Using unbound form to enter data - ms-access

I have a main form (bound to a table) and unbound form that is used for selection a value in one of the main form's required fields. Main form has three required fields (firstName, lastName, source) and unbound form is used to display all sources that can be selected by the user so when the user confirms source it will automatically insert this information in the main form's bound table.
I've figured out the code for existing records and my unbound form successfully inserts updated source. However the problem are new records. Because source is required field, the main form won't let me open unbound form since it detects that not all fields are entered for the new record.
I tried using this piece of code when user clicks on a button to select the source (by opening unbound form):
If (Me.Dirty) Then
Me.Dirty = False
End If
to avoid being asked to enter the third piece of information before going to an unbound form that will allow user to input this data, however i get an exception that tells me that I cannot leave the form apparently without entering the source.
Is this a common problem and how would one go around solving it? I understand that it is easier just to use bound command on the main form but since selecting sources can be confusing I thought it would be better to actually create a second form so that the user could correctly select the source when saving new or updating existing records.

Related

How do I get my Access form to re-open to the last unbound text box entries?

I have created a form to update criteria in various queries in my database. I have 4 unbound text boxes. The user enters the new dates into the text boxes and I've added a button to run the queries. The query results look great.
The problem is, I want to be able to close the form and upon re-open have the dates that were last entered re-appear. Instead, the text boxes are blank and the user has to re-enter the dates.
Basically, the same dates will be used for a month, then at month end, the dates will change. I would like to be able to set the default to the last entry.
Is this possible?
Rather than using unbound textboxes, consider creating a table containing a single record to store the values entered in each textbox, and then use the table fields as the Control Source for each textbox.
This way, when the user enters/changes the value in the textbox, the underlying table record is automatically modified and will be automatically reloaded when the form is reopened.
You can also set the Allow Additions & Allow Deletions properties both to No in the Form Data properties, so that the user cannot create/delete the record in the underlying table being used to save the textbox values. Make sure that Allow Edits is set to Yes to ensure that the user can change the values in the textboxes, and that the Recordset Type is Dynaset so that it can be edited.
Using this method should also not require any changes to the rest of your existing application, since the values held by the bound textboxes may be read in the same way as if they were unbound.
It's hard to know exactly what you're asking without seeing the code you have, but if you are using VBA, you could look into the difference between hiding the form and closing/unloading the form as described in this answer. If you hide the form, it won't be visible to the user, but it will still be loaded, so your text boxes should keep their values. When the user needs to interact with the form again, you can un-hide it.

Write conflict; Need an event that triggers with popup form activation in MS Access

I have frmMain that has a number of subforms that are contained in several tabs on tab control on frmMain. I have subForm3 on one of the tabs of frmMain. subForm3 has a textbox control called tbxNote. tbxNote requires one user to make changes to the note based on feedback from a supervisor that is shown in a separate, non-modal popup form called frmFloater that appears above frmMain so that the supervisor's note shown in the non-modal form can be seen while tbxNote in frmMain.subForm3 is being editted.
Now, both frmMain and frmFloater can change the data in the same table. I understand that this is what is causing the write conflict error I am receiving.
So, I want to be able to trigger a save of the data in subForm3 when the user exits tbxNote, for example, the user exits by clicking frmFloater or a control in frmFloater. And, I want to trigger a save of the data in frmFloater when I exit frmFloater or click a control in frmMain.
The problem I am running into is that I cannot find an event that triggers when I leave frmMain or when I enter frmFloater; nor can I find an event when I leave frmFloater or when I enter frmMain.
I have tried the following events for frmMain (and also in frmFloater), none of which trigger when the user leaves frmMain (e.g., by clicking into frmFloater) nor do they trigger when the user leaves frmFloater (e.g., by clicking into frmMain):
On Deactivate
On Activate
On Current
On Click
On Got Focus
On Lost Focus
How can I detect switching to a different form so that I can save out the data in the first form before handing control over to the 2nd form?
If there are 2 forms showing 1 record, you will always run into problems. I would look at separating the record into 2 tables and creating a relationship between the tables to prevent corruptions of records. For example:
Table 1 will hold the main information of the record being viewed
Table 2 will hold the supervisor notes
The relationship between the tables will be either a 1 to 1 (if you want a note to be a single record and all updates the current note) or a 1 to many (if you want multiple records with multiple notes
be sure to check "enforce referential integrity", "Cascade Updating", and "Cascade Deleting". Otherwise you will have orphan records.
To answer your question, it cannot be done with the current setup. If employee A is editing the record on frmMain and a supervisor opens frmFloater and begins adding notes. You just corrupted the record... Reason being is, you cannot have the front end the employee has save the record the front end the supervisor has. only their machine can save the record the specific person has accessed. make sense?
There is another solution, and that would be making frmFloater an unbound form. There is quite a bit of programming involved to accomplish this, but once I made all my forms in my Access Databases unbound and all the controls unbound, I never had a corrupted record incident again. But this requires a button building the query before opening the form, open the form, then take the values from the query and place the values in the corresponding textbox on your form, then close the query. This will give you a snapshot view of the record on the table without being bound to it. Your button/afterupdate event can then run an update query on the record without locking it.
Let me know if this helped or if this did not make sense. If it didn't make sense, I'll try to explain a little better.

