Microsoft Project VBA to update Custom field on task change - vba

I have been wracking my brain trying to work out how to write a small piece of code that will activate only when particular fields at a task level have been modified.
I tried to make this code work at the project change level with a for each loop and select cases but that lags the whole program and still doesn't give me the result I need. I also tried to make it work when run manually with a for each loop and select cases or a bunch of If statements, but again, it can't tell me which field changed, but it can highlight a discrepancy between two fields.
The goal is to have a change log field (Text10) that auto updates based on the field that is modified and the date of the change. I only care about 4 fields changing (Date1, Date2, Date3, Date4).
e.g. If [Date1] is modified, Text10 = "Date1 modified 10/11/21"
Note: If 2 fields are modified, I would be happy enough with just listing the last one.
I was hoping there was some sort of "On Change, If Target = xxx" but I have not been able to find anything like that.
I also tried implementing the code as defined here >> Microsoft Documents: Project.Change Event but I am unclear what this is supposed to do and couldn't actually see it doing anything / I never got the message box I believe was supposed to appear.
I am using Microsoft Project Standard 2019.

After much research and trial and error, I ended up solving this.
To get it working, I added a Class Module and ran a piece of code on open to initialize it. This essentially tells Project to start watching for events. I then use the "Field" variant to fill the field name amongst the text string and "NewVal" variant to fill the result. This was an easy solution in the end. The code I found that worked is below:
In Class Module "cm_Events"
Public WithEvents MyMSPApp As MSProject.Application
Private Sub Class_Initialize()
Set MyMSPApp = Application
End Sub
Private Sub MyMSPApp_ProjectBeforeTaskChange(ByVal tsk As Task, ByVal Field As PjField, ByVal NewVal As Variant, Cancel As Boolean)
'What you want the code to do
End Sub
In Module "m_Events"
Public oMSPEvents As New cm_Events
Sub StartEvents()
Set oMSPEvents.MyMSPApp = MSProject.Application
End Sub
In ThisProject code
Private Sub Project_Open(ByVal pj As Project)
Call m_Events.StartEvents
End Sub

Related

Saving Database issue

So basically, I believe I am using the correct code yet the database will still not update. It will work for the current session, however, when I stop and restart the program, it appears that the data has not been updated in the database.
The really interesting part is that I am using the same method to update the database elsewhere, which when used and session restarted, the database has been updated.
p.s. I also have the same adapters and binding sources set up etc on both forms
I am so confused, help pls
Code that I believe is correct but is not working: (updating on another form so I have one place where all forms update hence FRMMain. etc)
Private Sub btnConfirm_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles btnConfirm.Click
Dim CurrentPoints As Integer
Dim UpdatedPoints As Integer
CurrentPoints = FRMMain.MyDBDataSet.Tables("TBLPupil").Rows(looopcount)(15)
UpdatedPoints = CurrentPoints + stfPoints
FRMMain.MyDBDataSet.Tables("TBLPupil").Rows(looopcount)(15) = UpdatedPoints
FRMMain.TBLPupilTableAdapter.Update(MyDBDataSet.TBLPupil)
FRMMain.TBLPupilTableAdapter.Fill(MyDBDataSet.TBLPupil)
End Sub
Code that I am using in another form that that DOES work:
Private Sub BtnYes_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles BtnYes.Click
Dim Points As Integer = FRMPupil.Pointss
Dim Cost As Integer = FRMPupil.RewardCost
Points = Points - Cost
FRMPupil.LePoints = Points
MyDBDataSet.Tables("TBLPupil").Rows(FRMLogin.DBLocation)(15) = Points
FRMMain.TBLPupilTableAdapter.Update(MyDBDataSet.TBLPupil)
FRMMain.TBLPupilTableAdapter.Fill(MyDBDataSet.TBLPupil)
Me.Hide()
End Sub
My code is correct but is not working.
No, if it is not working, then it is not correct!
There are different things you can do: DRY, Dont Repeat Yourself. You are repeating the code for updating points at several places in your code. This is error prone. Write it once and re-use it, e.g. by applying the the Repository Pattern. It makes it easier to detect errors and correct them. It allows you to re-use code that has already been tested in other scenarios (on another form).
Debug, debug, debug. Place breakpoints in the not working methods and see what happens. Do all the variables have the expected values? E.g., does looopcount have the same value as FRMLogin.DBLocation? There must be a difference somewhere. See: Navigating through Code with the Debugger or the more recent article Debug your Hello World application with Visual Studio 2017.

