Call external application from within Access

[Joallyn]

Hi all,

because I've tinkered with Access a bit, I've now been asked to be an advisor on something much more ambitious: an inventory database that will allow the user to call an external application (in this case, LabView) which will perform some test, and return a value. Ideally, this value would be then be 'integrated' back into Access.

From perusing the posts, I know that calling Labview shouldn't be a problem (correct me if I'm wrong...) but I'm fairly clueless on whether or not it's possible for the resulting value to be entered into the database itself. I'm hesitant to mistakenly say that it's possible, and then be expected to actually make it work.

I'm not asking for specific code, but just a more informed opinion on whether or not Access can handle this type of operation.

If anyone wants to weigh in on this, I'd very much appreciate it!

thanks,

J

 

[PHV]

How will LabView return a value ?

Hope This Help, PH.
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[Joallyn]

Sorry for being so vague--I know it's hard to give advice on a concept that's still in development.

As I understand it, a user would be able to, say, push a button in Access to fire up a LabView GUI. The user would then use the GUI to perform some sort of test. Theoretically, LabView could return the test result in any number of different formats--we had discussed having it be a *.csv file of n rows x m columns of values. The user would then close the GUI, and the *.csv file would be automatically imported into Access.

J

 

[PHV]

A .csv file could be imported in access table with the DoCmd.TransferText method.

Hope This Help, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884

 

[Joallyn]

Thanks for the help! I'll tinker around with the command and see what I can get to work...

J