October 19th, 2012
Have you ever wanted to requery a form after a user inserts a new record or modifies an existing record, to perhaps re-order things, but wanted to stay on the same record that you currently are on once the requery was done?
The fact of the matter is that it truly isn’t very complex to do. Below is some straight forward code to do so and you’d need only add it to a Form’s After Insert event or a control’s After Update event.
Dim rs As DAO.Recordset
Dim pk As Long
pk = Me.PrimaryKeyFieldName
Me.Requery
Set rs = Me.RecordsetClone
rs.FindFirst "[PrimaryKeyFieldName]=" & pk
Me.Bookmark = rs.Bookmark
Set rs = Nothing |
Now there is nothing wrong with the code above, but instead of putting such code inside each and every form’s After Insert event and every control’s After Update event, I thought to myself that I should be able to create a simple, re-useable function that I could call, and achieve the same desired effect. Below is that function.
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Procedure : FrmRequery
' Author : Daniel Pineault, CARDA Consultants Inc.
' Website : http://www.cardaconsultants.com
' Purpose : Requery the form to apply the chosen ordering,
' but ensure we remain on the current record after the requery
' Copyright : The following may be altered and reused as you wish so long as the
' copyright notice is left unchanged (including Author, Website and
' Copyright). It may not be sold/resold or reposted on other sites (links
' back to this site are allowed).
'
' Input Variables:
' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
' frm : The form to requery
' sPkField : The primary key field of that form
'
' Usage:
' ~~~~~~
' Call FrmRequery(Me, "Id")
' Call FrmRequery(Me, "ContactId")
'
' Revision History:
' Rev Date(yyyy/mm/dd) Description
' **************************************************************************************
' 1 2012-Oct-19 Initial Release
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub FrmRequery(frm As Form, sPkField As String)
On Error GoTo Error_Handler
Dim rs As DAO.Recordset
Dim pk As Long
pk = frm(sPkField)
frm.Requery
Set rs = frm.RecordsetClone
rs.FindFirst "[" & sPkField & "]=" & pk
frm.Bookmark = rs.Bookmark
Error_Handler_Exit:
On Error Resume Next
Set rs = Nothing
Exit Sub
Error_Handler:
MsgBox "The following error has occured." & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
"Error Number: " & Err.Number & vbCrLf & _
"Error Source: FrmRequery" & vbCrLf & _
"Error Description: " & Err.Description, _
vbCritical, "An Error has Occured!"
Resume Error_Handler_Exit
End Sub |
The beauty of the above function is that you can copy it into a standard module, and then call it with a single line of code in as many events as you choose. You could even build an event expression, thus not requiring any VBA events, if you so wished to.
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September 27th, 2012
I while back, I wanted to unsecure a database. Instead of messing around with accounts…. I simply decided to export everything, all the database objects: tables, queries, forms, reports, macros, modules into a new unsecured database. Now you can right-click on each object, one at a time, select export, browse to find the database, click ok, ok… but this is simply a complete waste of time.
Don’t ask me why you can’t, using multiple selected objects, perform an export?! this to me is the type of oversight made by MS’ development team, but this is another discussion altogether.
The good news is that we can easily accomplish a complete export using the power of VBA and a few very simple lines of code!
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Procedure : ExpObj2ExtDb
' Author : Daniel Pineault, CARDA Consultants Inc.
' Website : http://www.cardaconsultants.com
' Purpose : Export all the database object to another database
' Copyright : The following may be altered and reused as you wish so long as the
' copyright notice is left unchanged (including Author, Website and
' Copyright). It may not be sold/resold or reposted on other sites (links
' back to this site are allowed).
'
' Input Variables:
' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
' sExtDb : Fully qualified path and filename of the database to export the objects
' to.
