I know the title is a bit confusing so let me make myself as clear as possible.
In an Access form (2010), I have a set of text fields meant to contain dates. Those fields are all optional, the user can fill in any number of dates.
To make it more user-friendly, I want to associate each field to a toggle button. Then I want 2 things to happen :
On CURRENT event :
On CLICK of a toggle button :
So far I've achieved the first step by setting two collections of controls based on some examples I found online. So, when the form is loaded, I call this :
Private mcolGroupTxToggle As New Collection
Private mcolGroupBuToggle As New Collection
Private Sub InitializeCollections()
Dim ctl As Control
If mcolGroupTxToggle.Count = 0 Then
For Each ctl In Me.Controls
If ctl.Tag = "txtoggle" Then
mcolGroupTxToggle.Add ctl, ctl.Name
End If
Next ctl
Set ctl = Nothing
End If
If mcolGroupBuToggle.Count = 0 Then
For Each ctl In Me.Controls
If ctl.Tag = "butoggle" Then
mcolGroupBuToggle.Add ctl, ctl.Name
End If
Next ctl
Set ctl = Nothing
End If
End Sub
And on Form_Current event, I call that :
Private Sub OnLoadToggles(mcol As Collection, pcol As Collection)
Dim ctl As Control
Dim btn As Control
Dim strBtn As String
For Each ctl In mcol
'Every button has the same name than the textbox + "b"
strBtn = ctl.Name & "b"
For Each btn In pcol
If btn.Name = strBtn Then
If IsNull(ctl) Then
ctl.Visible = False
btn.Value = False
Else
ctl.Visible = True
btn.Value = True
End If
End If
Next btn
Next ctl
Set ctl = Nothing
End Sub
Everything works well so far, but I'm not sure that's the best way to do it and I figured I would need to repeat some lines in step 2.
Making the distinction between text boxes and buttons in the procedure seems weird, I feel like it should be done prior so that I don't have to do it in every procedure. I also feel like it would be better to loop through each pair of controls (text + button) instead of each control in both collections.
Basically, I'm wondering if it would be (1) better and (2) possible to have something as simple as this :
Private Sub OnLoadToggles(Collection of pairs)
for each [pair of txt and btn]
if isnull(txt) Then
txt.visible = false
btn.value = false
else
...
end if
...
My guess is that I would need to make a public sub where I set a collection of pairs of buttons and text fields based on their tags (there are other controls in my form that need to be left alone) and names, but I'm not sure how, I'm a beginner in VBA.
Any suggestions please ?
Thanks to Andre's answer the second part was easier than I thought. I've updated my sample database. So on click events I call this :
Private Sub ClickToggles()
Dim ctl As Control
Dim btn As Control
Dim strBtn As String
Dim strCtl As String
strBtn = Me.ActiveControl.Name
strCtl = Left(strBtn, Len(strBtn) - 1)
Set ctl = Me(strCtl)
Set btn = Me(strBtn)
If IsNull(ctl) Then
btn.Value = True
ctl.Visible = True
ctl.Enabled = True
ctl.SetFocus
Else
ctl.Value = ""
btn.Value = False
ctl.Visible = False
End If
End Sub
It's not perfect but it works. Probably not a good idea to clear the data at this point because misclicks may happen. It would be better to loop through the textboxes right before saving the form and clear values of invisible and/or disabled controls from the collection. I might to that later.
I had to add the .enabled property next to the .visible one because on lostfocus events I was getting an error saying the control was still active so it couldn't make it not visible.
Right now I'm more concerned about the amount of click and lost focus events. I'd rather have some public functions and event handlers dealing with it but it's getting too complicated for me. I'll get back to it when I know more about... everything.
Suggestions are still welcome anyway =) !
Since your control pairs are "paired" by their name anyway, you don't need any fancy constructs, or even the second collection. Just address the matching control directly by its name.
Instead of using If/Else for setting boolean properties, it is usually easier to assign a variable to the property.
Private Sub OnLoadToggles(mcol As Collection)
Dim ctl As Control
Dim btn As Control
Dim strBtn As String
Dim bShowIt As Boolean
For Each ctl In mcol
'Every button has the same name than the textbox + "b"
strBtn = ctl.Name & "b"
' If you have the control name, you can get the control directly:
Set btn = Me(strBtn)
' Using a variable you don't need If/Else
bShowIt = Not IsNull(ctl.Value)
ctl.Visible = bShowIt
btn.Value = bShowIt
Next ctl
' Note: this is not necessary for local variables - they go automatically out of scope
Set ctl = Nothing
End Sub