I am making a continuous form for searching that self-updates as the user types in multiple search boxes.
The code works up until the user types in parameters that don't correspond to any records.
The query then can't find anything and I get the error
"Can't use the property or method when the control doesn't have the focus"
I could not figure out what element of the form is doing it. Adding the .SetFocus to the textbox control didn't help.
Any ideas on how to either
Set focus to the textbox again and prevent it from being lost, or
Figure out what is stealing the focus and disable it?
The following sub is called in the textbox_Change sub. I added a workaround.:
Private Sub RefreshTB(textbox As Control)
'This is to prevent Acces from removing trailing spaces
'If the textbox isn't empty and there is a space at the end, don't requery. This preserves trailing spaces as Access trims them on Me.requery
If Len(textbox.Text) <> 0 And InStr(Len(textbox.Text), textbox.Text, " ", vbTextCompare) Then
Exit Sub
End If
'If the last character isn't a space, requery on change to show new results of the query
Me.Requery
'The workaround: If the query returns no results, detect that, warn the user and clear search box. Requery to show some results again.
If DCount("*", "DatasetsFilterQ") = 0 Then
If MsgBox("No results found. The last TextBox you searched in will be cleared.", vbOKOnly, "No Records") = vbOK Then
textbox = ""
Me.Requery
End If
Exit Sub
End If
textbox.SetFocus
textbox.SelStart = Len(Nz(textbox.Text))
End Sub
I tried a filter but ran into the same error when passing .text value to the function.
You can't set SelStart to Null, so avoid that with Nz:
textbox.SelStart = Len(Nz(textbox.Value))
Related
Good morning!
I have a "fancy" search function in Microsoft Access where the list of possible options shrinks as you type in the search field. Unfortunately the computer and server can't keep up with these rapid requeries of the data.
Currently the command to requery with the field in the 'onchange' function of the search box. I'd like to add a delay so it only runs the requery when the search box has not changed for a second. Thus if someone types in a 8 letter word, it isn't running 8 requeries.
The current idea I have for it, which I know there must be something better, is..
"On change, set search box value to X and wait 1 second. After 1 second, if X = search box value, run the requery. An issue is that it would be rapidly rewriting the X value and have a 'wait' command floating for each letter.
Hopefully there's a way to write an event trigger of "When field X has changed, but not changed for the past second."
Thank you!
As requested, here is my current code
'Create a string (text) variable
Dim vSearchString As String
'Populate the string variable with the text entered in the Text Box SearchFor
vSearchString = SearchFor.Text
'Pass the value contained in the string variable to the hidden text box SrchText,
'that is used as the sear4ch criteria for the Query QRY_SearchAll
SrchText = vSearchString
'Requery the List Box to show the latest results for the text entered in Text Box SearchFor
Me.SearchResults.Requery
Me.SearchResults2.Requery
'Tests for a trailing space and exits the sub routine at this point
'so as to preserve the trailing space, which would be lost if focus was shifted from Text Box SearchFor
If Len(Me.SrchText) <> 0 And InStr(Len(SrchText), SrchText, " ", vbTextCompare) Then
'Set the focus on the first item in the list box
Me.SearchResults = Me.SearchResults.ItemData(1)
Me.SearchResults.SetFocus
'Requery the form to refresh the content of any unbound text box that might be feeding off the record source of the List Box
DoCmd.Requery
'Returns the cursor to the the end of the text in Text Box SearchFor,
'and restores trailing space lost when focus is shifted to the list box
Me.SearchFor = vSearchString
Me.SearchFor.SetFocus
Me.SearchFor.SelStart = Me.SearchFor.SelLength
Exit Sub
End If
'Set the focus on the first item in the list box
' Me.SearchResults = Me.SearchResults.ItemData(1)
Me.SearchResults.SetFocus
'Requery the form to refresh the content of any unbound text box that might be feeding off the record source of the List Box
DoCmd.Requery
'Returns the cursor to the the end of the text in Text Box SearchFor
Me.SearchFor.SetFocus
If Not IsNull(Len(Me.SearchFor)) Then
Me.SearchFor.SelStart = Len(Me.SearchFor)
End If
Obviously this is not MY code, it's from somewhere on the interweb. It works fantastic for databases stored locally, but everything is moving to our Sharepoint server which is running on a 386 in a moldy basement powered by a narcoleptic gerbil.
You can simply use the Timer of the current form. No need for a separate form or anything.
