VBA Function to Determine if a File is a Valid XML File

XML

I was quickly reviewing a couple forums to look for interesting questions, ideas for blog posts and came across the following question on UA:

Validate File Type before Loading (XML)
Is there a way to validate if a file is an XML, CSV, or Excel file before I start attempting to load the data via VBA?


I would like to not have to rely on the file extension as that could be manually modified.

and thought this could make for a good quick post.
 
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Yet Another New Microsoft Access Roadmap Item!

After months, if not years of neglect, we get the surprise of another new item popping-up on the Microsoft Access Roadmap. Twice in two weeks!

Access: Add zoom slider magnification to Microsoft Access
Access will add magnification slider (10% to 500%) in lower right of the application, similar to the feature in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. It will also be keyboard accessible and available on the ribbon.
With the rollout scheduled for June 2025

 
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Using the QuickBooks REST API Via VBA – Part 2

As a second part to my QuickBooks REST API article, I wanted to actually demonstrate how we can work with your QuickBooks data and perform those common CRUD operations.

In Part 1, I went over the process and code to use VBA to authenticate with QuickBook oAuth endpoints and get the necessary Access Tokens. If you missed that use the link below to review it before continuing with this article.

Using the QuickBooks REST API Via VBA - Part 1
As many know, I have posted a couple articles regarding implementing REST APIs using VBA: Outlook Graph REST API Google REST API Monday.com REST API Once you get the basic concept and framework built then it becomes relatively simple to implement pretty much any REST API (as long as the documentation is good!). So, once again, doing some investigative work for a Web Application for a client, I was asked to look at integrating QuickBooks via PHP.  Once I got that done, I decided to look if the same could be done in VBA using my basic framework.  
 
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Saving User Settings and Preferences in Microsoft Access Database

Microsoft Access provides several effective strategies for saving user settings and preferences, ensuring a personalized experience while maintaining data integrity across sessions and devices. In this article I will explore some of the possible methods we can use for storing user-specific and application-wide settings in Access databases.
 
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Where To Turn To As The New Outlook Is Deployed And Breaks Our Applications

Anyone that follows my blog, knows that I’ve published many articles about the ‘New Outlook’. People are starting to face the issue of Outlook automation breaking when they upgrade to the ‘New Outlook’, and I use the term ‘upgrade’ VERY loosely as it truly is not an upgrading in any shape or form.

For instance, today, there were a couple posts on the subject on the Microsoft Answers Access forum:

How do I fix the SendObject failure with MS Access and the new version of Outlook
MS Access 365 Run-time error 2293

there have been others and many, many, many more will surface in the coming months.
 
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Using the QuickBooks REST API Via VBA – Part 1

As many know, I have posted a couple articles regarding implementing REST APIs using VBA:

  • Outlook Graph REST API
  • Google REST API
  • Monday.com REST API

Once you get the basic concept and framework built then it becomes relatively simple to implement pretty much any REST API (as long as the documentation is good!).

So, once again, doing some investigative work for a Web Application for a client, I was asked to look at integrating QuickBooks via PHP.  Once I got that done, I decided to look if the same could be done in VBA using my basic framework.
 
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Install Windows Using a Local Account With ByPassNRO, No More!

Microsoft appears to be up to their typical games and are trying to once again oblige users to have an online account to be able to install Windows.

That right, up until now, one of the most common techniques for installing Windows with a local account was to use the BypassNRO technique.

  • Launch the Command Prompt during setup by pressing Shift+F10 at the “Let’s connect you to a network” “Is this the right country or region?” screen.
  • Type in oobe\bypassnro and press enter to run the command.
  • Then restarts, and upon returning to setup, the “I don’t have internet” option appears, enabling local account creation.

However, Windows Insider edition testing has revealed that as of 25H2 Microsoft will be stopping this approach from working according to various reports.
 
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Working With Monday.com Via VBA Automation

I’ve been having some fun recently automating a database with Monday.com for a client. I had never used Monday.com, but they were using it and wanted to integrate information from my system into it. So I needed to develop a synchronization mechanism to for the standard CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete).

Now, the work I’ve been doing is actually part of a Web Application, so programmed in PHP, but I thought to myself that given the work I did on using the Outlook Graph REST API as well as the Google REST API, that what I had achieve in PHP I could translate over to VBA for use in any application of my choosing.

A couple hours later, I had a fully functional Access database capable of querying Monday.com, looking up information, creating entries, updating entries & deleting entries.
 
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Mastering The ByRef and ByVal Dilemma in VBA Programming

ByRef (By Reference) and ByVal (By Value) are two methods of passing arguments (commonly referred to as ‘passing mechanisms’) to procedures in Visual Basic and VBA, each with distinct behaviors and implications for how variables are handled within functions or subroutines.

Let’s take a moment to examine them to better understand there purposes and pitfalls.
 
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