Robust solution to allowing easy passing of arguments to forms

[hiero]

Robust solution to allow easy passing of arguments to forms

Hi there,

I want to develope a robust way of being able to pass arguments to a form when opening it. This way, I can treat the form basically like a function - and it severs the opening forms usual dependence on a value existing in the form that called it.

I thought it would be neat to provide an openargs string in the format,

key=value;key=value;.... etc

And then on the opening form side just use a function like this:

Function getArguments(ByVal optArgs As String) As Dictionary
    
    Dim dict As Dictionary
    Dim temp As String
    temp = Split(optArgs, ";")
    
    For Each kvp In temp    ' Iterate through each element.
        Dim temp2 As String
        temp2 = Split(kvp, "=")
        dict.Add temp2(0), temp2(1)
    Next

    getArguments = dict
    
End Function

Then you would run something like..

Private Sub Form_Open(Cancel As Integer)
argsString = OpenArgs
Me![args] = argsString
Dim arguments As Dictionary
arguments = getArguments(argsString)

If arguments.Exists("new") Then
    If arguments.Item("new") = "true" Then
        'open form in new mode
    End If
Else
    'look for item_id and filter for it
End If

End Sub

I have several questions - first of all, why do I get a compile error saying 'argument not optional', pointing at the "arguments = getArguments(argsString)" line..

And, has anyone come up with something like this before, and could you share it with us?

Thanks all.

 

[workmad3]

I had a similar problem. My solution was to set variables in a module that i called something like commonVariables, and then i just checked the variables i needed to determine things on form load. Not sure where your method is going wrong, but you might be able to fix it by putting Optional front of the parameter