Programmability Enhancements

Every Access upgrade has added new events, properties, and methods, but Access 2003 is an exception. The only programmability enhancements in the Access 2003 upgrade are changes to the ExportXML and ImportXML methods, and programmatic access to properties associated with smart tags. These topics are beyond the scope of this book. Thus, the following sections, which describe new events, properties, and methods introduced by Access 2002, are intended for Access 97 and 2000 users who upgrade to Access 2003.

The number of new programming elements added by Access 2002 was much fewer than most previous upgrades. For example, the upgrade from Access 97 to 2000 replaced VBA 5.0 with 6.0, and introduced the Office VBA Editor. The VBA 6.0 upgrade added hundreds of new programming elements.

Access 2002 Events for Forms, Controls, and Batch Updates

Most Access upgrades add new events for forms and controls, which results in Access having unrivaled data-related event granularity. Table 1.2 lists the three events for forms and controls added by Access 2002. Each of these events has its VBA event counterpart, which is shown in parentheses.

Table 1.2. Events for Forms and Controls Added by Access 2002

Event	When the Event Fires
On Undo (Undo)	After the user has applied the Undo command to return a control or form to its original (clean) state (the opposite of the On Dirty event)
On Mouse Wheel (MouseWheel)	Movement of the mouse wheel (forms only)

Access 2002 Properties and the Printers Collection

One of the most important Access 2002 programming features is the addition of the Printers collection, which lets you assign a particular Printer object from the collection to print a form or report. Addition of the Printers collection and Printer object eliminates the cumbersome PrtDevMode and PrtDevNames programming required by earlier Access versions. Table 1.3 lists the properties added by Access 2002 that apply to forms, reports, and controls. Table 1.4 lists only higher-level Access properties.

Table 1.3. Properties of Forms, Reports, and Controls Added by Access 2002

Collection or Property	Purpose
Application.Printers	Collection of local and network Printer objects accessible to the application
Form.Printer	Assigns a member of the Printers collection to print a form
Report.Printer	Assigns a member of the Printers collection to print a report
Control.Recordset	Binds a DAO.Recordset or ADODB.Recordset object to a list box or combo box control
Report.Recordset	Binds a DAO.Recordset or ADODB.Recordset object to a report
Report.Shape	Returns the text of the Shape command used to create a grouped report

Table 1.4. Application, Project, and Access Object Properties Added by Access 2002

Property	Purpose
Application.Build	Returns the Access build number
Application.BrokenReference	Returns True if the VBA project contains broken references
CurrentProject.FileFormat	Returns the version of the Access project
AccessObject.DateCreated	Returns the date and time when an Access object (form, report, macro, or module) was created
AccessObject.DateModified	Returns the date and time of the last design change to an Access object

Methods Added by Access 2002

Table 1.5 lists control and form methods added by Access 2002. The AddItem and RemoveItem methods for Access combo- and list boxes are similar to Visual Basic's methods for these two control types. The two Move methods simplify changing the position or altering the size of a control or form.

Table 1.5. Control and Form Methods Added by Access 2002

Object.Method	Purpose
Control.AddItem	Adds an item specified by a string Item value and optional Index argument to a combo box or list box. The RowSourceType property of the control must be set to Value List.
Control.RemoveItem	Removes the item specified by the value of the Index argument.
Control.Move	Sets the Left, Top, Width, and Height properties of a control.
Form.Move	Sets the Left, Top, Width, and Height properties of a form, overriding the Moveable property value.

The eight added methods of the Access Application object, listed in Table 1.7, let you duplicate with VBA code actions that ordinarily take place in the UI. For example, the ExportXLM and ImportXML methods correspond to the File, Export and File, Get External Data, Import commands with XML Documents (*.xml) specified in the Export or Import dialog.

Table 1.7. Updated Application Methods Added by Access 2002

Method	Purpose
Application.CompactRepair	Compacts and attempts to repair a specified Jet .mdb file
Application.ConvertAccessProject	Convert an .mdb or .adp file to the specified Access version
Application.CreateNewWorkgroupFile	Generates a new workgroup (.mdw) file for shared Access applications
Application.ExportXML	Exports an Access object to an XML file
Application.ImportXML	Imports an XML file into an Access object
Application.FileDialog	Opens the File Open or File Save As dialog, eliminating the need to use the Common Dialog ActiveX control
Application.OpenCurrentDatabase	Adds the capability to specify a database password
Application.SetDefaultWorkgroupFile	Changes the current Access workgroup file to an .mdw file you specify

Visual Basic Functions

Access 2003 queries against Jet databases and VBA code support the nine VBA 6.0 functions added by Office XP listed in Table 1.9. The added Format... functions eliminate the need to specify format strings when you use the general-purpose Format function in a Jet query or code.

Table 1.9. VBA 6.0 Functions Added by Office XP

Function	Description
FormatCurrency	Formats a numeric value with a currency symbol, a specified number of digits after the decimal point, leading digit, negative numbers in parentheses, and digits grouped with a delimiter. By default, the function uses the computer's Regional Settings values for currency.
FormatDateTime	Formats a Date value in one of four standard date and time representations.
FormatNumber	Same as FormatCurrency but doesn't display the currency symbol.
FormatPercent	Same as FormatCurrency but multiplies the value by 100 and adds a trailing % symbol.
InstrRev	Searches for the occurrence of a substring within a string value beginning at the end of the string.
MonthName	Returns the full or abbreviated name of the month from numeric values 1 through 12.
Replace	Returns a string in which a specified substring replaces one or more occurrences of the value's substring.
StrReverse	Returns a string with the characters in reverse order.
WeekdayName	Returns the full or abbreviated name of the day of the week from numeric values 1 through 7 with the capability to specify the first day of the week.

Caution

If you use any of these new functions in Jet queries or VBA code, your Access 2003 application saved in Access 2000 format won't run under Access 2000.