Access 2002 Objects

There are several sets of objects that you might come across in Access, and they can be categorized quite simply:

• General Access Objects

• Data Access Objects

• ActiveX Data Objects

In this chapter we're only going to concern ourselves with the first of these - the General Access Objects. The Data Access Objects will be covered in the next chapter, and ActiveX Data Objects are discussed in the appendices.

But before we do, we will look briefly at the new features added to the AccessObject model in the latest version of Access.

New Objects in Access 2002

These tables show what is new, so that you can see the technical trends or direction that Microsoft are applying to Access.

Access 2002 has only modestly added to the list of objects, all of which allow the programmer greater flexibility when dealing with Access - the new objects are listed below:

Access Object	Refers to	Used in Chapter
AllFunctions	A collection that holds an AccessObject object for each function in CurrentCode or CurrentData object	Not Applicable
LanguageSettings	An object that holds the details of the language settings	Not Applicable
Printers (Printer)	A Printer collection that holds a Printer object for each available printer on the system	Chapter 10

Items marked Not Applicable are beyond the scope of this book, and are therefore not covered.

In summary the new features of immediate interest to us include ( please see the Help for full listing of new features):

New Objects

Object	Particulars
AllFunctions collection	Provides the ability to refer to a function object in the CurrentData or CurrentCode collections - in a similar vein to the AllTables , AllQueries , and AllViews collections.
Printers collection & Printer object	Enables us to programmatically control the printers of the system.

New Object Properties & Methods

Object(s)	Method/Property	Particulars
AccessObject	DateCreated property	Returns date & time when object design was created (read-only)
	DateModified property	Returns date & time when object design was last modified (read-only)
Application	BrokenReference property	Indicates if the current database has broken references to type libraries or databases
	FileDialog property	Returns a file dialog box
	Printer property	Sets or returns an object that represents an available system printer
	Printers property	Returns a collection that represents available printers
	Versions property	Returns version number of current copy of Microsoft Access (read-only)
	ConvertAccessProject method	Converts the version of a Microsoft Access file using the constant acFileFormat : acFileFormat can be Access XP , 2000 , 97 , 95 & 2
	ExportXML method	Exports in XML file format: data, schema & presentation details
	ImportXML method	Imports from XML file: data, schema & presentation details
CodeData	AllFunctions property	Returns a collection that represents the functions ( user -defined) in a SQL Server database
CurrentData	AllFunctions property	Returns a collection that represents the functions (user-defined) in a SQL Server database
CurrentProject	FileFormat property	Returns the Microsoft Access version or file format of a given project (read-only)
	RemovePersonalInformation property	Returns or sets a boolean that indicates if personal (user) information is stored in the active data access page or current project
Form (there are approximately 48 new properties & methods: for brevity a selection is shown - see Help for a complete list)	DataChanged property	Returns or sets an event procedure, user-defined function or macro that is called on the DataChange event
	OnConnect property	Returns or sets an event procedure, user-defined function or macro that is called on the OnConnect event
	OnDisconnect property	Returns or sets an event procedure, user-defined function or macro that is called on the OnDisconnect event
	OnUndo property	Returns or sets an event procedure, user-defined function or macro that is called on the Undo event
ListBox & ComboBox	AddItem method	Adds an item to the list of items in either a listbox or combo box control
	RemoveItem method	Removes an item from the list of items in either a listbox or combo box control