I'm working on a fairly complex Access Database, trying to build forms with custom buttons for working with records. I'm using list boxes to display and navigate through records and all fields for existing records are disabled unless the user presses an edit button. The problem I'm having is that if I press the Edit or Add New button, enabling all of the fields, and then try to change the selection in a combo box, it does not update on the first try.
If I edit a text box first then the combo boxes work fine. I've determined that the control's beforeUpdate and afterUpdate events are not firing on the first try but the action triggers the form_Dirty event and then it works as expected. I tried setting Me.Dirty = True with the Edit button and that solved the problem but it causes problems with some of my other code and it seems like an unnecessary workaround if only I understood the actual cause of the problem. It also works as expected if I leave the Combo Box unbound, but I am trying to build a template that doesn't require too much work to build new forms off of and I would rather not go that route.
It must have something to do with some bit of code I'm using because I can start a basic form and the combo boxes work fine. I've started a basic test form and am adding code from my template form bit by bit until the problem arises, but it's a tedious process. Any help would be appreciated.
What am I missing? Is there some way of getting the Combo Box events to fire before the form is dirty?
UPDATE: I have templates for a basic form, a form with a single subform, and a form with multiple subs in a tab control.
After some more testing I discovered that this problem does not apply to the basic form which has no subforms. This template uses similar code to the others for new, edit, cancel, save and delete buttons and for preventing accidental changes, preventing Form_unload during an edit and so on. The main difference I can think of off the top of my head is that the templates with subforms use class modules and collections to hold various data and pass it between the main form and subforms. Not sure if or how this might relate to combo box functionality.
I built most of this last winter then got too busy over the summer to work on it. Just now picking it up again and I'm having to re-learn a lot of the details of how my code works.
I figured it out. I was calling a procedure with a form refresh in it from the Form_Dirty event and for whatever reason the refresh at exactly the wrong time was causing the combo box Before_Update and After_Update events to be skipped and the combo box value to not change. It was also causing text entered into a textbox to overwrite existing text on the first keystroke.