I am working on an Access 2007 application that was created by someone else. It has a strange, intermittent bug in which it prompts the user for query parameters when the main form is opened. The query parameters are clearly not necessary, because the error does not always occur.
The very strange "fix" to this problem is to open and close a particular module before opening the main form. Then the form opens without parameter prompts. However, of course I can't ask end users to open and close modules.
I tried using a macro to open and close the module when the database is opened. That fixes the bug, but leaves the VBA code window open, so that's no good.
Has anyone run into anything like this before? Any suggested solutions, workarounds, debugging tips, etc?
If you use the "Database Documenter" feature and check "yes" to all the options, you will obtain an exhaustive report that should let you trap your problem parameter. Export this report as an .rtf or .pdf document, so it is searchable. Identify a keyword from the dialog prompt, and search on that.
Once you check the query objects using the Documenter, check your VBA code. You'll do this by stepping through code in the IDE. If the main form has subforms, they are opened with (within) the main form. And they load before the main form.
Identify those subforms.
Sprinkle
breakpoints in their code modules
(if you find a Load function, that
is highly relevant).
If the main form has a
code module, do the same there.
Have a look for global variables in the module that needs to be opened and closed or any variable that is referenced in the module belonging to the form.
Access displays the Enter Parameter Value dialog box when you open an object that contains an identifier or expression that Access cannot interpret. You need to determine the source object. Here's a step-by-step guide:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access-help/why-does-access-want-me-to-enter-a-parameter-value-HA010274377.aspx
Related
I'm developing an application in MS Access, using VBA.
The application already exists but I have to add a button and a piece of code in a form.
The problem is that, when I add the button and try to show the form, I don't receive an error but the form isn't visible.
I'm sure that the form is open, because, if I try to delete it, I receive an error that tells me that is not possible to delete an opened form.
Can anyone tells me the solution?
Edit: I still have the same problem on another form in my application. The form worked since i add a piece of code in it. Now, also deleting the code it doesn't work... I've also tried to decompile the application but nothing changed...
The following function has several arguments for show/hide etc. With the correct parameters you should be able to get that form to be visible:
OpenForm(FormName, View, FilterName, WhereCondition, DataMode, WindowMode, OpenArgs)
All the argument options can be found here.
I followed the suggestion by Cody Gray about halfway down the page in this thread but I'm having no luck.
Unless I'm missing something, this is supposed to allow me to navigate from Access, using the Windows API Dialog Box, to the relevant folder and open a file, no? I'm trying to open a Word doc which has a Mail Merge coming back to the same Access Db. I needed the dialog because there are multiple files that may be selected at different times.
I added all the suggested code and while the process runs without error, when I get to the final step, the selected file doesn't open. Nothing happens.
I realize this is not much help without an error message. Any thoughts nonetheless?
As I understand the situation, you have code which uses a string variable named strFileToOpen to hold the path to a Ms Word document. And now you want to open that file in Word.
You can use the FollowHyperlink method.
Application.FollowHyperlink strFileToOpen
Look at the Access help topic for that method. It offers other options you may wish to use.
Also I suggest you look at the help topic for FileDialog Object. It is simpler than the Windows APi method in the code you linked.
I am working on a modal popup form in access and I have the following problem:
When I incidentally open my form in "form view" instead of "design view" It causes a VB script error (which is normal, because it tries to get information from another form which is not open).
So VB tells me there's an error, I tell the VB debugger to stop the execution of the code, and thus the form does not open, but then access is not re-enabled.
I can't regain any form of control, and it's not an endless loop or something like that, because Access is still running correctly according to my task manager.
So far the only solution I found was to close access through the task manager, but it doesn't seem normal to me.
Here are a few suggestions:
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/control-location-screen-form-opens-t4041436.html
You can also try to modify a bit of your form, move it to a new/good position, and saving it. I have had this happen to me in the past.
We currently have an ASP/SQl Server system, which has an option to send an e-mail to a user. This e-mail contains a hyperlink to another ASP page, which shows a specific database record.
I'm currently working on a resilience version of the system, which is MS Access based. The user's would like to keep the same functionality, and have an e-mail which contains a hyperlink back to the database, opening a specific form and filtering it to a record.
I believe the solution lies somewhere in using Command() to get the parameters from the command line, however I am actually having difficulty currently opening the database itself. The code i'm currently using is:
<a href="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\MSACCESS.exe
H:\Access DB\11th March\Link to DB\Dealer
Startup Admin EU v10.mdb" >
TEST
</a>
I think this should open the Dealer Startup database, however it is failing stating the file cannot be found. If I remove the second step i.e. H:\Access DB etc. the link opens Access, so I am wondering if i'm doing something syntactically incorrect? The file path definitely seems right.
