How to Close a Form after a Certain Time of Inactivity

[AbaAbdillah]

How to close a from after a certain time pass inactive. After the user stop working with the database the tmer count down and after a certain time either close the form and lock it or close the whole application. using VBA coding can anyone help? thanks

[NeoPa]

Forms have a timer event. If you were to set a counter to your maximum value every time anything else happened on the form then allow the Timer event procedure to decrement this counter every time it runs then if it ever gets to 0 it could close itself down.

[ADezii]

Checking for a Form's Idle Time/Inactivity involves slightly complex Code in the Timer() Event of the Form as well as some kind of mechanism to determine if any Controls on the Form have been accessed. I have some Sample Code that illustrates this point, so if you are interested, I'll simply upload the DB as an Attachment where you can see everything in action. Should you then have any questions, we would be glad to answer them for you. Just let me know if you are interested.

[NeoPa]

I'd be pretty interested to see that ADezii, but much more so in the thread than as an attachment. As a general rule of thumb, almost no-one benefits from attachments as they are only ever downloaded if the need is great and the interest high.

I was hoping you'd get involved in this thread as I know your experience in this area is impressive. It would be great if we could all benefit from it :-)

[ADezii]

I honestly feel that an Attachment is a better Option here, but I will bow to my wiser and 'older' friend NeoPa. Here goes, the Timer Interval for the Form is set to 1000:

Private Sub Form_Timer()
' IDLEMINUTES determines how much idle time to wait for before running the IdleTimeDetected subroutine.
Const IDLEMINUTES = 5
 
Static PrevControlName As String
Static PrevFormName As String
Static ExpiredTime
 
Dim ActiveFormName As String
Dim ActiveControlName As String
Dim ExpiredMinutes
Dim intNumOfMins As Long
 
On Error Resume Next
 
'Get the Active Form and Control Name.
ActiveFormName = Screen.ActiveForm.Name
If Err Then
  ActiveFormName = "No Active Form"
    Err = 0
End If
 
ActiveControlName = Screen.ActiveControl.Name
If Err Then
  ActiveControlName = "No Active Control"
    Err = 0
End If
 
' Record the current active names and reset ExpiredTime if:
'    1. They have not been recorded yet (code is running
'       for the first time).
'    2. The previous names are different than the current ones (the user has done something different during the timer interval).
 
If (PrevControlName = "") Or (PrevFormName = "") _
                          Or (ActiveFormName <> PrevFormName) _
                          Or (ActiveControlName <> PrevControlName) Then
                            PrevControlName = ActiveControlName
                            PrevFormName = ActiveFormName
                              ExpiredTime = 0
Else
  ' ...otherwise the user was idle during the time interval, so increment the total Expired Time.
  ExpiredTime = ExpiredTime + Me.TimerInterval
End If
 
' Does the total Expired Time exceed the IDLEMINUTES?
ExpiredMinutes = (ExpiredTime / 1000) / 60
 
If ExpiredMinutes >= IDLEMINUTES Then
  ' ...if so, then reset the Expired Time to zero...
ExpiredTime = 0
  ' ...and call the IdleTimeDetected subroutine.
IdleTimeDetected ExpiredMinutes
End If
 
'For Display purposes only
If ExpiredTime < 60000 Then                    '< 1 Minute
  Me![txtExpiredTime] = "Idle Time Period: " & (ExpiredTime / 1000) & " Second(s)"
ElseIf ExpiredTime Mod 60000 = 0 Then          'Even Minute
  Me![txtExpiredTime] = "Idle Time Period: " & Int(ExpiredTime / 60000) & " Minute(s)"
ElseIf ExpiredTime > 86400000 Then             '> 24 Hours
  Me![txtExpiredTime] = "Idle Time Period: Sorry, didn't program for that!"
Else                                           '> 1 Minute
  intNumOfMins = Int(ExpiredTime / 60000)
    Me![txtExpiredTime] = "Idle Time Period: " & intNumOfMins & " Minute(s) and " & _
                          (ExpiredTime - (intNumOfMins * 60000)) / 1000 & " Second(s)"
End If
End Sub

Sub IdleTimeDetected(ExpiredMinutes)
  DoCmd.Close acForm, "frmTest", acSaveNo
    DoCmd.Quit
End Sub

NeoPa:
Having now read your code again (I believe you posted this once before and I remember being quite impressed with the logic of it), I remember now that it works based on checking the value of two properties within the Screen object (of the Application) called ActiveForm and ActiveControl. If these are checked every second or so, and they both remain constant during the whole timeout period, this indicates that the application has been inactive throughout that period and can safely be closed down. By default, closing a form will save away any unsaved changes automatically, so the acSaveNo parameter is passed to your IdleTimeDetected() procedure to avoid this. Also, care must be taken to handle the real possibility of a reference to Screen.ActiveForm or Screen.ActiveControl returning Nothing, which is always possible if nothing is currently active.

[NeoPa]

ADezii:
but I will bow to my wiser and 'older' friend NeoPa.

You wish :-D Even I'm not that old!

Please understand my friend, there is nothing wrong with posting attachments per se, simply that they are no explanation and they're not much use for disseminating information. They're great to make available for people to go off and play with and develop their own understanding of certain matters, but for passing across ideas they come a very poor second to posting explanations that are clearly visible and can be read or scanned through while browsing forum threads. I may not (or even possibly may if I'm being honest) be that old, but I've been working with forums for quite a few years now (as I know you have too of course) and I have a fair idea of all the different ways people use them and the sorts of things that work and when and how and why.

Having now read your code again (I believe you posted this once before and I remember being quite impressed with the logic of it), I remember now that it works based on checking the value of two properties within the Screen object (of the Application) called ActiveForm and ActiveControl. If these are checked every second or so, and they both remain constant during the whole timeout period, this indicates that the application has been inactive throughout that period and can safely be closed down. By default, closing a form will save away any unsaved changes automatically, so the acSaveNo parameter is passed to your IdleTimeDetected() procedure to avoid this. Also, care must be taken to handle the real possibility of a reference to Screen.ActiveForm or Screen.ActiveControl returning Nothing, which is always possible if nothing is currently active.

[ADezii]

Just wanted to say that the Code is not 'mine' per say. I may have made minor to changes to it, but in honesty, I cannot remember where I obtained it from.

[NeoPa]

Nevertheless it is well worth disseminating I think. It's the sort of thing people will often search for. I suspect having such code here will prove helpful to many.

[AbaAbdillah]

Thank you for your help! and do you mind if you tell me what value to give to the timer interval for the form. Do I need to give time interval value for each form. I believe that this code is going to be behind the main menu form on timer event right?
thank you again

[ADezii]

1. Whatever Value you give to the Form's Timer Interval Property, remember that it is in Milliseconds, namely:
   

   Timer Interval Value    Actual (secs.)
    1000                          1
    5000                          5
   10000                         10
    

2. The bulk of the Code would be contained within the Form's Timer() Event.

[NeoPa]

Inactivity Detection in Access may be helpful on this point. It's a bit more robust, but works to the same fundamental principles.