Private Sub DoSearch()
' Your current code
' but you should look into removing as many "Requery" from there as possible!
End Sub
Private Sub SearchFor_Change()
' Wait for x Milliseconds until the search is started.
' Each new change restarts the timer interval.
' Use 1000 (1 s) for slow typists or a really slow server
' 200 ms feels right for a normal typist
Me.TimerInterval = 200
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Timer()
' Disable timer (will be enabled by the next SearchFor_Change)
Me.TimerInterval = 0
' Now run the search
DoSearch
End Sub
Note: you may need to move some of the cursor-handling code from DoSearch() to SearchFor_Change(), specifically:
Me.SearchFor.SelStart = Len(Me.SearchFor)
Assign a shortcut key like (Ctrl+ J) to the logic in on change event and call it on demand once you have finished typing search keyword.
Remove on change event.
Create other procedure which has the logic of on change event and assign a shortcut key
Press shortcut to get search suggestion
Other approach
Add below validation to Change event which will check for length of string and will trigger only if length of string is >=8
Private Sub txtSearch_Change()
If Len(Nz(txtSearch.Text, 0)) >= 8 Then
End If
End Sub
I'm going a little outside my comfort area, since I hardly use MS Access forms, but why are you bothering the Server/Database so much? In my experience, each query costs the same amount of time, whether it returns 1 record or 100,000 records.
So even before the user types anything, why don't you just do a single query to return a sorted list. After that, it takes almost no time to use VBA to process the results and find everything in the list that starts with whatever the user types in (it's sorted after all).
Except for the initial load, users who are local to the database or on the other side of the world will experience the same snappy response from your interface.
----------
Like I said, I haven't messed with Access Forms a lot, so this is more of a strict VBA solution. Maybe there is a better way to do it without going outside the Access Forms box that someone could enlighten us with.
You should basically just call LoadItemList when you load the form, or whenever you need to.
Public dbConn As ADODB.Connection
Private ItemList As Variant
Private RecordCount As Long
Sub LoadItemList()
Dim SQL As String
Dim RS As New ADODB.Recordset
SQL = "SELECT T.Name FROM Table T"
Set RS = dbConn.Execute(SQL)
If Not RS.EOF Then
ItemList = RS.GetRows
RecordCount = UBound(ItemList, 2) - LBound(ItemList, 2) + 1
End If
End Sub
Then replace DoCmd.Requery with AddItemtoCombobox SearchResults, SearchFor.Text
Sub AddItemtoCombobox(Control As ComboBox, Filter As String)
Dim Index As Long
Control.Clear
If Not IsEmpty(ItemList) Then
For Index = 0 To RecordCount - 1
If ItemList(Index) Like Filter Then Control.AddItem ItemList(Index)
Next
End If
End Sub
Again, maybe there is a better way that is built into Access...
The technical term that you're looking for is debounce.
What you can do is on your on change event, keep track of the current search string
in terms of pseudocode.
sub onChange()
Form.timerinterval = 0
setSearchString
form.timerinterval = delay
So in terms of the explanation, if your on change is called, disable the timer. Update your search string, then reset the timer to fire after a certain amount of time. The form should be a hidden form that contains the code that you want to execute
I have a query shown in a form as a table. Additionally I have a button which opens another form where you can manipulate saved data. As soon as this form closes I would like to have the query in the other form to be updated by a macro. I tried couple of macro commands. Nothing worked. I thought I could use the requery macro with my subform as parameter but even that didn't work. What can I do?
Data gets only updated when I hit 'refresh all' but this should happen automatically.
I have ran in to all sorts of strange edge cases with forms containing subforms. What happens when the current record is removed?
This may seem overkill but if you want to be sure that all forms are up to date then you can use this on the parent form:
'#Description("Refresh the data on the form and all subforms")
Public Sub RefreshForm(ByVal theForm As Form)
On Error GoTo ErrorHandling
Echo False
RequeryInPlace theForm
theForm.Refresh
MoveToValidRecord theForm
Dim childForm As Control
For Each childForm In theForm.Controls
If TypeOf childForm Is SubForm Then
RequeryInPlace childForm.Form
childForm.Form.Refresh
MoveToValidRecord childForm.Form
End If
Next
ErrorHandling:
' Fail fast, ensure echo is always left on!
