How to run a function (which pings the IP_Address field value) on a continuous report

[RaffaEl13]

Hi, I already search on the web but as I'm a beginner in VBA I didn't find the specific answer to my question. In fact I have a DB with Printer and I would like to display a list of them in a continuous form (form not a report sorry for the title) and have a ping status on each row. I already have a function wich ping the IP_Address value and return a True or False. This obviously works well on a form with just one printer and then one IP_Address value, but not in the continuous form where I have a list of IP Addresses. How can I run this function on each IP Address value in the continuous form (in the purpose to get the True/False value if it ping and modify an unbound field to indicate if the printer ping)? I hope it is clear. Thank you very much in advance.

[zmbd]

Fixed your title per your post.

Your function should refer to the control on your form that has the IP address (say it's named "txt_ctrl_printerip") and be entered into the control source of {unbound control} (say it's named "txt_ctrl_pingstate") so that the entry is something along the lines of =fnc_printer_ping([txt_ctrl_printerip])

[Seth Schrock]

You would have to call your Ping function in the query that is the recordsource for the form. This would create another field that would give you your true/false result. However, this has the potential to take a long time to then open the form as it is having to ping each IP address. Just something to consider.

[RaffaEl13]

@Seth Schrock
Hi Schrock, thank you for your reply, I open the form from this:

DoCmd.OpenForm "PrinterReport", acNormal, , sWhere, acFormEdit

sWhere contain the criteria of the request for exemple

sWhere = "building =" & Chr(34) & building & Chr(34)

to filter all the printer in a specific building, (choosen with a combobox) anyway, my question is could I use this to call the "ping" function (named PrinterOnline) and how? Sorry I just build my code copying from different source but I begin in VBA and probably I ask question seeking in the false way. Thank you very much for your help!

[RaffaEl13]

@zmbd
Hi zmbd, thank you for your reply, actually it works well on a form with one record, meaning one IP address, I call the function with this
Dim strPrinter As String
strPrinter = IP_Address.Value
If Not PrinterOnline(strPrinter) Then...
(the function is called PrinterOnline).

On the same form I have some combobox where I can select different criteria as the City or the Building where the printers are and through a button open a continuous form with the list of the printers resulting of the criteria choosen. On this continuous form I will ping each printer.

But even with an easier table, for exemple a list of PCs inside a continuous form, I don't know how call my function as if I do it, I have only the first record line result duplicated on each following lines.

Perhaps Schrock has given the solution but I don't yet understand how to implement it.

Thank you very much for your help!

[Rabbit]

You can not use an unbound control. You will need to use a bound control for this. Unbound controls can not have different values for different rows.

[Seth Schrock]

I'm going to assume your function is called PingFunction and that is has one argument that needs passed to it; the IP address. In that case, I will also assume that your query has a field named IP_Address. With all of these names, here is a sample of what the query would need to be.

SELECT PingFunction(IP_Address) AS PingResult, ...
FROM ...
WHERE ...

This will make the query have a field called "PingResult" that will have the True/False result from your ping function for that record.

[zmbd]

Rabbit You Confuzzzed me...
Take a simple data calc.
I have two bound fields, call them, "ctrl_tbldate_start" and "ctrl_tbldate_end"
I want the time elapsed between these dates, so I have an unbound control, "ctrl_ub_calcdays" wherein the control source I have =DateDiff("h",[ctrl_tbldate_Start],[ctrl_tbldate_end])
Default view is set for continous forms... this works here in that the elapsed time between the date/time is calculted for each record shown.

So following behind that train... this should still work as I've suggested in #2, indeed, I have several forms that do just this very thing where the function sits in an unbound control and I feed information from the bound field to the function. (I should clear that up a tad in #2 too).

[Rabbit]

Sorry @zmdb, you're right. I probably just used the wrong terminology. I was referring more specifically to my assumption from what the OP said. That assumption being that they are populating the value of the control through code rather than through the control source.

[RaffaEl13]

@zmbd
Thank you very much zmbd! It works fine. So simple (always simple when we know how)that I didn't think it could be done like that. Sorry for the time I did to answered, I only could tested it now. Best Regards!

[RaffaEl13]

@Seth Schrock
Thank you Seth for your help, I will try your solution also. As the one of zmbd works I began by the easiest one to implement. Best Regards!