Solved Simple VBA code to change form of a subform programmatically .. (1 Viewer)

[sjs94704]

Here is a picture of my form. As you can see there are several buttons on in.
Let's say that that there are forms frmForm1, frmForm2, frmForm3, frmForm4, etc
that can correspond with each button.

Let's say that the subform itself is just called SfrmSubform

The goal is as each button is pushed that each corresponding form.
When all is done, the subform border will be transparent so that as the buttons are push all that people will see is what is on the form itself!

So, I am looking for the VBA code that would go behind the buttons to change the forms

 

[MarkK]

Private Sub Button1_Click()
    Me.SfrmSubform.SourceObject = "fNameOfFormToLoad"
End Sub

 

[Edgar_]

Markk's code is the answer, but I suggest the navigation control. It does that and more, without code.

 

[ebs17]

When changing forms, you should also ensure that open processes in this form are checked and securely completed.
This applies to forms in which more happens than just being looked at.

 

[sjs94704]

Private Sub Button1_Click()
Me.SfrmSubform.SourceObject = "fNameOfFormToLoad"
End Sub

While I respect Edgar's answer suggesting the Navigations forms, I am interested in doing this programmatically. I also caught what ebs17 says about doing any and all checks to be sure that everything on the form your on is completed before moving to another form.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I don't use the built in Navigation form because it is not flexible. It works the way it works. If you are OK with that, then use it. Otherwise, making your own form really isn't a big deal. I would probably use a subform to produce the button list rather than hard coding it. That way you can have some control over which buttons appear for individual users based on their security settings. The file that populates the button list includes the name of the subform to load so your click event code is generic and won't need to change. If you add a new form and then add it to the button table, it automatically becomes available and no code change is necessary.

 

[sjs94704]

Private Sub Button1_Click()
    Me.SfrmSubform.SourceObject = "fNameOfFormToLoad"
End Sub

OK, so probably not to anyone's surprise that this works. BUT, now I want to take this to the next level. What I mean is, I want to make a routine out of it that could possibly end up including other things that will ALWAYS happen at the same time!

 

[MarkK]

I want to make a routine out of it that could possibly end up including other things that will ALWAYS happen at the same time!

If you can show me something that ALWAYS happens, I will love you FOREVER.

 

[ebs17]

The challenge is low and not worth big words.

Private Sub Button1_Click()
    Me.SfrmSubform.SourceObject = "fNameOfFormToLoad"
    ProcedureForMore
End Sub

Of course, you can't do it at the same time, but only one after the other.

 

[jdraw]

Here is a link to an example/demo database by Tina T (UA) that may offer some insight.

 

[Mike Krailo]

I don't use the built in Navigation form because it is not flexible. It works the way it works. If you are OK with that, then use it. Otherwise, making your own form really isn't a big deal. I would probably use a subform to produce the button list rather than hard coding it. That way you can have some control over which buttons appear for individual users based on their security settings. The file that populates the button list includes the name of the subform to load so your click event code is generic and won't need to change. If you add a new form and then add it to the button table, it automatically becomes available and no code change is necessary.

Pat, do you have an example of that? I'm just trying to envision how exactly the button list looks like as a subform. I started using buttons with emoji's and images in them and don't think that would work in a subform.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Hi @Mike Krailo
I actually added one to my switchboards sample. I haven't updated it yet. Maybe later today. If you don't see it, PM me.

Buttons are not all that flexible so these simulations are just textbox's. I couldn't find a way to change the button caption on a continuous form, but I didn't work very hard on it. I just used a textbox.

Here's the form. The buttons form is bound to a table with three columns. The Button text, the name of the form to open, and a code for the button color. This is of course very limited because it is dependent on conditional formatting. Since this is a sample in another application which has its own switchboard, there is the arrow with the special close button so you can go back to the application menu. In real use that wouldn't be there. The exit button exits the application. If you want pictures, you can add them to the table and use "two" buttons side by side. One with a picture and the other with text.

This is design view. I made the list subform only long enough to hold the 6 options. You will need to make it longer if you don't want to fix the options. You'll just have empty space at the bottom. Make the subform the same color as the background of the main form so it isn't jarring. Also, you can probably make this work like the actual switchboard (which I didn't do). This version is just a flat list. If I have time, I'll make it an actual switchboard so it can handle sub menus. You can probably even make the subform shrink and grow based on the number of items returned by it's recordSource query.

 

[Pat Hartman]

This is the code for the button.

Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

Private Sub Button_Name_Click()
    Me.Parent!sfrm_Name.SourceObject = Me.Form_Name
End Sub

This is the two format conditions.

Here's the button table

It doesn't get much simpler

 

[Pat Hartman]

PS, I found out something interesting and very annoying while building this. I initially named the form name field FormName. Well, Access considers that a reserved word and so Me.FormName doesn't return the value from the table, it returns the name of the form where the code is running. How about that?