Echo True
End Sub
'#Description("Requery an entire form without losing the currently selected record")
Public Sub RequeryInPlace(ByVal theForm As Form)
Dim whereIam As Variant
With theForm
whereIam = .Form.Bookmark
.Form.Requery
.Form.Bookmark = whereIam
End With
End Sub
'#Description("Move cursor to a valid record")
Public Sub MoveToValidRecord(ByVal theForm As Form)
With theForm.Recordset
If .EOF And .BOF Then Exit Sub
If .EOF Then
.MoveLast
ElseIf .BOF Then
.MoveFirst
Else
.MoveNext
.MovePrevious
End If
End With
End Sub
Ok, the way to do this?
If you just editing data? (not adding new rows) to that grid?
Your code to launch the 2nd form will look like this:
me.Refresh - optional but REQUIRED if you do allow editing in the gride.
docmd.OpenForm "frmDetailsEdit",,,"ID = " & Me!ID,,acDialog
me.refresh - this will show any data changes you made in the 2nd dialog form
Note carefull:
You don't need the first me.Refresh UNLESS you allow edits in the data/grid display.
The acDialog will cause the code to WAIT/HALT until the user is done editing in the 2nd form.
The final me.refresh will update any data changes, and it will also keep the reocrd pointer on the same current row.
However, if your 2nd dialog form launched ALSO allows adding of records, then a me.refresh will NOT show the newly added records.
If you allow adding? Then you need to do a me.Requery on that last line in place of me.refresh. This will re-load the form based on its query, but you will ALSO lose the current position. You can if you wish re-position the record pointer/location if you need to, but we don't know if you need this ability as of yet.
the query is not being updated in background unless you are opening the form which calls the Query to run , an alternative is to request the query to run again to update the form as follows
Form.Requery
if your form is having a sub form then you need to address the sub form as well
Good morning!
I have a "fancy" search function in Microsoft Access where the list of possible options shrinks as you type in the search field. Unfortunately the computer and server can't keep up with these rapid requeries of the data.
Currently the command to requery with the field in the 'onchange' function of the search box. I'd like to add a delay so it only runs the requery when the search box has not changed for a second. Thus if someone types in a 8 letter word, it isn't running 8 requeries.
The current idea I have for it, which I know there must be something better, is..
"On change, set search box value to X and wait 1 second. After 1 second, if X = search box value, run the requery. An issue is that it would be rapidly rewriting the X value and have a 'wait' command floating for each letter.
Hopefully there's a way to write an event trigger of "When field X has changed, but not changed for the past second."
Thank you!
As requested, here is my current code
'Create a string (text) variable
Dim vSearchString As String
'Populate the string variable with the text entered in the Text Box SearchFor
vSearchString = SearchFor.Text
'Pass the value contained in the string variable to the hidden text box SrchText,
'that is used as the sear4ch criteria for the Query QRY_SearchAll
SrchText = vSearchString
'Requery the List Box to show the latest results for the text entered in Text Box SearchFor
Me.SearchResults.Requery
Me.SearchResults2.Requery
'Tests for a trailing space and exits the sub routine at this point
'so as to preserve the trailing space, which would be lost if focus was shifted from Text Box SearchFor
If Len(Me.SrchText) <> 0 And InStr(Len(SrchText), SrchText, " ", vbTextCompare) Then
'Set the focus on the first item in the list box
Me.SearchResults = Me.SearchResults.ItemData(1)
Me.SearchResults.SetFocus
'Requery the form to refresh the content of any unbound text box that might be feeding off the record source of the List Box
DoCmd.Requery
'Returns the cursor to the the end of the text in Text Box SearchFor,
'and restores trailing space lost when focus is shifted to the list box
Me.SearchFor = vSearchString
Me.SearchFor.SetFocus
Me.SearchFor.SelStart = Me.SearchFor.SelLength
Exit Sub
End If
'Set the focus on the first item in the list box
' Me.SearchResults = Me.SearchResults.ItemData(1)
Me.SearchResults.SetFocus
'Requery the form to refresh the content of any unbound text box that might be feeding off the record source of the List Box
DoCmd.Requery
'Returns the cursor to the the end of the text in Text Box SearchFor
Me.SearchFor.SetFocus
If Not IsNull(Len(Me.SearchFor)) Then
Me.SearchFor.SelStart = Len(Me.SearchFor)
End If
Obviously this is not MY code, it's from somewhere on the interweb. It works fantastic for databases stored locally, but everything is moving to our Sharepoint server which is running on a 386 in a moldy basement powered by a narcoleptic gerbil.
