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Progress Meter (Updating Form Labels In Form View)

Hello,

I have made several scripts using VB that process various data in MSAccess- check some boxes here, add notes to this text box, and so on based on conditions from a query. They all work exactly how I want them to, but some of them run for a rather long time and I would like to be able monitor the progress of the scripts.

My first thought was to create a Form right before the process starts and after every iteration of the process, update a label on the form that says, "12 out of 99,456 records processed." or possibly even draw a small blue rectangle and keep increasing the size of it to illustrate the progress like other programs often do.

I have relatively little experience in VB programming, but I know this would be a piece of cake in Java. When I tried implementing this in VB I found that I can't make any modifications to a Form while in Form View. Is there a way around this?

I also considered using a TextBox (surely this can be changed in FormView) and disguising it as a Label since I think TextBoxes look really tacky to display info that can't be modified. I ran into a problem here too, though. Here's what I did:

Dim strFormName As String
Dim frmProgress As Form
Dim cl As Control
Set frmProgress = CreateForm()
frmProgress.NavigationButtons = False
frmProgress.RecordSelectors = False
strFormName = frmProgress.name
Set cl = CreateControl(strFormName, acTextBox, acDetail, "", "", 100, 100, 5000, 300)
DoCmd.OpenForm (strFormName) ' open FormView
cl.Text = "Connecting to Database"

I get a: Run-time error '2467' Application-defined or object-defined error on the last line listed here.

Surely there is someone out there who has done this kind of thing before, and surely there is a way to implement this. I'm very close to scrapping everything I've done using the MS Access VB and just starting over with the front end with a platform that allows more control. Am I getting frustrated because I don't know what I'm doing or is it because MS VB is just not very flexible?

Thanks for any ideas you may have.
-Shannon

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

shanesuebsahakarn

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Steve Bink

If you need a control on the form to be displayed under certain circumstances, create the control in Design view, giving it a FALSE value for the Visible property. This gives you the opportunity to set the value of the control before the user sees it, and to determine if and when the user will see it through code. This is the closest you will get to dynamic controls.

If you would like some examples, create a switchboard in Access using the Switchboard Manager utility, and examine the code it generates.

SidFishes

this is what i use for feedback on record processing (export in this case) It updates a label on the form based on total to process and already processed...might be adaptable for you...

Dim cnn As ADODB.Connection
Dim rst As ADODB.Recordset
Dim x, y
Set cnn = New ADODB.Connection
cnn.ConnectionString = pubstrConnect
strSQL = "EXEC dbo.maintFindUnExportedOrders " 'find orders for export
cnn.Open
Set rst = New ADODB.Recordset
With rst
.CursorLocation = adUseClient
.Open Source:=strSQL, _
ActiveConnection:=cnn, _
CursorType:=adOpenDynamic, _
LockType:=adLockOptimistic

.MoveFirst
While x < .RecordCount
pubOrderID = !OrderID
Call ExportEm 'a procedure which does the export
.MoveNext
x = x + 1
y = .RecordCount - x
Me!lblProcessed.Caption = y & " Records Left In Queue"
Repaint
Refresh
Wend

.Close
End With

cnn.Close
Set rst = Nothing
Set cnn = Nothing

rhinoceroshead

ASKER

I'm awarding the points to shanesuebsahakarn because the solution to my problem was contained in that reply. The code that I posted was not working because I had not yet saved the form, and apparently you can't change the Captions on a label that has not yet been saved.

I still don't think VB is very flexible. Java is much more consistent about how to create and update objects and VB is extremely restrictive in that you can't add controls to existing forms. VB just doesn't seem intuitive to me. I feel like I have to look up somebody else's code to learn how to do anything. For example, to create a new form with a control on it, I would assume you could just do this:

Dim newForm as Form
Dim newControl as Control

Set newForm = new Form
Set newControl = new Control
newForm.addControl(newControl)

But that won't work at all. You have to use Application.CreateControl() to make the control. What's the point of the 'new' keyword if you can't universally create a new object with it? Some objects you can and some you can't. If it were consistent then the learning curve wouldn't be nearly so steep.

Thanks for the help, and I'm really impressed by the quick responses!

Shannon

SidFishes

welcome to the wonderful wolrd of vba and vb...

" If it were consistent then the learning curve wouldn't be nearly so steep."...and vb and vba wouldn't be Number 1 and number 2 in questions asked at EE ;)

shanesuebsahakarn

Again, it's a design methodology and understanding. The New keyword does work with forms, but it is used to create a new *instance* of an *existing object*. There should almost never be a situation where you ever need to create a form "on the fly". The keywords are not necessarily analogous to an action you would perform in design view.

Language and application design environments don't all work in the same way, and you can't expect them to. Many of us here could achieve almost anything in VBA that can be achieved with other languages and you'll learn the appropriate methods as you progress with it.

shanesuebsahakarn

I should really get my terminology right:
a new instance of an *existing object definition* (or class, if you prefer)