Scrambled Versions

[Tim Baur]

I have an Access application that was written some time ago by a developer
that did not believe in documenting his work. Another developer, who
recently left the company, made several changes to this application and
wrote them to the server. Only after his changed were released did I learn
that the server copy was not the most recent. The prior developer created
a linked-table shell copy on every user's hard drive. Unbeknownst to us,
the code on the server was stale before getting extensively modified.

So now I'm left with the original stale copy (Copy A), the copy with the
first round of updates (Copy B) and the copy most recently modified (Copy
C). My goal is to merge the changes from B and C into each other. This
isn't difficult to do for the code; as Windiff makes very quick work of it.
I can further use ADOX to map changes to the table objects.

The problem I have is in accounting for changes in the forms. There
appears to be no good way to export a form's definition. If it were VB6, I
would just windiff the .frm files, but Access won't play ball. I would
really like to avoid stacking screen capture prints of both form versions
and holding them up to a light <g>.

Any thoughts?

 

[RobFMS]

FMS Total Access Detective
http://www.fmsinc.com/products/detective/index.html

--
Rob Mastrostefano

FMS Professional Solutions Group
http://www.fmsinc.com/consulting

Software Tools for .NET, SQL Server, Visual Basic & Access
http://www.fmsinc.com

 

[Tim Baur]

FMS Total Access Detective
http://www.fmsinc.com/products/detective/index.html

$200 / seat is a little pricey for my needs. I'm sure it's a great product
and all, but I'm looking for a one-shot. I am glad, however, to hear it
can be done programmatically.

Anyone know how fmsinc accomplishes this task?

 

[Dirk Goldgar]

The problem I have is in accounting for changes in the forms. There
appears to be no good way to export a form's definition. If it were
VB6, I would just windiff the .frm files, but Access won't play ball.
I would really like to avoid stacking screen capture prints of both
form versions and holding them up to a light <g>.

Any thoughts?

You can use the undocumented Application.SaveAsText method to export a
form's definition to a text file.

 

[Tim Baur]

You can use the undocumented Application.SaveAsText method to export a
form's definition to a text file.

BINGO!!!

You're awesome. Thanks, Dirk. I never would have found that on my own. I
was currently in the process of implementing tlbinf32.dll (yech).