Programmatically Create a Button That Opens a Form In Access - ms-access

Question

When my database is opened, it shows a form with a "loading bar" that reports the progress of linking external tables and such, before showing a "Main Menu" form. The Main Menu has code that generates a form programmatically behind the scenes with buttons on it, and when that's done it saves and renames the form, and assigns it as the SourceObject to a subform.
This all works fine and dandy, that is, until I decide to make the buttons actually do something useful. In the loop that generates the buttons, it adds VBA code to the subform-to-be's module. For some reason, doing that makes VBA finish execution, then stop. This makes the (modal) loading form not disappear as there's an If statement that executes a DoCmd.Close to close the loading form when it's done loading. It also breaks functionality that depends on a global variable being set, since the global is cleared when execution halts.
Is there a better way to go about creating buttons that do stuff programmatically, short of ditching Access outright and writing real code? As much as I would love to, I'm forced to do it in Access in case I leave the company so the less tech-savvy employees can still work with it in my absence.
Below are bits and pieces of relevant code, if needed.
Form_USysSplash:
'Code that runs when the form is opened, before any processing.
Private Sub Form_Open(Cancel As Integer)
'Don't mess with things you shouldn't be.
If g_database_loaded Then
MsgBox "Please don't try to run the Splash form directly.", vbOKOnly, "No Touching"
Cancel = True
Exit Sub
End If
'Check if the user has the MySQL 5.1 ODBC driver installed.
Call CheckMysqlODBC 'Uses elfin majykks to find if Connector/ODBC is installed, puts the result into g_mysql_installed
If Not g_mysql_installed Then
Cancel = True
DoCmd.OpenForm "Main"
Exit Sub
End If
End Sub
'Code that runs when the form is ready to render.
Private Sub Form_Current()
'Prepare the form
boxProgressBar.width = 0
lblLoading.caption = ""
'Render the form
DoCmd.SelectObject acForm, Me.name
Me.Repaint
DoEvents
'Start the work
LinkOMTables
UpdateStatus "Done!"
DoCmd.OpenForm "Home"
f_done = True
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Timer() 'Timer property set to 100
If f_done Then DoCmd.Close acForm, Me.name
End Sub
Form_Home:
'Code run before the form is displayed.
Private Sub Form_Load()
'Check if the user has the MySQL 5.1 ODBC driver installed.
'Header contains an error message and a download link
If Not g_mysql_installed Then
FormHeader.Visible = True
Detail.Visible = False
Else
FormHeader.Visible = False
Detail.Visible = True
CreateButtonList Me, Me.subTasks
End If
End Sub
'Sub to create buttons on the form's Detail section, starting at a given height from the top.
Sub CreateButtonList(ByRef frm As Form, ByRef buttonPane As SubForm)
Dim rsButtons As Recordset
Dim newForm As Form
Dim newButton As CommandButton
Dim colCount As Integer, rowCount As Integer, curCol As Integer, curRow As Integer
Dim newFormWidth As Integer
Dim taskFormName As String, newFormName As String
Set rsButtons = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset("SELECT * FROM USysButtons WHERE form LIKE '" & frm.name & "'")
If Not rsButtons.EOF And Not rsButtons.BOF Then
taskFormName = "USys" & frm.name & "Tasks"
On Error Resume Next
If TypeOf CurrentProject.AllForms(taskFormName) Is AccessObject Then
buttonPane.SourceObject = ""
DoCmd.DeleteObject acForm, taskFormName
End If
Err.Clear
On Error GoTo 0
Set newForm = CreateForm
newFormName = newForm.name
With newForm
.Visible = False
.NavigationButtons = False
.RecordSelectors = False
.CloseButton = False
.ControlBox = False
.width = buttonPane.width
.HasModule = True
End With
rsButtons.MoveLast
rsButtons.MoveFirst
colCount = Int((buttonPane.width) / 1584) 'Twips: 1440 in an inch. 1584 twips = 1.1"
rowCount = Round(rsButtons.RecordCount / colCount, 0)
newForm.Detail.height = rowCount * 1584
curCol = 0
curRow = 0
Do While Not rsButtons.EOF
Set newButton = CreateControl(newForm.name, acCommandButton)
With newButton
.name = "gbtn_" & rsButtons!btn_name
.Visible = True
.Enabled = True
.caption = rsButtons!caption
.PictureType = 2
.Picture = rsButtons!img_name
.PictureCaptionArrangement = acBottom
.ControlTipText = rsButtons!tooltip
.OnClick = "[Event Procedure]"
'This If block is the source of my headache.
If Not IsNull(rsButtons!open_query) And rsButtons!open_query <> "" Then
newForm.Module.InsertLines newForm.Module.CountOfLines, _
"Private Sub gbtn_" & rsButtons!btn_name & "_Click()"
newForm.Module.InsertLines newForm.Module.CountOfLines, _
"DoCmd.OpenQuery """ & rsButtons!open_query & """"
newForm.Module.InsertLines newForm.Module.CountOfLines, _
"End Sub" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
ElseIf Not IsNull(rsButtons!open_form) And rsButtons!open_form <> "" Then
newForm.Module.InsertLines newForm.Module.CountOfLines, _
"Private Sub gbtn_" & rsButtons!btn_name & "_Click()"
newForm.Module.InsertLines newForm.Module.CountOfLines, _
"DoCmd.OpenForm """ & rsButtons!open_form & """"
newForm.Module.InsertLines newForm.Module.CountOfLines, _
"End Sub" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
End If
.height = 1584
.width = 1584
.Top = 12 + (curRow * 1584)
.Left = 12 + (curCol * 1584)
.BackThemeColorIndex = 1
.HoverThemeColorIndex = 4 'Accent 1
.HoverShade = 0
.HoverTint = 40 '60% Lighter
.PressedThemeColorIndex = 4 'Accent 1
.PressedShade = 0
.PressedTint = 20 '80% Lighter
End With
curCol = curCol + 1
If curCol = colCount Then
curCol = 0
curRow = curRow + 1
End If
rsButtons.MoveNext
Loop
DoCmd.Close acForm, newForm.name, acSaveYes
DoCmd.Rename taskFormName, acForm, newFormName
buttonPane.SourceObject = taskFormName
End If
End Sub

Answer 1

There is no need to write code while code is running, especially as you are writing essentially the same code over and over again. All you need do is call a function instead of an event procedure.
In your code above write the OnClick event like this:
If Not IsNull(rsButtons!open_query) And rsButtons!open_query <> "" Then
.OnClick = "=MyOpenForm(""" & rsButtons!open_form & """)"
ElseIf Not IsNull(rsButtons!open_form) And rsButtons!open_form <> "" Then
.OnClick = "=MyOpenQuery(""" & rsButtons!open_form & """)"
End If
Then create these two permanent (non-generated) functions somewhere the form can see them:
Public Function MyOpenForm(FormName as String)
DoCmd.OpenForm FormName
End Function
Public Function MyOpenQuery(QueryName as String)
DoCmd.OpenQuery QueryName
End Function
And ditch the code writing to the module.