Hello,
I'd appreciate any hindsight or techniques for some of the housekeeping necessary for keeping an unbounded form in sync with a recordset.
I am working on an app to allow data entry of the responses to a particular survey. (the survey and its underlying representation of questions and answers precludes my use of a bounded form, as discussed on this thread.)
For example:
* User wants to enter new set of responses from a survey
-- Create a new responses recordset
-- Use placeholder NULL values for all of the recordset fields.
-- Sync the form UI control values to the (blank) recordset. I.e., blank form.
* User enters in a value into a form UI control (text field or checkbox, say)
-- Need to sync this change to the recordset once user leaves this field
-- So, handle all control focus change events (??)
-- When a focus change event occurs, call a form-global function that syncs all of the form UI control values to the recordset. (or, pass the ID of the control and sync only that value? more efficient)
* User wants to exit midway through form entry for lunch break
-- User hits Ctrl-S to save, or clicks 'Save' button, or closes form, etc
-- Sync form UI control values into recordset; update recordset into db
-- Optionally exit application if user has closed form
* User wants to edit an existing response set (they get back from lunch and re-launch Access)
-- Query recordset out of database tables
-- Sync form UI control values to the values in the recordset
-- Not-yet-entered values will be NULL in recordset. Corresponding controls are therefore in an unset / empty state.
From this analysis, it seems like the main subroutines would be:
Sync All Form UI Controls To Recordset
Helper function: Sync a specific UI control to a Recordset
(big Switch statement?)
Sync All Recordset To Form UI Controls
Helper function: Sync a specific UI control to Recordset
(big Switch statement?)
Create new, blank recordset
Update database with recordset
Close/Open database
Does this sound like a sane approach? Are there any gotchas I should be aware of here? And, any examples of existing code would be great as well. I'll post follow-up on my progress.
Thanks,
-Jeff
I'd appreciate any hindsight or techniques for some of the housekeeping necessary for keeping an unbounded form in sync with a recordset.
I am working on an app to allow data entry of the responses to a particular survey. (the survey and its underlying representation of questions and answers precludes my use of a bounded form, as discussed on this thread.)
For example:
* User wants to enter new set of responses from a survey
-- Create a new responses recordset
-- Use placeholder NULL values for all of the recordset fields.
-- Sync the form UI control values to the (blank) recordset. I.e., blank form.
* User enters in a value into a form UI control (text field or checkbox, say)
-- Need to sync this change to the recordset once user leaves this field
-- So, handle all control focus change events (??)
-- When a focus change event occurs, call a form-global function that syncs all of the form UI control values to the recordset. (or, pass the ID of the control and sync only that value? more efficient)
* User wants to exit midway through form entry for lunch break
-- User hits Ctrl-S to save, or clicks 'Save' button, or closes form, etc
-- Sync form UI control values into recordset; update recordset into db
-- Optionally exit application if user has closed form
* User wants to edit an existing response set (they get back from lunch and re-launch Access)
-- Query recordset out of database tables
-- Sync form UI control values to the values in the recordset
-- Not-yet-entered values will be NULL in recordset. Corresponding controls are therefore in an unset / empty state.
From this analysis, it seems like the main subroutines would be:
Sync All Form UI Controls To Recordset
Helper function: Sync a specific UI control to a Recordset
(big Switch statement?)
Sync All Recordset To Form UI Controls
Helper function: Sync a specific UI control to Recordset
(big Switch statement?)
Create new, blank recordset
Update database with recordset
Close/Open database
Does this sound like a sane approach? Are there any gotchas I should be aware of here? And, any examples of existing code would be great as well. I'll post follow-up on my progress.
Thanks,
-Jeff