'
' Usage:
' ~~~~~~
' ExpObj2ExtDb "c:\databases\dbtest.accdb"
'
' Revision History:
' Rev Date(yyyy/mm/dd) Description
' **************************************************************************************
' 1 2008-Sep-27 Initial Release
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Public Sub ExpObj2ExtDb(sExtDb As String)
On Error GoTo Error_Handler
Dim qdf As QueryDef
Dim tdf As TableDef
Dim obj As AccessObject
' Forms.
For Each obj In CurrentProject.AllForms
DoCmd.TransferDatabase acExport, "Microsoft Access", sExtDb, _
acForm, obj.Name, obj.Name, False
Next obj
' Macros.
For Each obj In CurrentProject.AllMacros
DoCmd.TransferDatabase acExport, "Microsoft Access", sExtDb, _
acMacro, obj.Name, obj.Name, False
Next obj
' Modules.
For Each obj In CurrentProject.AllModules
DoCmd.TransferDatabase acExport, "Microsoft Access", sExtDb, _
acModule, obj.Name, obj.Name, False
Next obj
' Queries.
For Each qdf In CurrentDb.QueryDefs
If Left(qdf.Name, 1) <> "~" Then 'Ignore/Skip system generated queries
DoCmd.TransferDatabase acExport, "Microsoft Access", sExtDb, _
acQuery, qdf.Name, qdf.Name, False
End If
Next qdf
' Reports.
For Each obj In CurrentProject.AllReports
DoCmd.TransferDatabase acExport, "Microsoft Access", sExtDb, _
acReport, obj.Name, obj.Name, False
Next obj
' Tables.
For Each tdf In CurrentDb.TableDefs
If Left(tdf.Name, 4) <> "MSys" Then 'Ignore/Skip system tables
DoCmd.TransferDatabase acExport, "Microsoft Access", sExtDb, _
acTable, tdf.Name, tdf.Name, False
End If
Next tdf
Error_Handler_Exit:
On Error Resume Next
Set qdf = Nothing
Set tdf = Nothing
Set obj = Nothing
Exit Sub
Error_Handler:
MsgBox "The following error has occured." & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
"Error Number: " & Err.Number & vbCrLf & _
"Error Source: " & sModName & "/ExpObj2ExtDb" & vbCrLf & _
"Error Description: " & Err.Description, _
vbCritical, "An Error has Occured!"
Resume Error_Handler_Exit
End Sub |
Voilà, nothing to it (once you do it once).
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June 25th, 2012
When I develop, I always, initially, build my SQL statements directly within my form’s Record Source. Now, it is a best practice to always create an independant query and base form’s off of the query rather than use an embedded SQL Statement. This is all fine a dandy when your db has 5-10 forms, but when you are working on databases with 10s or 100s of forms, this can become quite a teadeous task to convert all of the SQL statments into queries and then reassign the newly created queries to their respective forms. So, I thought about it for a couple minutes and quickly realized that this could actually all be automated quite easily. As such, I developed the following procedure.
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Procedure : ConvertSQL2QRY
' Author : Daniel Pineault, CARDA Consultants Inc.
' Website : http://www.cardaconsultants.com
' Purpose :
' Copyright : The following may be altered and reused as you wish so long as the
' copyright notice is left unchanged (including Author, Website and
' Copyright). It may not be sold/resold or reposted on other sites (links
' back to this site are allowed).
