Looking for someone with experience building apps with multiple instancesof forms open

[Bob Alston]

Looking for someone with experience building apps with multiple
instances of forms open. I am building an app for a nonprofit
organizations case workers. They provide services to the elderly.

so far I have built a traditional app, switchboard, forms, etc.
Part of this app is to automate the forms they previously prepared
manually.

After the app was built and works just fine, I find out there are
several case managers using MS word and forms built in Word. One
feature they like is the ability to have multiple copies of a form open
at the same time. They tell me this happens when they are in the
office, working on one case and the phone rings and they need to address
this other caller.

I am aware of technically how to open multiple copies of a form.
I am also aware that when the original/1st copy closes, so do all other
copies.

So has anyone out there built an app where there can be multiple copies
of a form that can be closed in any sequence?

Also how do you show to the user the forms currently open? Did you
build a special "open forms list" from which they can select a form and
bring up the selected form? (kinda like the list that word keeps of
open documents)

Any other tips or traps?

Thank you

Bob

[MLH]

When you address this NG and use the word Form or Forms
interchangeably referring to physical paper forms your IRS 501.C.3
has stacked on their shelves and to Access Form objects and
Report objects, you introduce a level of confusion that some folks
just don't wanna tackle. I'd consider reposting a more clear statement
of your question. Not being hateful - just stating a fact.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Tue, 23 Jan 2007 09:54:18 -0600, Bob Alston <bo********@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>Looking for someone with experience building apps with multiple
instances of forms open. I am building an app for a nonprofit
organizations case workers. They provide services to the elderly.

so far I have built a traditional app, switchboard, forms, etc.
Part of this app is to automate the forms they previously prepared
manually.

After the app was built and works just fine, I find out there are
several case managers using MS word and forms built in Word. One
feature they like is the ability to have multiple copies of a form open
at the same time. They tell me this happens when they are in the
office, working on one case and the phone rings and they need to address
this other caller.

I am aware of technically how to open multiple copies of a form.
I am also aware that when the original/1st copy closes, so do all other
copies.

I was not aware that one could open more than a single instance of
a Form object in a single instance of the database. Perhaps if you
could share with us how you do that?

>
So has anyone out there built an app where there can be multiple copies
of a form that can be closed in any sequence?

Also how do you show to the user the forms currently open? Did you
build a special "open forms list" from which they can select a form and
bring up the selected form? (kinda like the list that word keeps of
open documents)

Any other tips or traps?

Thank you

Bob

[Bob Alston]

MLH wrote:

When you address this NG and use the word Form or Forms
interchangeably referring to physical paper forms your IRS 501.C.3
has stacked on their shelves and to Access Form objects and
Report objects, you introduce a level of confusion that some folks
just don't wanna tackle. I'd consider reposting a more clear statement
of your question. Not being hateful - just stating a fact.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

>I was not aware that one could open more than a single instance of
a Form object in a single instance of the database. Perhaps if you
could share with us how you do that?

************************************************** **

I have restated my posting to try to make it clearer which kind of form
- Access form, paper form or Microsoft Word document/form I am referring to.
Looking for someone with experience building apps with multiple
instances of Access forms open. I am building an app for a nonprofit
organizations case workers. They provide services to the elderly.

So far I have built a traditional Access app, switchboard, Access
forms, etc.
Part of this app is to automate the paper forms they previously prepared
manually.

After the app was built and works just fine, I find out there are
several case managers using MS word and electronic forms using MS
Word. One
feature they like is the ability to have multiple copies of a MS Word
document/form open
at the same time. They tell me this happens when they are in the
office, working on one case and the phone rings and they need to address
this other caller.

I am aware of technically how to open multiple copies of an Access form.
I am also aware that when the original/1st copy of an Access form
closes, so do all other
copies.

So has anyone out there built an app where there can be multiple copies
of an Access form that can be closed in any sequence?

Also how do you show to the user the Access forms currently open? Did
you
build a special "open forms list" (list of open Access forms) from
which they can select an Access form and
bring up the selected Access form? (kinda like the list that MS Word
keeps of
open documents)

Any other tips or traps?

Thank you

Bob

Also, here is a link to information about opening multiple copies (a
more correct word is instances)of a single Access form:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q135369

http://allenbrowne.com/ser-35.html

[Lyle Fairfield]

>From a long time ago:

Dim aForms(1 To 10) As [Form_MDAC and ESO]

Sub CreateInstances()
Dim z As Long
For z = LBound(aForms) To UBound(aForms)
Set aForms(z) = New [Form_MDAC and ESO]
aForms(z).Caption = aForms(z).Caption & "_" & z
aForms(z).Visible = True
Next z
DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdWindowCascade
End Sub

Sub RemoveInstances()
Erase aForms
End Sub

[MLH]

<snip>
Thx 4 the link explaining the opening of multiple instances of a form.
Could be useful. Did Lyle's suggestion solve your dilemma on closing
just one of them, keeping the rest open?

>
Also, here is a link to information about opening multiple copies (a
more correct word is instances)of a single Access form:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q135369

http://allenbrowne.com/ser-35.html

[Bob Alston]

MLH wrote:

<snip>
Thx 4 the link explaining the opening of multiple instances of a form.
Could be useful. Did Lyle's suggestion solve your dilemma on closing
just one of them, keeping the rest open?

>>

Also, here is a link to information about opening multiple copies (a
more correct word is instances)of a single Access form:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q135369

http://allenbrowne.com/ser-35.html

It appears that the info in the links would allow all instances to be
opened and closed independently.

The information on the above two links is useful but not complete for
what I need to avoid pioneering. Otherwise I wouldn't have posted. I
was really looking for someone who had done this previously in an
application where multiple different forms could have multiple instances
open.

Key issues:

1) how to you list/show the user the instances open and allow them to
select one to bring to the top (perhaps some kind of menu selection that
would open up a popup form of open form instances).

2) How do you tag each instance so that whatever you do can be uniquely
identified. For example if these multiple instances are for multiple
customers, perhaps the customer name needs to be accessible in the
caption of the instance or in the list mentioned in #1 above.

I am sure there are other issues with trying to do this. I really don't
want to pioneer here. If others have done this successfully and are
willing to share, then I will pursue a bit further. Otherwise it isn't
worth it to do the R&D likely required right now.

Bob

[John Mishefske]

Bob Alston wrote:

Key issues:

1) how to you list/show the user the instances open and allow them to
select one to bring to the top (perhaps some kind of menu selection that
would open up a popup form of open form instances).

2) How do you tag each instance so that whatever you do can be uniquely
identified. For example if these multiple instances are for multiple
customers, perhaps the customer name needs to be accessible in the
caption of the instance or in the list mentioned in #1 above.

I am sure there are other issues with trying to do this. I really don't
want to pioneer here. If others have done this successfully and are
willing to share, then I will pursue a bit further. Otherwise it isn't
worth it to do the R&D likely required right now.

Lyle's example used an array to hold each instance of a form. Arrays are very fast and
Collections are slower. But with a Collection you can specify a "Key" value - a unique
String value to identify the particular Object that you add to the Collection.

Then you can use that "Key" as an ID value to refer to, perhaps, an array of additional
information on the object (maybe an Employee Name, Badge Number, etc...)

Then you can use the Collection to list open forms.

The Access Developers Handbook has a chapter on this technique.

--
'---------------
'John Mishefske
'---------------