Setting the rowsource property of a combobox in another database? - ms-access

Question

I've looked all over the place for this and I can't find it; I looked in ADO, and DAO.
Is there a way using VBA to edit the row source property of a combo box on a form in another .mdb file? I have to make this change on a bunch of .mdb files and I'd rather use a script to do it, than to do it one at a time.

Answer 1

Use COM automation to create an Access application session where you open a database, open the target form in design mode, and then alter the target combo box's Row Source.
Public Sub AlterComboRowSource(ByVal pDb As String, _
ByVal pForm As String, _
ByVal pCombo As String, _
ByVal pRowSource As String, _
Optional ByVal pEdit As Boolean = False)
Dim objAccess As Access.Application
Dim frm As Form
Dim cbo As ComboBox
Set objAccess = New Access.Application
objAccess.Visible = True '<- useful while debugging
objAccess.OpenCurrentDatabase pDb, True
objAccess.DoCmd.OpenForm pForm, acDesign
Set frm = objAccess.Forms(pForm)
Set cbo = frm.Controls(pCombo)
Debug.Print cbo.RowSource
If pEdit = True Then
cbo.RowSource = pRowSource
objAccess.DoCmd.Close acForm, pForm, acSaveYes
End If
objAccess.Quit acQuitSaveNone
End Sub
Here is my test procedure, which demonstrates how to use the first procedure:
Public Sub test_AlterComboRowSource()
Const cstrCombo As String = "cmbEmployeeName"
Const cstrForm As String = "frmLogin"
Dim strDbPath As String
Dim strSelect As String
strDbPath = "C:\Users\hans\Documents\Access\Scratch.accdb"
strSelect = "SELECT e.EmployeeID, e.FirstName & ' ' & e.LastName AS [Employee Name] " & _
"FROM tblEmployees AS e " & _
"WHERE e.Inactive=False ORDER BY 2;"
AlterComboRowSource strDbPath, cstrForm, cstrCombo, strSelect, True
End Sub
Those procedures worked as intended when I tested them in Access 2010.
It should be more efficient to do Set objAccess = New Access.Application just once, and then re-use objAccess, opening each of your databases, altering the combo Row Source, and then closing the database.
However since this may be a one-off situation, perhaps you don't care much about execution speed.