How do I effectively create controls dynamically in Excel's VBA or How do I use Application.OnTime()?

I am working on a very large VBA project in Excel at my job. We are about 1500 lines of code for just one feature and have about a dozen more features to add. Because of this, I've been trying to break everything down so that I can keep code for each feature in separate places. OOP sucks in VBA... The problem being that these controls MUST have events fired. Of course, some events (like the TextBox_AfterUpdate event) are not available when you dynamically create controls. It's a bit convoluted because of everything that is going on, so I'll break it down the best I can:
I have a class module that represents a tab for a multipage control. When a user clicks on a tab, the Userform calls this class module and THERE I have the controls created dynamically. This way I can keep the code in that class module. I have a sub that I deemed as the "AfterUpdate" sub and put code that I needed to run there. Now the problem is to get that sub to be called at the appropriate time.
So what I did is to set up a Timer of sorts to check and see if the "ActiveControl" is said textbox. If it is not, we can assume that focus has left and we can raise that event. Here's the code I'm using:
An abbreviated version of the tab creation...
Private WithEvents cmbMarketplace As MSForms.ComboBox
Public Sub LoadTab(ByVal oPageTab As Object)
If TabLoaded Then Exit Sub
Set PageTab = oPageTab
Dim tmp As Object
Set tmp = PageTab.Add("Forms.Label.1")
tmp.Top = 6: tmp.Left = 6: tmp.Width = 48
tmp.Caption = "Marketplace:"
Set cmbMarketplace = PageTab.Add("Forms.ComboBox.1", "cmbMarketplace")
' LOAD OTHER CONTROLS '
TabLoaded = True
Start_Timer
End Sub
Then Start_Timer:
Public Sub Start_Timer()
TimerActive = True
Application.OnTime Now() + TimeValue("00:00:01"), "Timer"
End Sub
And the sub that is to be fired:
Public Sub Timer()
If TimerActive Then
' DO SOME RANDOM THINGS '
Application.OnTime Now() + TimeValue("00:00:01"), "Timer"
End If
End Sub
Does this seem like a reasonable approach to solving the problem I'm facing? I'm open to suggestions...
That's the first problem. This seems like a lot of work to accomplish this. (I'm working on getting visual studio, but I don't know if that's going to happen)
The above code will work but the "Timer" sub will not get raised at all. I get no errors if I just run the code. Everything is created, everything works as I would hope. However, if I step through the code, I eventually will get the following error:
Cannot run the macro "...xlsm!Timer". The macro may not be available in this workbook or all macros may be disabled.
Obviously neither of those suggestions are valid. Macros ARE enabled and the sub is in the same darn class module. I tried making it public, same problem. Tried "ClassModule1!Timer" to no avail. I'm at my wits end trying to figure this out. Thinking of having people write ALL this in the Userform or just giving up.
Does anybody have any suggestions on how to effectively break up large chunks of code? And does anybody have a clue why this sub will not run and seemingly cannot be found?
I understand that this is a confusing situation, so if you need more info or code examples or want to know why I have something set up the way I do, let me know.
Thanks!
Obviously neither of those suggestions are valid. Macros ARE enabled and the sub is in the same darn class module.
There's the problem: a macro cannot be in a class module. The message is entirely correct: VBA cannot see the Timer procedure, because it's not accessible.
A class module is a blueprint for an object, VBA (or any OOP language for that matter) can't do anything with a class module, without an instance of that class - i.e. an object.
Your timer callback needs to be a Public Sub in a standard module, so that it can be called directly as a macro. Public procedures of a class modules are methods, not macros.
Depending on what ' DO SOME RANDOM THINGS ' actually stands for, this may or may not require some restructuring.
1500-liner spaghetti code can be written in any language BTW.

