just section images or just product images) and check it in Actinic before going on to the next.

Close Actinic while you are editing the database manually.

Regards,

[Shirley Beech]

Jan, thanks so much for your help. I will try and follow these instructions. Would it be an idea if I tried to take a copy and put it on my laptop, and worked on that instead of going straight into sorting out the paths. I am petrified of making things worse.

Although I have been using Actinic for some years, I have never meddled with the inner workings!! It is strange how the problem originally happened.

Regards

Shirley.

[wjcampbe]

strange how the problem originally happened.

No, not really. The Housekeeping | Compact databases menu option should be run after every major change to the shop data and the Housekeeping backup option should be run before any changes. (It does not sound like you have been using these options - my apologies if you have).

Access appreciates fairly frequent maintenance. But even doing that would be no guarantee.

What you are doing now (getting rid of the external folders / image paths) will make things easier for you, but you will still need to run those two maintenance options to keep thing in good order going forward.

To respond top your Q about working with the laptop - by all means make a copy of your file and transfer it to your laptop, but as long as you have that safe copy, you can work with the original on the desktop. [Worth mentioning that you should not "convert" the ActinicCatalog file to the newer version of Access - you should be able to make data changes just fine if you ignore that message. It is only database structure changes that you cannot make. If you did convert, that would result in Actinic not being able to read your file - Actinic uses Access 2000 file formats].

Just relax and take your time, if everything is not done today, you'll finish tomorrow - either way, it will be right when its right .

[Shirley Beech]

v7 pathway loss

Bill,

Wweeeeeeeeeeee! I feel as though I am getting into the realms of the unknown. I never thought at my age I would be getting into this! At least it stops my grey cells from dying too soon!

If I understand correctly use ActinicCatalog.mdb only. It appears though that I can't get any further unless I update. Out of interest I am using Office 2000, so surely that would be OK to update.

You were right, I didn't know about compacting the database etc. Will in future do so. Thanks.

Cheers

Shirley

[Shirley Beech]

Bill,

So sorry to be a nuisance - I have tried to take a "snapshot" and saved it to my "memory Stick". When trying to open it to read what it says, it asks for what code to open in. Clicking plain text doesn't do it. What code do I use, please.

Or, do I have to load Actinic discs on to the laptop, then use the memory stick to be able to read and transfer the data.

Shirley.

[wjcampbe]

Shirley,

Sorry, to read the snapshot on the laptop, you would need Actinic installed (and patched to the same version - you cannot have 7.0.6 on the desktop and 7.0.4 on the laptop for example). Still save that snapshot - if things go wrong you have it ready to send to Actinic Support tomorrow.

All you need to save on the laptop at the moment is a copy of ActinicCatalog.mdb so that if something goes wrong when you are clearing up the image paths you can copy that file back into site1 again and start over.

I am surprised you are getting an update message with Access 2000 - that just should not be happening, but as long as you have the backup copy of the database safely stored away (and your snapshot), there is no danger of losing data (though if you have a CD writer, you could make a copy of the whole site1 folder for extra insurance)

[Shirley Beech]

v7 Pathway problem

Bill,

Thank you once again for your help and advice. I will do as you suggest and try again.

I think a Sherry before I start may help to give me some Dutch Courage. Will report back.

I just can't understand why with the Snapshot I have saved it to a Memory Stick, but if I try and open it, it asks what Unicode or similar it is. I do not understand this part. Maybe however, it is not like a word document where you can just read what it is. Maybe that is where I am getting confused.

Cheers

Shirley.

[wjcampbe]

The acd format is special to Actinic. You should not try to read or open it except with Actinic or an old (pre 7.4) version of winzip. Just copy it from the memory stick.

[Shirley Beech]

Bill,

Thanks for the warning. I will do another copy of the "snapshot" because I have tried opening it, and also using Winzip.

I am still trying to find the Dutch Courage!!

Many thanks.

Shirley.

[TraceyG]

Hi Shirley,

If your site has been upgraded from earlier versions of the software (ie v3 or v4) then the databases may be in Access 95 version so converting them to Access 2000 would be a good idea (upgrading does not convert databases, it just adds the new fields to the tables). You can do this by doing the following:

1. Close Actinic and open MS Access 2000

2. Click on the 'Tools' menu and 'Convert Database' and 'To Current Access Database Version'.

3. Find the following file - 'c:\program files\actinic v7\sites\site1\ActinicCatalog.mdb'. Highlight the file and click on the 'Convert' button.

4. You will have to save the database under a different name so accept the default of 'db1.mdb' and click on the 'Save' button.

5. Follow points 2 - 4 again but this time with the file 'c:\program files\actinic v7\sites\site1\ShipControl\SimpleShipping.mdb'

6. Open (in MS Access) 'c:\program files\actinic v7\sites\site1\ShipControl\db1.mdb'

7. Open Windows Explorer and go to the 'c:\program files\actinic v7\sites\site1' directory.

8. Find the file - 'ActinicCatalog.mdb' and rename it to 'OldActinicCatalog.mdb'.

9. Find the file - 'db1.mdb' and rename it to 'ActinicCatalog.mdb'

10. Still in Windows Explorer, go to 'c:\program files\actinic v7\sites\site1\ShipControl' directory.

11. Find the file 'SimpleShipping.mdb' and rename it to 'OldSimpleShipping.mdb'.

12. Find the 'db1.mdb' file and rename it to 'SimpleShipping.mdb.


As always, take backups of your databases before doing anything with them, just in case (better to be safe than sorry).

I hope this helps.