You can simply use the Timer of the current form. No need for a separate form or anything.
Private Sub DoSearch()
' Your current code
' but you should look into removing as many "Requery" from there as possible!
End Sub
Private Sub SearchFor_Change()
' Wait for x Milliseconds until the search is started.
' Each new change restarts the timer interval.
' Use 1000 (1 s) for slow typists or a really slow server
' 200 ms feels right for a normal typist
Me.TimerInterval = 200
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Timer()
' Disable timer (will be enabled by the next SearchFor_Change)
Me.TimerInterval = 0
' Now run the search
DoSearch
End Sub
Note: you may need to move some of the cursor-handling code from DoSearch() to SearchFor_Change(), specifically:
Me.SearchFor.SelStart = Len(Me.SearchFor)
Assign a shortcut key like (Ctrl+ J) to the logic in on change event and call it on demand once you have finished typing search keyword.
Remove on change event.
Create other procedure which has the logic of on change event and assign a shortcut key
Press shortcut to get search suggestion
Other approach
Add below validation to Change event which will check for length of string and will trigger only if length of string is >=8
Private Sub txtSearch_Change()
If Len(Nz(txtSearch.Text, 0)) >= 8 Then
End If
End Sub
I'm going a little outside my comfort area, since I hardly use MS Access forms, but why are you bothering the Server/Database so much? In my experience, each query costs the same amount of time, whether it returns 1 record or 100,000 records.
So even before the user types anything, why don't you just do a single query to return a sorted list. After that, it takes almost no time to use VBA to process the results and find everything in the list that starts with whatever the user types in (it's sorted after all).
Except for the initial load, users who are local to the database or on the other side of the world will experience the same snappy response from your interface.
----------
Like I said, I haven't messed with Access Forms a lot, so this is more of a strict VBA solution. Maybe there is a better way to do it without going outside the Access Forms box that someone could enlighten us with.
You should basically just call LoadItemList when you load the form, or whenever you need to.
Public dbConn As ADODB.Connection
Private ItemList As Variant
Private RecordCount As Long
Sub LoadItemList()
Dim SQL As String
Dim RS As New ADODB.Recordset
SQL = "SELECT T.Name FROM Table T"
Set RS = dbConn.Execute(SQL)
If Not RS.EOF Then
ItemList = RS.GetRows
RecordCount = UBound(ItemList, 2) - LBound(ItemList, 2) + 1
End If
End Sub
Then replace DoCmd.Requery with AddItemtoCombobox SearchResults, SearchFor.Text
Sub AddItemtoCombobox(Control As ComboBox, Filter As String)
Dim Index As Long
Control.Clear
If Not IsEmpty(ItemList) Then
For Index = 0 To RecordCount - 1
If ItemList(Index) Like Filter Then Control.AddItem ItemList(Index)
Next
End If
End Sub
Again, maybe there is a better way that is built into Access...
The technical term that you're looking for is debounce.
What you can do is on your on change event, keep track of the current search string
in terms of pseudocode.
sub onChange()
Form.timerinterval = 0
setSearchString
form.timerinterval = delay
So in terms of the explanation, if your on change is called, disable the timer. Update your search string, then reset the timer to fire after a certain amount of time. The form should be a hidden form that contains the code that you want to execute
I'm creating a Form in Microsoft Word. I have several 'Text form fields' some of which I want to restrict so users can only enter numbers. I don't understand why Microsoft gives you the option to change the 'Type' to 'Number' when that still allows any value to be input. Since that seems to be the case I have turned to VBA.
I'm trying to run a macro when the user exits one of these fields, to make sure the input is valid. I would rather not create a new macro for each field I want to restrict to numeric.
I think my problem is that I don't know how to get the result of the current field. I could create a different macro for each field, and get the result by specifying its name explicitly, but it seems like a smarter way would exist.
Here's what I have so far.