 

[Mike Krailo]

Thanks, Pat. that does give me some idea's to explore and see if they will work or not. What I'm thinking is to store the Unicode hex values for the captions in additional columns depending on UTF-8 or UTF-16 codes are needed. So even if the image part doesn't work, I could still get some Unicode symbols in there.

 

[Pat Hartman]

@Mike Krailo You're welcome

If you have images, just use a bound object frame. The click event can be used to open the form.

I posted the current version if you are interested. I also listed a bunch of things that could be done to improve the functionality. Post a picture of yours if you develop it so I know how it turned out

Replacement Switchboard

This Switchboard form is based on the last VBA version which I think was A2k. I expanded it to allow for 12 items rather than 8 and you can easily change it to do more. I've included directions. This updated version has two switchboards. One more traditional and the other is big buttons...

www.access-programmers.co.uk

 

[Mike Krailo]

Thanks Pat, I will definitely develop something around this whole idea. I was getting ready to do an accordion style menu system links or buttons on the left side and you got me thinking about the possibility of making adding more future buttons in a manor that makes the whole process a lot easier (flexible). I did some preliminary tests using some simple unicode symbols and they display in the table just fine so they should easily display in the button menu. So that's what I was hoping for.

I just added two more columns to your tblButtons to hold the decimal value of the unicode values (DecVal_1 and DecVal_2). Then using a query to combine them together with the text of the button creates a nice looking button. I will need to do a lot more testing to see what's possible and what's not, but so far it has potential.

 

[sjs94704]

Hi @Mike Krailo
I actually added one to my switchboards sample. I haven't updated it yet. Maybe later today. If you don't see it, PM me.

Buttons are not all that flexible so these simulations are just textbox's. I couldn't find a way to change the button caption on a continuous form, but I didn't work very hard on it. I just used a textbox.

Here's the form. The buttons form is bound to a table with three columns. The Button text, the name of the form to open, and a code for the button color. This is of course very limited because it is dependent on conditional formatting. Since this is a sample in another application which has its own switchboard, there is the arrow with the special close button so you can go back to the application menu. In real use that wouldn't be there. The exit button exits the application. If you want pictures, you can add them to the table and use "two" buttons side by side. One with a picture and the other with text.
View attachment 109572
This is design view. I made the list subform only long enough to hold the 6 options. You will need to make it longer if you don't want to fix the options. You'll just have empty space at the bottom. Make the subform the same color as the background of the main form so it isn't jarring. Also, you can probably make this work like the actual switchboard (which I didn't do). This version is just a flat list. If I have time, I'll make it an actual switchboard so it can handle sub menus. You can probably even make the subform shrink and grow based on the number of items returned by it's recordSource query.
View attachment 109575

This is really cool! I will be interested to see if it will be possible for regular buttons to work with your idea.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I will need to do a lot more testing to see what's possible and what's not, but so far it has potential.

I can't wait to see it.

This is really cool! I will be interested to see if it will be possible for regular buttons to work with your idea.

I explained why I didn't use regular buttons. If you can figure out how to "bind" the button caption, that would be great. But unless you can do that, you can't use the table to fill the captions. I like the look of real buttons better although I can probably fiddle with the text boxes to get them to look more like buttons but it wasn't worth the time. I tried for a while to use text boxes over or behind buttons but I was having trouble with getting them to display and work so again, this was proof of concept and I have no intention of using this form any time in the future so I didn't pursue the fight with buttons. I just used textboxes.

If you get the caption property of the buttons to work, please post your solution. I spent only about an hour building the sample. Then I spent another half hour trying to get the caption to work or use a textbox over/under the button and nothing worked the way I wanted so I stopped and switched to the plain textbox which worked immediately and with a single line of code. I still feel like some combination of the bound textbox over a control to display the name will probably work but the first button always went blank and I couldn't figure out why so good luck and don't forget to tell us the solution if you find one.

 

[sjs94704]

I can't wait to see it.

I explained why I didn't use regular buttons. If you can figure out how to "bind" the button caption, that would be great. But unless you can do that, you can't use the table to fill the captions. I like the look of real buttons better although I can probably fiddle with the text boxes to get them to look more like buttons but it wasn't worth the time. I tried for a while to use text boxes over or behind buttons but I was having trouble with getting them to display and work so again, this was proof of concept and I have no intention of using this form any time in the future so I didn't pursue the fight with buttons. I just used textboxes.

If you get the caption property of the buttons to work, please post your solution. I spent only about an hour building the sample. Then I spent another half hour trying to get the caption to work or use a textbox over/under the button and nothing worked the way I wanted so I stopped and switched to the plain textbox which worked immediately and with a single line of code. I still feel like some combination of the bound textbox over a control to display the name will probably work but the first button always went blank and I couldn't figure out why so good luck and don't forget to tell us the solution if you find one.

Sorry, maybe I just misread what you said.