Also would someone be able to give some advice on the use of /c in a hyperlink? The small amount of information I have found seems to suggest it doesn't work but if someone could clarify or give me an example of how to do it I would appreciate it
Thanks,
Chris
I managed to create a solution to this problem. I could not find a direct way to open the Access DB from a hyperlink, however you can hyperlink to a shortcut. The workaround I therefore used was to create a shortcut to the database using the following syntax:
"file path to ms access" "file path to database" /cmd Args
so for example:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\MSACCESS.exe" "C:\Documents and Settings\Database.mdb" /cmd Args
Creating a shortcut to this file path opens the database. I then created an autoexec macro which opened a specified form if the Command() function returned Args. This meant that when opening the database normally you would be taken to the usual form, but when opening from the shortcut you will be taken to a different form.
I then created the e-mail hyperlink to the shortcut.
I have created a batch file to delete browser history for MSIE and kept it on the server-side. When the user clicks on 'delete browser history' hyperlink, I just make him download this file, and the user runs it manually.
You can also do something similar.
We have an MS Access 2007 database with a simple form displaying table data. We use the Find dialog (click the binoculars on the Home ribbon) to locate records we want. This can cause an error under specific circumstances.
Steps to reproduce the problem:
Open the form.
Open the find dialog.
Edit some field within the record.
The record is now in update mode
(you'll see the pencil in row's
"gutter" area).
Without saving the record, click on
the ALREADY open Find dialog.
Search for a record that can't be
found.
Click on the form again. The record
is still in edit mode (i.e. the
pencil still shows). Attempt a save
or edit some other field.
This message box will display
"Update or CancelUpdate without
AddNew or Edit." You can click OK or
Help buttons.
Clicking the Help button shows:
You tried to call Update or CancelUpdate or attempted to update a Field
in a recordset without first calling AddNew or Edit. (Error 3020)
On a Microsoft Access database engine database, you called the Update or
CancelUpdate method but did not use the AddNew or Edit method before writing
data to a record.
On an ODBCDirect database, this error occurs when you attempt to write data
to a record without first calling AddNew or Edit.
We’ve reproduced this in a new database where there is no VBA code. So the problem is solely within MS Access, and you should be able to reproduce it easily.
If you save the record before doing the find, the problem doesn’t happen. Unfortunately, we have users doing a find while the record is still in edit mode.
We’ve tried setting up form-level, data-field-level, and Access application level events and error handling. Nothing can detect or catch this situation. There is no way within VBA to detect if the Find dialog is active.
Does anyone have any ideas for preventing the error or a way to save the record before the find occurs? Our best thought right now is to create an AutoHotkey or AutoIt script that waits for the Find dialog to have focus. We’ll then send a Ctrl+S to save the current record to force a save.
#CodeSlave's answer suggests a possibility to me:
Instead of simply removing the binoculars from the toolbar/ribbon, instead change what the binoculars do. That is, have it call code that saves the current record if it's dirty and then launches the FIND dialog.
Now, there'd need to be some code to check that a form was open, and that it had a recordsource (testing the .Dirty property errors if there's no recordsource), and that a field has the focus, but all of those things are doable. Likely many of them (except the last) would be taken care of by showing the toolbar/ribbon only when the form is loaded, or by editing the default toolbar/ribbon when the form opens.
But this would be much less crazy than using an out-of-process solution, and your users wouldn't know any difference.
I'd suggest that you've found a bug that was introduced in MS-Access 2007. However, I have not been able to duplicate it on my copy. I presume we're both up to date on our patches, so perhaps there is something more subtle happening.
If you're wanting to force the record to be saved, use one of the the following - not a CTRL-S
if me.dirty then Me.Dirty = false ''(n.b. often the preferred method)
Docmd.RunCommand acCmdSaveRecord
DoCmd.DoMenuItem acFormBar, acRecordsMenu, acSaveRecord, , acMenuVer70 ''(n.b. deprecated)
The problem as I understand it, is that if they edit the form after the "find" is already open and then do the "find" the get the error.
I'd try one of two things:
Find a way to close the built in find form, and do so whenever you make the current record dirty (On Dirty)
Add your own "find" button to the form (not opening the built in find form), and hide the one on the ribbon.
The hack, work-around we came up with was to write an AutoIt script which can watch for when the Find dialog gains focus and save the record if it has changed.
We didn't want to distribute the script separately from the database, so the the script was added to a database table as a Blob. The database's AutoExec macro runs some VBA code that pulls the script out of the Blob table and starts the script.
When the script detects that the Find dialog has focus, the script runs a VBA macro in the database. The macro checks to see if the current record is dirty. If dirty, the macro forces a save. Also, the AutoIt script is stopped when the database is closed.
This is all pretty awkward, but it works.