MS Access Calendar – OVERVIEW
Many times over the years, a similar type question has been asked of us here at Bytes, namely: How Can I Incorporate Calendar Like Functionality Solely Within The Context Of My Access Application? The individuals posting these questions are not referring to the varied ActiveX Calendar Controls that essentially present a Popup Dialog that enables you to select a Date then populate a Form Field with that Date, but something a little more interactive such as the Outlook Calendar where you can double click on a Date, then add some data relative to that Date for display and later retrieval.
This all started back on January 19, 2008 when a regular Member asked if there was an Outlook like Calendar option that can be used for data entry. Now, 340 Posts later, Bytes finds itself in a situation, where it must Close the Thread due primarily for efficiency reasons. Needless to say, this Topic has generated an unprecedented amount of interest which we will now attempt to keep alive via this Insight as well as a Link to the Original Thread.
Before I go any further, I would like to state that the basic Calendar functionality that I previously described does exist here at Bytes in what we affectionately call the MS Access Calendar. After proceeding with some background information on its inception, I will then go on to describe its implementation, as well as providing Attachments for the two Versions available, namely the Wide and Standard Calendars.
The Original Calendar was created many years ago by a friend and co-worker of mine, Carl Broll. We were both Fire Fighters at the time, and the Department needed a Scheduler complete with Date listings, a display of working platoons for each day of the week, and a mechanism to input basic information referring to scheduled appointments. This was how the Original Calendar came to be.
I joined TheScripts (now Bytes) back in April of 2006, and soon realized that this need for an Access based Calendar can be mostly fulfilled by an adaption of the Original Calendar. With Carl’s explicit permission, I soon made some modifications and enhancements to it, basically tailoring it to each requestor’s specific needs. It now exists in two Versions: Wide (for Screen Resolutions >= 1024 X 768) and Standard (all other Resolutions).
The primary function of the MS Access Calendar is to provide a graphical representation of a limited amount of Data generated from a DAO Recordset. The source of this Recordset can be a Query, Table, or SQL Statement. This Recordset can contain either a single Date Field or a Range of Date Fields (From…To) and populates the Calendar Grid accordingly. It can also be enhanced so that you can double-click on a specific Date Block, and Open a Form in which you can now Add, Modify, or Delete Records in the underlying Data Source. At this point, the Calendar will need to be in sync with the Data Source and this can easily be accomplished via a Sync Command Button.
I will not get into any of the technical aspects of the MS Access Calendar at this point, but reserve that discussion for the IMPLEMENTATION Section to follow.
If you have any questions about the original application in the MS Access Calendar thread please start a new thread in MS Access by clicking on the Start a Discussion button and link to the original thread in your question.