How to view scanned images for crash records

Article created: Jan 21 2001, updated: Feb 11 2005

When viewing a crash record in the click-on dialog box, (single accident report) there is a button labeled simply "i" for image. Clicking on this button can provide you with a scanned image, web page, or for that matter, any other information related to the current crash record. But first, you have to configure the program to know where to look for your image files.

Select utilities / configuration / default settings / sys settings. Here you have access to a dialog that contains, among other things, a field called App, and a field called File. Both are in the click-on area.

There are three ways to specify the image file to display:

1. Launch the file itself, and let Windows figure out the application to launch automatically.
   In this case, you will fill in the the "app" field with information to specify the filename to load. The "file" field should simply have ("") in it.
2. Launch the application, and then specify the file to load.
   In this case, you will fill in the "app" field with the full path to the program you wish to run. You then fill in the file field with the information that specifies the file.
3. Launch a web address that specifies the image file, windows will then launch the default web browser.
   In this case, fill in the "app" field with the web address of the image or file you would like to view.  

Simple local case: GIF images stored in \DATA\RECIMAGES directory. Image file names are simply the caseid number with .gif added to the end.

App: ("\data\recimages\" + CASE_ID + ".GIF")
File: ("")

Simple network case: GIF images stored in "n:\crash data\images" directory. Image file names are simply the caseid number with .gif added to the end.

App: ("n:\crash data\images\" + CASE_ID + ".GIF")
File: ("")

Specific application used to access images: A proprietary reader exists which is located in "r:\apps\imgreader.exe". Proprietary IMG images stored in "n:\crash data\images" directory. Image file names are simply the caseid number with .img added to the end.

App: ("r:\apps\imgreader.exe")
File: ("n:\crash data\images\" + CASE_ID + ".GIF")

Complex network case: TIF images stored in "\\pubworks\crashdata\images\ccyy" directory. Here, ccyy is replaced with the year that the crash record is coded to. In addition, the first two characters of the CASE_ID number are removed, since the image files are already stored in a year-based direcory.

App: ("\\pubworks\crashdata\images\" + @copy( @datestr(date), 7,4 ) + "\" + @trim(@copy( case_id, 3,20 )) + ".tif")
File: ("")

Proprietary reader, no image files: A proprietary reader exists called "p:\apps\intimgreader.exe" which expects a date, time and case_id number to be passed to it.

App: ("p:\apps\intimgreader.exe")
File:(DATE + " " + TIME + " " + CASE_ID) 

Web address, with CGI variable: A web address exits that uses a CGI variable called incident to specifiy the image or web page to load based on the case_id number.

As a small aid in debugging, the program will present you with the app and file name that you attempted to launch, in the event that the launch fails.
In the event that the program can not even parse the expression that you entered, it will let you know the approximate position of the error, and attempt to give you some idea as to its nature