'
' Input Variables:
' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'
'
' Usage:
' ~~~~~~
'
'
' Revision History:
' Rev Date(yyyy/mm/dd) Description
' **************************************************************************************
' 1 2011-04-30 Initial Release
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub ConvertSQL2QRY()
On Error GoTo Error_Handler
Dim db As DAO.Database
Dim qdf As DAO.QueryDef
' Dim sSQL As String
Dim ctl As Control
Dim frm As AccessObject
Dim dbo As AccessObject
Dim dbp As Object
Dim sFrmName As String
Dim sFrmRS As String
Dim sQryRS As String
Set db = CurrentDb
Debug.Print "ConvertSQL2QRY Begin"
Debug.Print "================================================================================"
'Check Forms
For Each frm In CurrentProject.AllForms
sFrmName = frm.name
DoCmd.OpenForm sFrmName, acDesign
sFrmRS = Forms(sFrmName).RecordSource
Debug.Print "Processing Form: " & sFrmName
If Len(sFrmRS) > 0 And Left(sFrmRS, 4) <> "qry_" Then
Debug.Print " Converting Form: " & sFrmName
If Left(sFrmRS, 7) = "SELECT " Then
sQryRS = sFrmRS
Else
sQryRS = "SELECT [" & sFrmRS & "].* FROM [" & sFrmRS & "];"
End If
'Create a query based on the active RS and name it based on the form name for
' traceability
CreateQry "qry_" & sFrmName, sQryRS
'Change the form RS to use the newly created query
Forms(sFrmName).RecordSource = "qry_" & sFrmName
End If
DoCmd.Close acForm, frm.name, acSaveYes
Next frm
Debug.Print "================================================================================"
Debug.Print "ConvertSQL2QRY End"
Error_Handler_Exit:
On Error Resume Next
Set qdf = Nothing
Set db = Nothing
Set ctl = Nothing
Set frm = Nothing
Set dbp = Nothing
Set dbo = Nothing
Exit Sub
Error_Handler:
LogError Err.Number, Err.Description, _
sModName & "/ConvertSQL2QRY", _
, True
Resume Error_Handler_Exit
End Sub |
What does this procedure do? Well, it will go through all the forms in your database and create a query using the current record source and then reasign the newly created query as the form’s record source. I run this query just before deploying a databaase. It is also intelligent enough to only process those forms that don’t already have a query created, so it can be rerun whenever needed should I add new forms, etc…
Please note this procedure is dependent on my CreateQry procedure, so be sure to get it as well!
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June 9th, 2012
I was looking for a simple way to reproduce a web style expandable sidebar (accordian subform, expandable subform, sliding subform, shutter subform, or whatever name you'd like to use to describe it in MS Access), instead of merely making a subform visible/invisible. The attached file, does exactly that and with a single change to a constant variable you can control the speed of the shutter/slidder.
This is a very crude example to illustrate the principle. You can use any subform you like, within any form you'd like. There are no requirements to make this work and all the code is native MS Acces code, no external references, or ActiveX Controls. The button used to expand and retract the subform can also be changed as you see fit, it is just a question of placing the brief code behind whatever button you select to use in your design.


Just another nifty method to add a little wow factor to a form.
Sliding/Shutter Subform Example Download
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February 14th, 2012
I came across the following post and wanted to see what the issue was since I routinely use Irfanview myself (it is a great, free no strings attached piece of software).
So I contacted the creator of Irfanview directly regarding the error, and he was able to pinpoint the exact nature of the problem. As it turns out, the ico files created by Irfanview are just fine. The issue is that MS Access would seem to expect a specific type of ico file (and doesn’t tell anyone this).
Irfanview creates a 24BPP (with no alpha layer) ico file while MS Access seems (based on my testing and returned information from Irfan) to expect a 32BPP with an alpha layer ico file.
So for anyone else ever seeing this this of error. An ico is not an ico in the world of MS Access. It is picky and requires a specific type of ico file. So just be sure of the type of file your are creating is a 32BPP with an alpha layer ico and you should have no problems using them as a picture for a button. Alternately, instead of having such issues using a ico file, use BMPs instead. I personally don’t like BMPs as they aren’t used in any other programming (always jpg, gif, png, ico) so I will stay with ico so I can reuse them easily where I please. It would be nice if MS would integrate common image files into the application, but that is out of my hands (if it were up to me many issues like this would have been resolve a long time ago!).
Hopefully this will help someone out.
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November 9th, 2011
When using the a Treeview control and an expand control the Treeview sets’ the focus at the end/bottom node. So how can you return the focus, in this case ‘select’ the root node? To do so you merely need to use the following bit of code.
