Using "VB Controls" in MS Access

[Felipe]

I've been programming MS Access applications for over 5 years and so far the
provided controls have been adequate (combo boxes, etc). But I've been
playing with VB6 and I like some of the 3rd party controls available for it.
I'm wondering what it would take to use "VB controls" in an MS Access
application (still using MS Access 97). Is it even possible? If yes, what do
I need to do to (1) develop and (2) deploy the controls with my MS Access
application?

Thanks!

 

[TC]

Like what VB controls?

TC (MVP Access)
http://tc2.atspace.com

 

[Felipe]

<< Like what VB controls? >>

Well, we've got an old component suite from Protoview (before they merged
with Sheridan to form Infragistics). It has a bunch of editors, pop-up
calendar data picker thingie, and a nice grid. Also a toolbar from "Software
With Brains" that would be nice to include. Not sure we'd actually use very
many of these... just entertaining the possibility and wondering what it
would actually take.

This is more of a "what if" question than an "I've gotta do this" question.

Thanks.

 

[TC]

Ok. I'm not actually sure what the exact technical requirements are. It
might be a matter of "suck it & see". Maybe someone else can comment.

As for popup calendars, there are various pre-written Access forms that
work very well as popup calendars. And there might be some nice
surprises in the next version of Access

As for "grids", if you mean, multi-record bound controls, you'd go a
long way to beat the default capabilities of an Access form within an
Access subform control.

As for toolbars, you can create any # of custom toolbars in Access, and
manipulate them through code.

HTH,
TC (MVP Access)
http://tc2.atspace.com

 

[MH]

All the controls you put on a form are COM controls (they used to be called
ActiveX controls but MS keep changing their names for some reason) and all
you have to do is install them, register them and set a reference to them to
use them on your forms.

I think there is a free download available from MS which provides a
selection of them, do a web-search for VB6 runtime files if you're
interested.

MH

 

[Guest]

There are a number of options for creating ActiveX/OLE controls,
and Access does not support most of them. If the control is not
'Access compatible', you won't see all the events when you select
the control in the vba environment and drop down the list of events.
If you want to write your own ActiveX/OLE controls, you will have
to define the control using the interface type supported by Access.

I could go to the help file and look up the name of the interface
used by 'Access compatible' controls, but in practice, you can
just insert the control, and see if it has any useful events or properties.

Note that most controls will not expose their event handlers as
properties, (outside Access, that is a useless feature) so you always
need to go to the vba environment to get the list of event handlers.

(david)

 

[Arvin Meyer [MVP]]

The short answer is yes, just install and register the ActiveX controls and
most of them will work. However not all of them. Those that can't deal with
Access's heavy subclassing of controls or MDI forms will not work. The long
answer is that the best way to find out about a particular control is to try
it. Most control vendors will let you try them for a short period before you
buy them.
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Microsoft Access
Free Access downloads
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

It might also be worth reading http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=202104 and
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=208283 (while they only mention Access
2000, they apply to all versions)

--
Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP

(no private e-mails, please)