Updating Image Locations

If you've linked a lot of images to the issues in your collection, and then for whatever reason, moved those image files around on your hard drive, you know what a pain it can be to manually try to go in and fix them all.  Even the batch edit function can be bit trying in this case.

Well, hopefully, that is now a think of the past.

On the Utilities menu, there is a Find All Image Locations option.  Here's what that does.

When you select this option, Realms will check your collection for all issues that have either a primary image, or, one or more images linked through the image list window.

A pop-up window will appear, telling you how many images Realms has found in your collection.  At this point, you have the option of continuing, or cancelling the process.

Caution:  Please make a backup of your data (REALMS50.MDB) first, before running this update, just to be safe.  Realms will ask you if you want to backup your data.  If you select OK, you will see the normal Backup window.  Once the backup is complete, close the window, and you'll be back to the image update utilty.

Caution #2:  This process can take a LOOONNNG time, depending on the size of your collection, the number of images, and the number of directories/files on your hard drive(s), so I suggest running this when you can let it go for a while.  BTW, you can always stop it at any time in the process.

If you choose to go ahead, Realms will go through each issue that has images associated with it, and check to see if the image exists at the specified location.   If it does, no problem, everything stays as is, and on to the next one.

If it doesn't exist at the specified location, Realms will search all your hard drives (including network drives, at this point - I may have to make that optional) for the file in question.  If it finds it, it will update that issue with the found location.

For example, Issue #1 of Ultimate Spiderman is linked to the following image file: C:\Myimages\ultspidey01.jpg

Realms will first check to see if that file actually exists at that location.  If it does, everything stays the same.  If it doesn't, Realms will search your machine for the ultspidey01.jpg file.  Assume it finds it at C:\MyImages\UltSpidey\ultspidey01.jpg

Realms will update the issue record with the new location.

IMPORTANT:  Realms only checks until it finds the first occurrence of  a file.  If you have it in multiple locations, Realms will pick the one it finds first.

If it can't find it anywhere, it will write the title and issue number, and the image location to a image_errors.txt file.  At the end of the process, you have the option of viewing this file, so you can manully fix any errors that Realms can't fix.

In our example, if Realms can't find the ultspidey01.jpg anywhere, it will list the following

    Ultimate Spiderman #1; Invalid Image Location: C:\Myimages\ultspidey01.jpg

in the image_errors.txt file (created in the same directory where Realms is installed).

There is also a Text / Log File Viewer option on the Utility menu, if you want to look at this file, or any text / log file Realms creates.