Understanding visual basic code

I am new to Visual basic and followed a tutorial on how to filter a report viewer.
On the button click I call this function and pass the value within textbox1 as so:
Mysub(TextBox1.Text)
I have a rough understanding of what’s going on just by reading the code but I am wondering if any of you can annotate the code so I can have a full understanding of what’s happening (the tutorial I followed was not well documented)
Here is the Private sub:
Private Sub Mysub(ByVal make As String)
Me.ReportViewer1.LocalReport.DataSources.Clear()
Dim adapter As New Database1DataSetTableAdapters.DataTable1TableAdapter
Dim table As New Database1DataSet.DataTable1DataTable
adapter.FillByModulename(table, make)
Me.ReportViewer1.LocalReport.DataSources.Add(New ReportDataSource("DataSet1", CType(table, DataTable)))
Me.ReportViewer1.RefreshReport()
End Sub
FillByModulename is a query I created with the filter set to =#Modulename for the Module name column so whatever is entered into the textbox is what will be filtered in this column.
Thank you all for your time

How to prevent VBA variables from being shared across Word documents?

I have a VBA template project that runs automatically when a Word document is opened. However, if I open multiple documents, they all share the variables values. How can declare these variables to be only associated with the active window or active document?
I tried declaring them in a Class Module, but that did not help. Switching between opened document I can see that these variables are shared.
Any input is appreciated...
This what I have in my Module:
Option Private Module
Dim CurrentCommand As String
Public Function SetCurrentCommand(command)
CurrentCommand = command
End Function
Public Function GetCurrentCommand()
GetCurrentCommand = CurrentCommand
End Function
More Info: The code/Macro start at AutoExec like this:
Public Sub Main()
Set oAppClass.oApp = Word.Application
If PollingRate <> "" Then Application.OnTime Now + TimeValue(PollingRate), "CaptureUserViewState"
End Sub
And the CaptureUserViewState is a Sub that resides in a different Module and does all teh checks (comparing new values to last recorded ones) and here how this Sub does the check:
If WL_GetterAndSetter.GetLastPageVerticalPercentage <> pageVerticalPercentScrolled Then
'Update the last value variable
WL_GetterAndSetter.SetLastPageVerticalPercentage (pageVerticalPercentScrolled)
'log change
End If
You don't give us much information, but I assume you declared public variables at module level like this:
Public myString As String
Public myDouble As Double
From VBA documentation:
Variables declared using the Public statement are available to all procedures in all modules in all applications unless Option Private Module is in effect; in which case, the variables are public only within the project in which they reside.
The answer is to use Option Private Module.
When used in host applications that allow references across multiple projects, Option Private Module prevents a module’s contents from being referenced outside its project.
[...] If used, the Option Private statement must appear at module level, before any procedures.
EDIT You have now clarified that you declare your variables using Dim at module level. In this case, Option Private Module is irrelevant.
Variables declared with Dim at the module level are available to all procedures within the module.
i.e. regardless of whether you're using Option Private Module or not.
If you're finding that the values are retained between runs, then that must be because you are running a procedure from the same module from the same workbook. You may think you're doing something else, but in reality this is what you're doing.
EDIT
In your class module, instead of Dim CurrentCommand As String try Private CurrentCommand As String. Without more information it's hard to debug your program. I'm just taking random potshots here.
What you need to do is store multiple versions of the variables, one set per document.
So I would suggest that you create a simple class to hold the different values.
You then store them in a collection mapping the data-set with the document name or similar as the key.
In classmodule (MyData), marked as public:
Public data1 as String
Public data2 as Integer
In module with the event-handlers:
Dim c as new Collection 'module global declaration
Sub AddData()
Dim d as new MyData 'Your data set
d.data1 = "Some value"
d.data2 = 42
c.add Value:=d, Key:=ActiveDocument.name
End Sub
Then when you enter the event-handler you retrieve the data and use the specific set for the currently active document.
Sub EventHandler()
Dim d as MyData
set d = c.item(ActiveDocument.name)
'use data
'd.data1...
End Sub
Please not that this code is just on conceptual level. It is not working, You have to apply it to your problem but it should give you some idea on what you need to do. You will need to add alot of error handling, checking if the item is already in the collection and so on, but I hope you understand the concept to continue trying on your own.
The reason for this is because, as I understand the situation from your question, you only have one version of your script running, but multiple documents. Hence the script have to know about all the different documents.
On the other hand, If each document would have their own code/eventhandlers, hence having multiple versions of the script running, then you don't need the solution provided above. Instead you need to be careful what document instance you reference in your script. By always using "ThisDocument" instead of "ActiveDocument" you could achieve isolation if the code is placed in each open document.
However, as I understood it, you only have one version of the script running, separate from the open documents, hence the first solution applies.
Best of luck!
You might want to store the Document Specific details using
The Document.CustomDocumentProperties Property
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/aa212718(v=office.11).aspx
This returns a
DocumentProperties Collection
Which you can add new Properties to Using
Document.CustomDocumentProperties.Add(PropertyName, LinkToContent, Value, Type)
And then Read From using
Document.CustomDocumentProperties.Item(PropertyName)
A downside, or bonus, here is that the properties will remain stored in the document unless you delete them.
This may be a good thing or a bad thing

