I am creating a form in access to allow users to input multiple production records for a day.
The form is set as a continuous data entry form and has data validation in place to ensure the information being entered is consistent.
I am having a problem where if a user starts typing something on a new entry, they essentially have no way to back out of it or cancel the entry without completely filling out the form.
I want to keep the data validation to ensure the data being recorded is accurate, but also do not want to lock users into an entry unless it is completely filled out.
I think the ideal would be to allow users to create a new record or select other records without needing to save the current record.
If it would be possible to make it so records only save when a button at the top of the form is pressed I think that would be ideal, but I have not found a good way to do this without requiring it on every single entry.
I have attached a picture of what I am talking about, there could be various error messages but essentially if you try to click off when a record is incomplete it will give an error until the entire form is filled out.
Example of Error Message and Image of Continuous Form
'deselect' without saving but still save what had been entered up to
that point.
That you can simulate by setting the DefaultValue of each control in the AfterUpdate event of each control:
Me!SomeTextBox.DefaultValue = Nz(Me!SomeTextBox.Value)
However, I'm not sure that will be a good idea. And you may have to reset the default values when opening the form.
Related
I have a database where I don't want some fields showing depending on data in other fields. I'm still new to VBA, having learnt how to do things I need via the internet (there's not much call for it in my job so like to try it out on side projects) for the things I need and have managed to create some code that hides certain fields that aren't needed, depending on what's been entered in another field and that works okay, if not perfectly (I'd like it to only work on the current record and not all of them at once but will worry about that later). My problem is, if I'm entering information onto a record and any of those fields become invisible exactly as I would want them to, then if I have more records to complete and load a new record, those hidden fields are also hidden on the blank record before any data has been entered and I want each new record to show all fields from the outset.
Another thing I've noticed is that if I close the database, next time I go into it the hidden fields have unhidden themselves again so I know I'm missing something important.
Here's a screenshot of a bit of the code where I want 2 other fields (What_reason and Date_sent_to_new_owning_School) to be visible depending on whether the answer in the current field after update is "Standard" or "Non-standard":
I'm sorry if this is really entry-level stuff but I AM entry level and trying to learn. This bit does work, albeit not perfectly as I'd like it to only work on the record I'm in at the time, and not go through and hide that field in all the other records at once (which it's doing).
I've searched everywhere but can't find the answer and although I've tried, I'm nowhere near good enough at VBA to try and use common sense to work it out. Is this something that can be done? I'm okay with computers generally and with Access too but I'm aware there's an awful lot I don't know and this is why I'm trying to do new things and learn stuff that I've not used before. I have tried all day to get this to work but am admitting defeat and am hoping somebody here will be able to help me. I'll probably need 'idiot level' advice if that's possible, I know my limitations. :)
Do you know how to use the Event tab in the Property Sheet? You can set all of your fields to [field].Visible = True on either: On Current, On Load, or On Open
Screenshot of the Property Sheet and for the field that determines the visibility of all of the other fields; you can use the Event: After Update so that way when you click/tab away from that field, it'll make those changes for you!
Property setting affects ALL instances of control. Control will be visible/not visible for all records depending on conditions of current record. Therefore, dynamically hiding controls on form set in Continuous or Datasheet will NOT give the desired result of
only work on the current record and not all of them at once
Db is not going to 'remember' dynamic setting - code needs to be executed when form opens and/or navigating records - so it is needed in OnCurrent event as well as control's AfterUpdate.
Conditional Formatting can dynamically enable/disable textbox/combobox by record although control is still visible.
My scenario: I have a datagridview and it contains some data. User can select a row, or multiple rows in that datagridview, and they need to know a summary about those rows they selected.
Handling multiple rows in datagridview is easy enough, and I have no problem getting what the user need: Two numbers indicate how many item is selected, and their total weight in those rows. I passed that data to a small summary form to display, and I put the code to show that form under dgv.SelectionChange().
But then disaster follow: each time user select a row, that form will appear. Which is, if user select 20 rows, they will see 20 summary forms.... and any more than that, well.. you can imagine. I thought about putting something inside SelectionChange() to check if user has stopped their selection.. but can't think of any.
This seems like a very simple matter, but somehow I can't figure it out..
My question, how to know if a user has stopped their selection in a datagridview ?
I still don't have enough points to just comment, so my answer would be I don't think you can reliably without adding another control (ie, button). You can't read the users mind and since the number of rows can be variable, how would you ever know? You could try something like if the cursor leaves the DGV but that would be frought with issues as well. While it would be an extra click for those just selecting 1 row, I still think having a "Get Summary" button would be the way to go. Sort of like when selecting items to compare - you can click any number of items and while they may show which items you've picked so far in another area, the comparison table doesn't appear until you click the Compare button.
From what I understand, you actually have two options.
Add a button
Since you can't figure out when the selection is done, just add a button that will call the Form you want to display, that way you are sure that it will display only when user asks for it.