Access form must be opened twice before combobox values will appear

I have a checklist that is used to perform QC audits. When a reviewer answers a question that requires an exception, a pop-up form will open with the correct exception detail already populated. They then have to provide some further information, which I have set-up in the format of a combobox for a field named 'Condition_Detail.' Some exceptions have only one condition that would be an option in the drop-down whereas others have multiple possible conditions, which is why I don't have that field automatically populated as well. I have a table of possible exceptions and conditions that I have used to create the combobox query. When the database was created, the field the 'Condition_Detail' combobox is dependent on was labeled 'Exception Detail' with a space and in my new table it is called 'Exception_Detail.' I did this because the old data and tables will eventually become irrelevant and I know that it is easier to write code with underscores instead of spaces. I include this information because I had to create a relationship between those two fields in the combobox query so that the database would know they are the same. When I test the database, the form opens as expected with the exceptions already populated (NOT in combobox format - the data appears as text on the form). The issue is that when I select the combobox, it is blank. If I answer the exact same question the same way to trigger the same exception to open in a new record, the combobox does have the correct data in it. I have tried to requery the field both when the form loads and after it updates. It still won't show the combobox values unless I trigger that the form open twice with the same detail populated. An additional piece of information that likely doesn't affect the problem is that the combobox is set-up as three columns so that I can populate two additional fields when the condition detail has been updated. I used the code below to populate that, which works perfectly when I can get the condition detail to appear in the combobox:
Private Sub Condition_Details_Change()
Me.Responsible_Position.Value = Me.Condition_Details.Column(2)
Me.Severity_Description.Value = Me.Condition_Details.Column(3)
End Sub
Thanks in advance for your help!
I figured it out. The relationship I created within the combo box query was unnecessary. The query was searching for values in the table that stored the actual responses/conditions instead of the table that stored the available response options. Because of this, once I had answered the question it knew what to look for, but in the wrong place. Setting up the combo box the usual way with the look-up control value in the form referenced as follows was sufficient to get the combo box to work properly.
Field: Exception_Text
Table: tblPreCloseExceptionDescEnc
Criteria: [Forms]![frmEncompassExceptions].[Form]![Exception Text]

textbox in continuous form populated from different table

I have a continuous form in an access 2010 database that outputs a separate row of data for each customer from a customers_table. The continuous form is for data display only, and no data entry or editing is allowed. One of the textboxes on the continuous form is populated with data that was entered using a combobox in a different form used for data entry. In the textbox on the continuous form, enabled is set to no, and locked is set to yes, so that the textbox is not editable in the continuous form. However, in the separate data entry form, the combobox entered the id for the selection the user chose, instead of entering the text. Therefore, in the continuous form, only an id number is shown, when the user needs to see the text of the specific option which is encoded in that id number.
I think I want to keep the id in the customers data table, in order to retain freedom to make subtle changes in the combobox options later.
So how do I modify the textbox in the continuous form to populate with the textual value associated with the id number? This would seem to involve some sort of SQL like:
"Select textValue FROM comboboxsource_table WHERE comboboxsource_table.ID=textbox.Text"
However, I have no idea where to put this in the Access GUI. The Control Source field in the Data tab of the property sheet for the textbox does not seem to allow this sort of syntax.
If you're not editing the data, put a query behind the form instead of a table. Then, just pull the field you need into the query and VOILA! Problem solved. :o)

In MS Access is there a way to allow forms to update while maintaning Read Only

I have several forms linked tables via queries. The form pull data such as sales and ratios by selecting a product from the main's form's combo box.
I am however having to issues:
1- I would ultimately prefer the combo box to be a free entry; however by just entering in the box and hitting enter (not a button called “enter on a screen” which would initiate recalcs, just normal enter), while it does bring the new information in sub-forms it also changes the information in the original table. If I make the table read only that it just doesn't allow the form to work by saying that the table is read only.
2- The same Read only issue occurs when another user with read only rights tries to use the database.
I understand that ready only is functioning as intended, however I am wondering if there is way to make some functions work while disallowing the updating.
I am unfortunately learning on the go, so go easy plz.
Thank you
You need to make your combo box no linked to the underlying data, but once the data is changed, set/reset the value of the combo box. This way, if some types in a new value
A) it will not update the data whether it is updatable or not.
B) you can still have the subforms update based on this value
Private Sub Form_Current()
cmbMyDisplayOnlyComboBox = Me!WhatEverFieldHasTheValue
End Sub
Again, cmbMyDisplayOnlyComboBox Control Source is blank. Substitute the field that 'use' to be the Control Source as WhatEverFieldHasTheValue