Playing around with Access references

[Scott Simonson]

When in the code editor I select TOOLS | REFERENCES I get a list of
references. Mainly DLLs that are accessible. Well I assume that they are all
accessible. Besides the ones I have to use or might use, what about the
others? While scrolling through the list I saw something with AIM, AOL
Instant Messaging. Is there something in there to use in an Access app? How
do I know. How could I expose the objects contained in it? Are there other
useful objects elsewhere to play with?

Scott

[Allen Browne]

Hi Scott.

You can have fun fooling with several of the (hundreds? of) controls you may
see exposed there. The most commonly used ones are probably calendar,
treeview (ms common controls), and richtext. There are many general ones
that do little more than you can already do in Access, and other specialist
ones that are useful if you have a special need.

In practice, though, you want to keep the extra references to a minimum. If
you copy an mdb file onto another computer that does not have a specialist
library installed, it breaks the application. If the other computer has a
different version of the library, it breaks the application. If some other
software installs another version of a library onto your computer, it breaks
the application. If you update to a different version of Access, a simple
thing like the calendar control can break the application. In short, any
extra libraries you include means are you are increasing the support issues
for your application, so if you are developing something to use on other
people's machines, you really don't want to introduce DLL-hell issues.

So, most of the apps I write use just 3 libraries (Access, VBA, and DAO),
and I have to be convinced there is a genuine need before I will introduce
any more.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.
Tips for Access users - http://allenbrowne.com/tips.html
Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

"Scott Simonson" <sc***********@wi.rr.com> wrote in message
news:KF********************@twister.rdc-kc.rr.com...

When in the code editor I select TOOLS | REFERENCES I get a list of
references. Mainly DLLs that are accessible. Well I assume that they are
all accessible. Besides the ones I have to use or might use, what about
the others? While scrolling through the list I saw something with AIM, AOL
Instant Messaging. Is there something in there to use in an Access app?
How do I know. How could I expose the objects contained in it? Are there
other useful objects elsewhere to play with?

Scott

[Allen Browne]

Hi Scott.

You can have fun fooling with several of the (hundreds? of) controls you may
see exposed there. The most commonly used ones are probably calendar,
treeview (ms common controls), and richtext. There are many general ones
that do little more than you can already do in Access, and other specialist
ones that are useful if you have a special need.

In practice, though, you want to keep the extra references to a minimum. If
you copy an mdb file onto another computer that does not have a specialist
library installed, it breaks the application. If the other computer has a
different version of the library, it breaks the application. If some other
software installs another version of a library onto your computer, it breaks
the application. If you update to a different version of Access, a simple
thing like the calendar control can break the application. In short, any
extra libraries you include means are you are increasing the support issues
for your application, so if you are developing something to use on other
people's machines, you really don't want to introduce DLL-hell issues.

So, most of the apps I write use just 3 libraries (Access, VBA, and DAO),
and I have to be convinced there is a genuine need before I will introduce
any more.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.
Tips for Access users - http://allenbrowne.com/tips.html
Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

"Scott Simonson" <sc***********@wi.rr.com> wrote in message
news:KF********************@twister.rdc-kc.rr.com...

When in the code editor I select TOOLS | REFERENCES I get a list of
references. Mainly DLLs that are accessible. Well I assume that they are
all accessible. Besides the ones I have to use or might use, what about
the others? While scrolling through the list I saw something with AIM, AOL
Instant Messaging. Is there something in there to use in an Access app?
How do I know. How could I expose the objects contained in it? Are there
other useful objects elsewhere to play with?

Scott

[Scott Simonson]

Thanks Allen,

I understand not using references, or at least too many, is not preferred.

I do want to look into it so if I would find something that I'd like to add
to my project I can add it. Does anyone have suggestions on some objects
that you have used and how to use them? I am simply exploring the
possibilities.

Thanks,

Scott

"Scott Simonson" wrote in message
news:KF********************@twister.rdc-kc.rr.com...

When in the code editor I select TOOLS | REFERENCES I get a list of
references. Mainly DLLs that are accessible. Well I assume that they are
all accessible. Besides the ones I have to use or might use, what about
the others? While scrolling through the list I saw something with AIM, AOL
Instant Messaging. Is there something in there to use in an Access app?
How do I know. How could I expose the objects contained in it? Are there
other useful objects elsewhere to play with?

Scott