The Microsoft Office Access 2007 Developer Extensions make it easy to deploy and manage solutions built using Microsoft Access. The Access 2007 Developer Extensions provide packaging and deployment tools and licensing and distribution agreements to make it easier for developers to bring solutions to market. Whether you are working in a small business or a…
ID vs Code
There are cases where a table’s primary key is referred to often in the code. In fact, it might have some special meanings in code. It is highly encouraged to avoid the use of IDENTITY or AutoNumber (or any auto-incrementing schema) for those keys because it is also usually desirable to create a VBA Enum…
How to Display a Form Automatically when your Application Opens
This is a quick tip on how to automatically display a form when the user opens your Access Application. In addition to improving User Friendliness, your database design will also appear much more professional. The step by step instructions below will display the Switchboard form in figure 1 immediately upon the application opening. This will…
Access DateValue() function to SQL Server equivalent
What is the SQL Server equivalent to Access DateValue() function? Access SQL DateValue([Event Timestamp]) SQL Server Equivalent cast([Event Timestamp] as date) convert(date, [Event Timestamp])
Using Custom Functions in Calculated Controls
Custom functions work the same way as MS Access built-in functions such as DateAdd, DatePart and DSum, but are instead created ourselves as database developers. We do this by creating a public function with the VBA programming language and save it inside a global module within the database. Today I am going to explain how custom functions can be…
Microsoft Access File Extensions
Microsoft Access saves information under the following file formats: File Format Extension Access Project (2007, 2010) .adp Access Blank Project Template (2007, 2010) .adn Access Database (2007, 2010, 2013, 2016) .accdb Access Record-Locking Information (2007, 2010, 2013, 2016) laccdb Access Web App Reference .accdw Access Signed Packages .accdc Access Database, used for Add-ins .accda Access…
Normalize all constraints’ & indices’ names
Constraints that are created by SSMA or by user via SSMS tend to have ugly names. Worse, auto-generated names are not stable across backups. Meaning if you restore a new database based on a copy of another database, the constraint names will change. That create huge problems during migrations because scripts that references constraint will…
Use TryGet pattern for transient values
A number of objects may have extra properties or something where it might not exist for all instances. A good example might be finding Controlsource property on an Access.Control variable:
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For Each ctl In Me.Controls Debug.Print ctl.ControlSource 'A potential error Next |
Not all controls have a ControlSource property and thus can fail to run. A common approach is to use OERN:
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For Each ctl In Me.Controls On Error Resume Next Debug.Print ctl.ControlSource 'A potential error On Error GoTo 0 Next |
This will work…
Access Web Apps to be retired
It was announced that Access Services is going to be retired. Details of the announcement may be found here: Updating the Access Services in SharePoint Roadmap. Additional timeline information along with possible methods for exporting your data out of an Access web app may be found here: Access web apps no longer supported. While these articles…
Self-documenting code
Strong preference should be given to writing code that is self-documenting. A common approach is to write a lot of comments, but the problem with comments are twofold: It actually can harm the readability because it adds to the overall length of code to read and understand. It must be correct or it can end…






