Convert string to a Form object

[TravelingCat]

Hi,
I found some material about this topic but it all refered to vb6.
I have a table which contains names of the forms in my system. After getting the form name out of the table, i want to set the "AllowEdits " property of that form to false, but for that i need to convert the string which contains the form name into a Form object, at least so i think.. here is a piece of my code:

Do While Not rs.EOF
    Select Case rs("formNum")
    Case 1:
    rsForms.FindFirst ("formNum = ") & rs("formNum")
    If rsForms.NoMatch = False Then
        strFormName = rsForms("formEnglishName")
        [B]strFormName.AllowEdits = False[/B]
        ....

strFormName holds the form name, but what should i do in order for the last line (in bold) to work?
Thanks in advance

[Megalog]

Are you delcaring strFormName as a form type, not a string?

Like:

Dim strFormName As Form

[TravelingCat]

Are you delcaring strFormName as a form type, not a string?

Like:

Dim strFormName As Form

Hi Megalog,
I actually declared it as string. That way i can assign it the form name, but can't assign form property (such as AllowEdits). And if i declare it as Form, than i can assign the property but don't have the name..

[NeoPa]

There are collections available that allow you to pass a string parameter to select the matching item.

{Application.}Forms	 All currently open forms.
CurrentProject.AllForms All forms in the project.

Forms("YourForm Name") returns that form as long as it's already open and available. The {Application.} part is optional.

[Megalog]

This can go in after line 5 from your initial posting:

DoCmd.OpenForm rsForms!formEnglishName, acDesign
If Forms(rsForms!formEnglishName).AllowEdits = True Then
    Forms(rsForms!formEnglishName).AllowEdits = False
End If
DoCmd.Close acForm, rsForms!formEnglishName, acSaveYes

[TheSmileyCoder]

Just out of curiosity what are you using this for?

[TravelingCat]

Convert string to a Form object

Wow, it works! Thank you Megalog!:) I just added acHidden to window mode, so it won't pop.
TheSmileyOne, i'm trying to implement restrictions for users. I created a form with a listbox filled with form names, so that whoever sets the configurations will choose set of forms for each worker, which he will not be allowed to modify. It's all my creation, so i'm sure it's not the most clever way, and i'm sure it will be modified not once, but at least what i have now works, thanks again.
Now i'm thinking about a way to add an option to choose exactly what restriciton will be implemented for each form, something like checkboxes for edits/additions/deletions.

[TravelingCat]

One more question

Is there a way to remember listbox selection?
The process is: I choose some values (form names) in the listbox, press button "save choice", then my code activates and the values go in the table as supposed to, but the next time i enter the form the listbox is fresh, and i want it to be exactly as it was when i left it (the chosen lines must be black). I thought maybe on form Load event go through the table which holds the chosen values, and make them appear as chosen, but how?

[TheSmileyCoder]

This is some code I wrote myself, to convert the stored values into a comma delimite list, and store it in a hidden textbox, bound to a hidden TEXT field. (of course this only works if the length of the string wont exceed 255)

I only use this in a search form, to remember the users last performed search, so its not critical. If its something you need to store what user can access, I might want to write the data to tables instead of a string.

Anyways, here it is, and im sure you can modify it to read/restore the data of the table.
To STORE the values

Private Sub list_Status_BeforeUpdate(Cancel As Integer)
    
    StoreList Me.list_Status, Me.tb_status

End Sub

To RESTORE the values

Private Sub Form_Current()
'Restore the list selections
    restoreList Me.list_Status, Me.tb_status
    restoreList Me.list_Grade, Me.tb_Severity

End Sub

The procedures used:

Public Sub StoreList(ctrlListBox As Control, ctrlTextBox As Control)
'Lets store the items selected in the listbox
    'Check that ctrlListBox is truly a listbox
    If ctrlListBox.ControlType <> acListBox Then
        MsgBox "This is not a listbox!"
        Exit Sub
    End If
    
    'Check that ctrlTextbox is truly a textbox
    If ctrlTextBox.ControlType <> acTextBox Then
        MsgBox "This is not a textbox!"
        Exit Sub
    End If
    
    'Dim variables
        Dim lvItem As Variant
        Dim intI As Integer
        Dim strStorage As String
    
    'Loop through selected items
        For Each lvItem In ctrlListBox.ItemsSelected
            strStorage = strStorage & "," & ctrlListBox.ItemData(lvItem)
        Next
        
    'If no items are selected then
        If strStorage & "" <> "" Then
            ctrlTextBox = Right(strStorage, Len(strStorage) - 1)
            Else
            ctrlTextBox = Null
        End If
    
    
    Set lvItem = Nothing
    
End Sub

Public Sub restoreList(ctrlListBox As Control, ctrlTextBox As Control)
    'Load the listbox
    On Error GoTo exitSub
    
    'Init variables
        Dim intI As Integer
        Dim intCount As Integer
        Dim myVar As Variant
    'Unmark all
        DoCmd.Echo (False) 'Turn of painting
        For intI = 0 To ctrlListBox.ListCount
            ctrlListBox.Selected(intI) = False
        Next
        
    'If nothing is selected, go ahead and end sub
        If ctrlTextBox & "" = "" Then GoTo endSub
    
    'How many items are marked as selected
        intCount = CharCount(ctrlTextBox, ",")
    
    Dim intJ As Integer
    'Restore teh selections
        For intI = 0 To intCount
            myVar = CVar(Split(ctrlTextBox, ",")(intI))
            For intJ = 0 To ctrlListBox.ListCount
                If ctrlListBox.ItemData(intJ) = myVar Then
                    ctrlListBox.Selected(intJ) = True
                End If
                
            Next
        Next

endSub:
    DoCmd.Echo (True)

Exit Sub
exitSub:
Debug.Print Err.Number & " - " & Err.Description
DoCmd.Echo (True)

End Sub

[Megalog]

If you're using A2007, you can create a multivalue field in the table, and bind the listbox to it. Then it'll remember all the selections you make. Quite quick to set up, but the downside is that using MV fields is a real pain if you need to extract values out of there for use elsewhere.

[TravelingCat]

TheSmileyOne, thanks a lot for the code. My values are stored it a table anyway, but i did use the ".Selected" property, it does paint the line as chosen, for some reason i didn't find it earlier ... now i have another problem, but i'll try to figure it out.
Megalog, i'm using Access 2003