Profiling VBA code for microsoft word

I have some legacy code that uses VBA to parse a word document and build some XML output;
Needless to say it runs like a dog but I was interested in profiling it to see where it's breaking down and maybe if there are some options to make it faster.
I don't want to try anything until I can start measuring my results so profiling is a must - I've done a little searching around but can't find anything that would do this job easily. There was one tool by brentwood? that requires modifying your code but it didn't work and I ran outa time.
Anyone know anything simple that works?
Update: The code base is about 20 or so files, each with at least 100 methods - manually adding in start/end calls for each method just isn't appropriate - especially removing them all afterwards - I was actually thinking about doing some form of REGEX to solve this issue and another to remove them all after but its just a little too intrusive but may be the only solution. I've found some nice timing code on here earlier so the timing part of it isn't an issue.
Using a class and #if would make that "adding code to each method" a little easier...
Profiler Class Module::
#If PROFILE = 1 Then
Private m_locationName As String
Private Sub Class_Initialize()
m_locationName = "unknown"
End Sub
Public Sub Start(locationName As String)
m_locationName = locationName
MsgBox m_locationName
End Sub
Private Sub Class_Terminate()
MsgBox m_locationName & " end"
End Sub
#Else
Public Sub Start(locationName As String)
'no op
End Sub
#End If
some other code module:
' helper "factory" since VBA classes don't have ctor params (or do they?)
Private Function start_profile(location As String) As Profiler
Set start_profile = New Profiler
start_profile.Start location
End Function
Private Sub test()
Set p = start_profile("test")
MsgBox "do work"
subroutine
End Sub
Private Sub subroutine()
Set p = start_profile("subroutine")
End Sub
In Project Properties set Conditional Compilation Arguments to:
PROFILE = 1
Remove the line for normal, non-profiled versions.
Adding the lines is a pain, I don't know of any way to automatically get the current method name which would make adding the profiling line to each function easy. You could use the VBE object model to inject the code for you - but I wonder is doing this manually would be ultimately faster.
It may be possible to use a template to add a line to each procedure:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa191135(office.10).aspx
Error handler templates usually include an ExitHere label of some description.. The first line after the label could be the timer print.
It is also possible to modify code through code: "Example: Add some lines required for DAO" is an Access example, but something similar could be done with Word.
This would, hopefully, narrow down the area to search for problems. The line could then be commented out, or you could revert to back-ups.
Insert a bunch of
Debug.Print "before/after foo", Now
before and after snippets that you think might run for long terms, then just compare them and voila there you are.
My suggestion would be to divide and conquer, by inserting some timing lines in a few key places to try to isolate the problem, and then drill down on that area.
If the problem is more diffused and not obvious, I'd suggest simplifying by progressively disabling whole chunks of code one at a time, as far as is possible without breaking the process. This is the analogy of finding speed bumps in an Excel workbook by progressively hard coding sheets or parts of sheets until the speed problem disappears.
About that "Now" function (above, svinto) ...
I've used the "Timer" function (in Excel VBA), which returns a Single.
It seems to work just fine. Larry