Use a timer
Another option is to use a Timer, every time the selection changed, you reset the timer to one second (to keep the example simple).
And whenever the timer does a tick, you call the Form and stop the timer. That way it will trigger one second (or less) after the user made the selection and gives him one second to change it...
Honnestly, I think the button option is the best, as you give the power to your user. Maybe they will want to select some rows but don't want to see your form, as they will only copy it to paste it somewhere else...
To start, I am using Access 2003 and have a similar project that works correctly that I designed.
I am stumped as to why a particular field will not change dynamically like every other field until I "refresh".
Currently I have a task list that lists all items that need to be works. Containing a Status: New, Open, Closed; The account number, person who is working it and more.
The tasklist is just a form with a subform with a datasheet view that opens the task when you double click it. If a user opens a task, that task will be locked until they move on. If any information that is viewed in the task list is changed, it dynamically updates, all but the Status (which really is the most important) until the user manually refreshes it.
Does anyone know what I need to look for that would cause this? The Status is stored as an integer that joins with it's true value. I thought this may be the reason, however I have a similar tool I designed does not have this issue.
I've look into how they are joined, the code that changes this value, everything seems the same between the working and not working.
Any advice?
Thanks in advance.
edit any fields that are JOINED, do not seem to dynamically update until I hit refresh. However, the other database has this working. What am I missing that is different between them.
Solved.
I changed the object displaying the field from a textbox to a combobox, showed two columns with widths 0";1" and it works.
I have the following situation where I have multiple controls on a form. The user can select an Edit mode which allows them to modify the contents of the controls (textboxes, checkboxes, comboboxes, etc.) After editing has been made, the user can either select the Save or Cancel button.
Obviously clicking on save will save all changes to the database, however, if the user clicks on cancel, I want to 'somehow' revert all controls back to their previous state.
Currently, when the user clicks on cancel, the form turns off edit mode, but the controls remain with all the changes made until they reload the form.
Is there an easy way around this, or do I need to reload the entire form content from the database each time the user clicks on cancel?
Thanks in advance.
I'm just going to outline a possible solution here.
You could have a dictionary in your form in which you store the content of your controls whenever a user first modifies them, indexing them by the control name.
When the user starts modifying a control, you check if the control already exists in the dictionary. If it doesn't you add a new entry to the dictionary with the current value of teh control.
If the user cancels the editing process, you can loop through the dictionary, find each control in your form by its name (Form.Controls(ControlName) or something like that I think), set its value back to what it was and remove the entry from the dictionary.
It's not the most elegant solution as it will involve linking up all your controls to the TextChanged event or equivalent to capture their value when they are modified...
To avoid that, you could fill the dictionary right at the start when you load your form, after populating the values from the DB and then only set those controls' value back which have a different value when the user cancels.
I'm writing an intranet ASP.NET page using VB.NET. I've run into a particularly nasty problem dealing with handling file uploads. I'll do my best to explain the problem, and perhaps someone can help.
My problem is almost a duplicate of this one, or this one, except (other than the filename) I don't care about sending the file to the server until the other data has been reviewed.
Here's the situation:
Joe Q. Dataentry inputs some data into several fields. The first 3 are drop down, and when he changes the selection, a postback event is fired that queries a database for valid entries for the other drop down selections. After selecting the values, he inputs some other data, chooses a file to accompany the data and clicks the "Update" button. When he hits the button, it fires a postback event that sends the current data to the server to be validated. The data will create a change in the database, so he is presented with a view of the current state, and what it will look like when his changes are made. He can now either confirm or cancel the operation for whatever reason.
Part of the data he will see involves the extension of the file which may be a PDF, or could also be some image file or other document.
Now here's where my problem is - on each postback event, the fileupload dialog is cleared. I was getting around it by creating a temporary file on the first postback and then renaming if he clicks OK or deleting on Cancel... but I need to do a variety of things, based on the previous state of data and the filename. I've tried to keep some session variables to retain the filename, and that works OK for just renaming the file, but for what I need to do it gets unwieldy.
What I want to do is be able to have the postback event to present the changes, and then when the user clicks "OK", submit the file. Is there any possible way to do that?
One of my thoughts was to do some of the validation client-side (I'm already re-validating server side so I'm not too worried about data security there), but I don't know how I could get the information from the database query.
Thanks for any help, and reading my slightly convoluted story/situation!
EDIT:
It appears that what I want to do is prevent a certain button from firing a full postback. Is there any way to do that?
EDIT II:
I have an update panel on the page already - is there any way for the button to only post what's in the update panel?
What you might want to do is place your drop-downs inside of an ASP.NET AJAX UpdatePanel, and keep your file upload control out of that.
Your update panel will do the post backs and allow your validation logic to happen without submitting the file, then when you hit your final "Save" button (which is also outside of your UpdatePanel) the entire form will be submitted back and you can work with your file then.