Me!TreeviewControlName.Nodes(1).Selected = True |
That said, selecting Nodes(1) may not always yield the desireed result. The reason being that if sorting is accomplished after nodes are added the Nodes(1) may no longer be positioned at the top. So what do we do now? There is a solution, but I’m not going to reinvent the wheel on this one. UtterAccess has a sample database with a procedure named GotoFirstNode() that works around the above mentioned little problem. The sample database in question can be found at Treeview Sample With Drag And Drop. It also, covers many other functionalities and is greatly worth checking out.
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November 8th, 2011
It can become necessary to need to determine the associated label to a given control. It actually is, yet again, very simple to do. Not what I’d call intuitive, but easy once you are aware of the proper synthax to use.
To reference a control’s associated label you use the following synthax
Me.ControlName.Controls(0) |
Or
Forms!FormName.Form.ControlName.Controls(0) |
So let’s say we wanted to determine a control’s associated label’s caption, we do something along the lines of:
Me.ControlName.Controls(0).Caption |
One note of caution however, you need to ensure you implement error handling to trap possible errors (Error number: 2467 – The expression you entered refers to an object that is closed or doesn’t exist) that may arise with control’s that do not have associated labels.
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November 4th, 2011
One of my greatest annoyances with Access is the fact that Microsoft in their infinite wisdom created a great field data type ‘Yes/No’ which you would think would be great for creating a Yes/No Option Group with. This is true if you want to have a default value, but what happens if you want to allow for a Null state, what is commonly referred to as a triple state field/Option Group, to allow for the case (a common situation in my experience) where you would like a Yes/No Option Group but leave it blank until the user actually makes a selection then the Yes/No data type no longer works?! You cannot have a Null value with a standard Yes/No Field.
So what is one to do?
Well, thankfully the solution is actually very simple. Change the data type from Yes/No to Number and change the Field Size to suit your particular needs. For instance, if like me, you wanted to assign -1 to Yes and 0 to No then you would have to change the Field Size to Integer.
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MS Access Forms |
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August 19th, 2011
Another interesting question I was once asked on an Access forum was how can one retrieve a random record in a form?
I was actually perplexed as to how to approach this request, but it really isn’t that complicated at the end of the day. The code below demonstrates one possible method.
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Procedure : GetRndRec
' Author : Daniel Pineault, CARDA Consultants Inc.
' Website : http://www.cardaconsultants.com
' Purpose : Goto/retrieve a random record
' Copyright : The following may be altered and reused as you wish so long as the
' copyright notice is left unchanged (including Author, Website and
' Copyright). It may not be sold/resold or reposted on other sites (links
' back to this site are allowed).
'
' Revision History:
' Rev Date(yyyy/mm/dd) Description
' **************************************************************************************
' 1 2008-Dec-21 Initial Release
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Function GetRndRec()
On Error GoTo Error_Handler
Dim db As DAO.Database
Dim rs As DAO.Recordset
Dim tblName As String 'Table to pull random record from
Dim iRecCount As Long 'Number of record in the table
Dim iRndRecNum As Integer
tblName = "YourTableName"
Set db = CurrentDb()
Set rs = db.OpenRecordset(tblName, dbOpenSnapshot, dbReadOnly, dbReadOnly)
If rs.RecordCount <> 0 Then 'ensure there are records in the table before proceeding
With rs
rs.MoveLast 'move to the end to ensure accurate recordcount value
iRecCount = rs.RecordCount
iRndRecNum = Int((iRecCount - 1 + 1) * Rnd + 1) 'Get Random Rec Number to use
rs.MoveFirst
.Move CLng(iRndRecNum)
GetRndRec = ![YourFieldName]
End With
End If
Resume Error_Handler_Exit
On Error Resume Next
'Cleanup
rs.Close
Set rs = Nothing
Set db = Nothing
Exit Function
Error_Handler:
MsgBox "The following error has occured" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
"Error Number: " & Err.Number & vbCrLf & _
"Error Source: GetRndRec" & vbCrLf & _
"Error Description: " & Err.Description _
, vbOKOnly + vbCritical, "An Error has Occured!"
