Question

Is there a way to start an application from an Access Form?

Asked by: tariqanis

Hello experts,
I was wondering if there is a way I could activate a video file by clicking a button on an Access form. The file only needs to be opened , nothing more.

Thanks

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Asked On
2009-08-24 at 10:34:45ID24677334
Tags

Microsoft Access 2007

Topic

Access Forms

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: eghtebasPosted on 2009-08-24 at 10:39:54ID: 25170517

 

by: eghtebasPosted on 2009-08-24 at 10:41:33ID: 25170534

It describes shell function. You can use shell() to open the other applications from Access environment.

 

by: tariqanisPosted on 2009-08-24 at 11:44:53ID: 25171140

Thank you eghtebas: but i am not sure how to go about using the code that the link is pointing to:
What's more the code seem to be answering a specific question about a way to delay the execution of the next VBA code rahter than running an external application, but of course I could be wrong.

At any rate my question now is this: Do I place the code in a private procedure or a module and how do I go about specifying the file I need to open and its path?
In other words, is there an example of how to use the Shell function...??
Thanks

 

by: LSMConsultingPosted on 2009-09-01 at 05:43:04ID: 25230939

The Shell function that eghtbas refers to is used like this:

Shell "Full path to your video file"

You can place this directly in the Click Event of your command button:

Sub YourButton_Click()
  Shell "Full path to your file"
End Sub

The ONLY caveat is that the extension of the file you're opening must be associated with an application on the machine. That is, if I have a file named "MyMove.avi" then I MUST have a program on that computer that is associated with the .avi extension.

Note this will launch the file external to Access ... that is, it will launch whatever program is associated with the file extension, and then launch the file in that program.

Note also that sometimes you must refer to these files a bit differently (i.e. sometimes you must specifically declare which program you wish to use to launch that program), but in general the above code works fine.

 

by: tariqanisPosted on 2009-09-07 at 13:45:14ID: 31619779

Thank you, this is what I needed.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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