Open Form & pass Property

[kirkm]

I want to open a Form and pass a property to it.

However there's code in the Form_Load event that needs that property.
So I have renamed Form_Load event "Activate" and use this

        DoCmd.OpenForm "MyForm"
        Form_MyForm.MyProperty = "Test"
        Form_MyForm.Activate

It works as hoped but is it correct/right ?

Thanks

 

[theDBguy]

Hmm, according to this MS article, the Load event fires before Activate.

Order of events for database objects - Microsoft Support

support.microsoft.com

 

[kirkm]

I'm not using either Form_Load or Form_Activate.
That was a useful article but it didn't show any Get or Let Properties.

 

[theDBguy]

I'm not using either Form_Load or Form_Activate.
That was a useful article but it didn't show any Get or Let Properties.

I was just saying you said the Load event needs the property, so you decided to assign it using an event that fires after the event that needs it. If I misunderstood, then I apologize.

 

[kirkm]

I'm probably nor explaining it properly, it's not assigned to an event that fires after it needs it. That was what was fixed.
My question was, is the fix ok ? Although it's working it could be wrong, or be improved.

 

[theDBguy]

I'm probably nor explaining it properly, it's not assigned to an event that fires after it needs it. That was what was fixed.
My question was, is the fix ok ? Although it's working it could be wrong, or be improved.

Hi. Sorry, I don't think I can state an opinion on your question, because I am still unclear as to what you are doing, but I really hope someone does. Cheers!

 

[moke123]

Perhaps you should explain your in a class module writing a class.

It may help to show more of the code and explain further.

 

[kirkm]

I'm a bit lost as to whats left to explain. Its all in Msg1, Line 1.
Is this an unsual thing to do? It is all working as intended so maybe assume its ok.
Thanks anyway and apologies if an oddball question.

 

[kirkm]

> Well I wasn't aware that you could call the ACTIVATE event again.
It's not again. It's just called once. It's not Form_Activate, just Sub Activate.
In your blog you were suggesting OpenArgs as a solution to a Property. I'm familiar with that method.
Really, my question was about my bit of code. Is there anything "wrong" with it, that is some problem to come I haven't thought of. Or some reason why it's bad.

 

[vhung]

I want to open a Form and pass a property to it.

However there's code in the Form_Load event that needs that property.
So I have renamed Form_Load event "Activate" and use this

        DoCmd.OpenForm "MyForm"
        Form_MyForm.MyProperty = "Test"
        Form_MyForm.Activate

Open a Form
>then 1 property needs to be applied
like: DoCmd.OpenForm "MyForm"
Me.Caption = "Test"

 

[MajP]

It works as hoped but is it correct/right ?

Yes you will have to do a workaround like this. This is a limitation in access and one of the reasons for openArgs. Unlike other languages you cannot set the properties before opening the form. So if you need it on load you cannot. You can do a workaround open args.

Or like you said you can build your own procedure in the form and call it. Activate was a bad name for a procedure and caused some confusion. since there is already an Activate event with that name. Instead I would have built a public Procedure (with a better name) and have it parameterized. Then you could do it in one step and maybe not event need the Property.


docmd.openform "myForm"
Forms("Myform").CustomProcedure SomeParameter

Then in My Forms

Public sub CustomProcedure (SomeParameter as datatype)
use the passed parameter
' if you need to store it as a property you can do it here without even a setter
'mSomeClassVariable = SomeParameter
end sub

So to be clear you did not rename an Event you renamed an Event Procedure (Event Handler) and thus all you really did was create a procedure called Activate and got rid of the Event Handler OnLoad

Need to understand events and events handlers. Because you terminology and poor naming convention made this hard for everyone to understand.

What You Need to Know About Access Events

There is often a lot of confusion about Access Events and often answering questions posed here is difficult because of inaccurate terminology. People often say "Event" when it is unclear if they mean the actual event that takes place, the event procedure, or the event property. This thread...

www.access-programmers.co.uk

 

[theDBguy]

Okay, this is starting to make sense to me now. It seems the functionality you're after could have been accomplished with using OpenArgs. But you don't want to use OpenArgs (you prefer custom properties), so you had to create this workaround.

If that's the case, another potential workaround is maybe to use TempVars. I wonder if you could assign a TempVar to a property in the Form's Load event.

Just a thought...

 

[Isaac]

It was also confusing that you stated " So I have renamed Form_Load event "Activate" "
There is no such thing as "re-naming" an EVENT. An event is an event is an event. You can't rename them, only Microsoft can.
Also as Maj said naming a procedure the same as a naturally occurring event is a really bad idea and I'm not sure if it could actually cause some problems, especially if you manually changed a true Event stub to Public. Maybe not, I just avoid naming conflicts so I am not sure.

You don't "pass a property" to a form. You "pass" arguments and parameters into procedures and functions. So your post was extremely confusing.

In the very rare-if-ever case where you have written code in an Event, but due to poor planning, it's not firing because it's not really in the right event, you may be able to force the event to fire by calling it explicitly. If you're outside the class scope of that event you may need to manually change the Private event to Public. In your case it looks like you were trying to make Load fire by Activating the form, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
I would recommend using the right events rather than trying to fudge it.

If you take the time to explain yourself in complete detail when first creating a post, it shows responsibility and reasonableness to forum you are asking to help you, rather than putting a 10-word question that numerous people then require a lot of questions to "drag" it out.

 

[kirkm]

I do think the question was well put, and I'm surprised at some responses. Sub Form_Load was renamed to Sub Activate. I almost called it "MyActivate" then decided not to. "Activate" made sense. The Form was Activated with the property available to use. And Activate doesn't seem to be a reserved word. Whether you call it argument or property is semantics, I'm sure it was obvious what I meant.
OpenArgs gets really messy if you've more than one value. I understand now it needn't be Property, a Sub sould have worked too. That's handy to know.
I'll lookup TempVars too. Heard of it but long ago... Cheers all.

 

[MajP]

There are two cases I can think of where you have to use openargs or tempvars or global variables. The first is if you open the form using the ACDIALOG argument. The reason is that code execution stops in the calling form until the called form is closed. So there is no way to set properties or pass arguments because the code is halted in the calling form. The second case is if the value is needed immediately in the on load.
I know in VB.NET this is not the case. You can instantiate a form object without opening the form. This means prior to opening you can set all properties of the form both intrinsic and custom.

 

[kirkm]

I think Excel is similar. If I remember correctly you can Load a Form, do stuff, then Show it.