Resume Error_Handler_Exit
End Function |
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May 25th, 2011
Here is a simple bit of code that permits you to hide the MS Access’ main object browser, to stop nosy users from accessing tables, queries, etc…
DoCmd.SelectObject acTable, , True
DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdWindowHide |
In conjunction with the code to determine whether the user is running the runtime or full version of Access (see MS Access – Determine if Runtime or Full Version
) you could insert a section of code such as:
If SysCmd(acSysCmdRuntime) = False Then
DoCmd.SelectObject acTable, , True
DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdWindowHide
End If |
This would also be a good place to enable any custom command bars/ribbons and/or disable any built-in command bars/ribbons…
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May 3rd, 2011
Here is a common question: “How can I make a field mandatory to my users?”
Well, as always, there are different techniques that can be employed. I will breifly covert 2: using Table Field Properties and using Form Events.
Table Setup
The easiest method is to merely set the table’s Required field property to Yes.
That said, this approach does present limitations. Mainly the fact that the message returned to the user references the Field Name (see the example below) and not its’ Caption or Description or Form Control Name, so the message in fact ends up confusing most users! This is why, using form event can come in handy.
The field ‘YourFieldName’ cannot contain a Null value because the Required property for this field is set to True. Enter a value in this field.
Form Event
Happily, we can add a lot more functionality and user-friendliness to our form by using its’ BeforeUpdate event to perform our validation. By inserting a little VBA code, for instance, something along the lines of:
Private Sub Form_BeforeUpdate(Cancel As Integer)
If IsNull(Me.[YourControlName]) Then
Cancel = True
MsgBox "You must enter a value for 'YourControlNameOrYourDescription'. Please make a valid entry or press ESC to Cancel"
'You could set the focus on the specific control if your wish, change the background color, ...
End If
End Sub |
As you can see, both are easy to implement, but the second method offers much more control and you can explain to your users in plain English to problem. Furthermore, you could also perform more advance data validation to not only ensure they have made an entry, but that it meet the require format…
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June 22nd, 2010
If you have ever needed to calculate the age between two dates, then the function below is for you. Often people mistakenly believe that the age calculation can simply be accomplished using the DateDiff() function, but this is not the case and a slightly more complexe function is required to do the job.
To merely calculate the age of an individual in years, you can simply use the DateDiff().
=DateDiff("yyyy", [DOB], Date()) - IIF(Format([DOB], "mmdd") > Format(Date(), "mmdd"), 1, 0) |
However, if you would like a little more detail (Years, Months, Days) you can use a function such as the one presented below.
Function fAge(dteStart As Variant, dteEnd As Variant) As Variant
'*******************************************
'Purpose: Accurately return the difference
' between two dates, expressed as
' years.months.days
'Coded by: raskew (from MS Access forum)
'Inputs: From debug (immediate) window
' 1) ? fAge(#12/1/1950#, #8/31/2006#) 'Calculate btw 2 specific dates
' 2) ? fAge(#12/30/2005#, Date()) ' Calculate as of today's date
'*******************************************
Dim intHold As Integer
Dim dayhold As Integer
'correctly return number of whole months difference
'the (Day(dteEnd) < Day(dteStart)) is a Boolean statement
'that returns -1 if true, 0 if false
intHold = DateDiff("m", dteStart, dteEnd) + (Day(dteEnd) < Day(dteStart))
'correctly return number of days difference
If Day(dteEnd) < Day(dteStart) Then
dayhold = DateDiff("d", dteStart, DateSerial(Year(dteStart), Month(dteStart) + 1, 0)) + Day(dteEnd)
Else
dayhold = Day(dteEnd) - Day(dteStart)
End If
fAge = LTrim(Str(intHold \ 12)) & " years " & LTrim(Str(intHold Mod 12)) & " months " & LTrim(Str(dayhold)) & " days"
End Function |
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