Sub validateNumericFields()
'Check to see if the value in the current field is numeric
'If it is not, send a message to the user, and set value to default value
If IsNumeric(Selection.Fields(1).Result) = False Then
MsgBox "You must enter a valid number.", vbExclamation
Selection.Fields(1).Result = Selection.Fields(1).TextInput.Default
End If
End Sub
There are various ways to get the "name" of a form field, since this is also a bookmark. The FormField object does have a Name property, but I can't get to it from the Selection object available when OnExit runs. But I can get the bookmark name, so:
Sub validateNumericFields()
'Check to see if the value in the current field is numeric
'If it is not, send a message to the user, and set value to default value
Dim ff As word.FormField
Set ff = ActiveDocument.FormFields(Selection.Bookmarks(1).Name)
If IsNumeric(ff.Result) = False Then
MsgBox "You must enter a valid number.", vbExclamation
ff.Result = ff.TextInput.Default
End If
End Sub
In my program, I have a snippet of code in a userfrom that looks at its own controls and loops through to see if all of them are empty. This is for the purpose of using all of the non-null controls' values as search parameters. They are three list boxes and three combo boxes. If it finds a control that is not empty, it sects the function to false and exits. This is because my search found a criteria it can use. I have it setup thus:
Function IsAllEmpty() As Boolean
'presumes true until we find evidence of a control being not empty
IsAllEmpty = True
'function elsewhere that sets my control background to normal
ClearControlFormatting
Dim ctrl As Control
'checks every control in the form
For Each ctrl In Me.Controls
'that is tagged with "searchme" (there are 6, three listbox, three combobox)
If ctrl.Tag = "SEARCHME" Then
'if the value of the control isn't null or len = 0
If Not IsNull(ctrl) Or Len(ctrl) <> 0 Then
ctrl.BackColor = vbGreen
IsAllEmpty = False 'in my other code, I can continue the search if this is triggered
MsgBox "Everything is good (no sarcasm) on this control!"
Exit Function
Else: MsgBox "EVERYTHING IS EMPTY, CARL. THAT KILLS PEOPLE."
End If
End If
Next
'If something is empty, tell the user to correct it
If IsAllEmpty = True Then
MsgBox "YOU NEED TO FILL OUT YOUR SEARCH, PAUL."
End If
End Function
I have tried various things to get this to work:
nesting the Not IsNull(ctrl) statement the only one in the if, the If Len(ctrl) <> 0 part (IDK WHY)
Removing the Len(ctrl) <> 0 part
Editing both parts of the Or statement to evaluate for ctrl.Value = "" instead
Removed the "SEARCHME" tags from the comboboxes, in case their dynamic values were interfering.
However, every time, I have watched this function highlight all of my controls green, and then proceed to continue attempting a search. (The function call down in the search says if all the cells come back null, exit the sub).
I'm at a loss, and would greatly appreciate the help! Thanks!
P.S.: If it helps, the above code is a modified version of the following, meant to check to see if any empty controls exist at all. When I used this on my controls, it found them all to be empty and worked like designed.
Function CheckForEmpty() As Boolean
CheckForEmpty = True
ClearControlFormatting
Dim ctrl As Control
'Checks each control that needs to be filled for null or 0 length value
'For every one it finds, it marks red
CheckForEmpty = True
For Each ctrl In Me.Controls
If ctrl.Tag = "FILL" Then
If IsNull(ctrl) Or Len(ctrl) = 0 Then
ctrl.BackColor = vbRed
CheckForEmpty = False
End If
End If
Next
'If something is empty, tell the user to correct it
If CheckForEmpty = False Then
MsgBox "Please fill out red boxes!"
End If
End Function
In this line, change to be explicit that you're looking for the value:
If Not IsNull(ctrl) Or Len(ctrl) <> 0 Then
change to:
If (Not IsNull(ctrl.Value)) OR (Len(ctl.Value & "") <> 0) Then
First, I added the .Value qualifier to the control. This is the default property, but sometimes (when assigning to a variant or checking null, for example), it might be checking that the Control itself is null because VBA isn't always smart enough to read your thoughts and you're technically telling it to check the control, and not it's value: be explicit.
Second, I explicitly split the two checks into two separate checks using parentheses. Not sure it's strictly required, but best to be clear and far easier to read and now we don't have to worry about the fact that it maybe was reading the boolean logic incorrectly.
Third, I added a ZLS concatenation to .Value to force it to ZLS if null before checking the length (you get an 'Invalid Use of Null' error if trying to check the Len() of a null value).
As Tom mentions, in this case ctrl will never be null (as it's part of the form's collection, which won't have null references in it), so the whole thing can be simplified to:
If Len(ctrl.Value & "") <> 0 Then 'ctrl has no value entered
Lastly, wrap it up in a Trim() function just in case there's a single (or double, or more) space in there, and you have:
If Len(Trim(ctrl.Value & "")) <> 0 Then 'ctrl has no meaningful value entered