Hyperlink best practice

[CalTech]

Hi. I'm creating a tool calibration database. In the calibration record table, there is a field with a unique calibration certificate number. I made this field a hyperlink to the pdf of the calibration record. Is this a bad idea? Should I make the calibration certificate number a short text field and create a separate field for the hyperlink to the pdf? Thanks

 

[Micron]

Many ways to skin a cat, as they say. Hyperlinks can be buggy at times but for your case I see no difference in having hyperlink text that just happens to be a document name vs a plain text field that provides some other type of linkage. If you go the latter route (plain text field) you don't need to show the textbox with the file path for the pdf for the record being viewed. However, you'd need code to deal with the plain text. If you made the path field a hyperlink field, you've just traded one field for another to do the same thing as you're already doing. It's just a matter of how you want to handle it. Surely you are doing this through forms and not allowing users to dabble in these tables and queries?

I find the subject interesting, having spent some time as a compliance auditor as well as a db admin for ISO 14001 and QS 9000 (I'm dating myself there, yes?).

 

[CalTech]

Thank you for the reply. We won't be allowing users to dabble in tables. I plan on digging further regarding paper record retention and we'll revise our SOP since we are doing away with the paper calibration log form. Thanks again.