Microsoft KB Archive/119724

= ADT2: Creating Additional ADT Application Program Groups, Items =

Article ID: 119724

Article Last Modified on 6/13/2001

-

APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Access Developer's Toolkit 2.0

-



This article was previously published under Q119724



SUMMARY
Advanced: Requires expert coding, interoperability, and multiuser skills.

This article demonstrates a user-defined Access Basic function named CreateProgmanGroupIcons that you can use to create additional Program Manager groups and icons for a custom application. For example, you can create icons to display informational text files, to run the Repair Database and Compact Database commands, and to control command-line switches.

The CreateProgmanGroupIcons function reads information from a table, runs dynamic data exchange (DDE) commands to create the Program Manager groups and icons, and then deletes the table.



MORE INFORMATION
This article assumes that you are familiar with Access Basic and with creating Microsoft Access applications using the programming tools provided with Microsoft Access. For more information about Access Basic, please refer to the "Building Applications" manual.

To create Program Manager groups and icons with Microsoft Access, follow these steps:

 Open the application's database. If you split the application into two databases (one for program objects and one for data), open the database containing the program objects.  Create a table with the following structure:      Table: tbl_Progman Field Name: mGroupName Data Type: Text Field Size: 30 Required: Yes Field Name: mIconText Data Type: Text Field Size: 40 Required: Yes Field Name: mIconFile Data Type: Text Field Size: 50 Field Name: mIconNum Data Type: Text Field Size: 5 Field Name: mCommandLine Data Type: Text Field Size: 120 Required: Yes Field Name: mIconDefault Data Type: Text Field Size: 120 The following list describes the tbl_Progman table specifications:

 The mGroupName field specifies the name of the Program Manager group in which the icons are created. This entry is required and should match the entry in the Application Name text box in the Microsoft Access Developer's Toolkit Setup Wizard so that the additional icons are created in the application's program group.

 The mIconText field specifies the icon's title in the program group. This entry is required.

 The mIconFile field specifies the icon's filename. If you do not specify a filename, a default icon is used.

 The mIconNum field specifies the icon's index number in the file specified in the mIconFile field. If you do not specify an index number, a default icon is used.

</li> The mCommandLine field specifies the full command line required to run the application. This entry is required.

</li> The mIconDefault field specifies the name of the default (or working) directory. If you do not specify a default directory, the current directory (containing the database) is used.</li></ul> </li> View the tbl_Progman table in Datasheet view. From the list below, select the icons you want to add, type the data for those icons in the tbl_Progman table, and then close the tbl_Progman table. <ul>  To display your own README.TXT file, type the following values: mGroupName: NWIND Utilities mIconText: My README.TXT mCommandLine: NOTEPAD.EXE NWIND.TXT </li>  To repair and compact the application's database, type the following values.

NOTE: In the following example, an underscore (_) at the end of a line is used as a line-continuation character. Remove the underscore from the end of the line when re-creating this example.

mGroupName: NWIND Utilities mIconText: Repair/Compact NWIND mIconFile: PROGMAN.EXE mIconNum: 22 mCommandLine: MSARN200.EXE NWIND.MDB /ini myapp.ini /Repair / _ Compact </li>  To create icons to run additional database command switches, type the following values: mGroupName: NWIND Utilities mIconText: Solutions Database mIconFile: PROGMAN.EXE mIconNum: 16 mCommandLine: MSARN200.EXE SOLUTION.MDB /ini myapp.ini </li></ul> </li>  Create a module and type the following line in the Declarations section: Option Explicit </li>  Type the following function:

NOTE: In the following sample code, an underscore (_) at the end of a line is used as a line-continuation character. Remove the underscore from the end of the line when re-creating this code in Access Basic.

'***************************************************     ' FUNCTION: CreateProgmanGroupIcons '     ' PURPOSE: '  To create Program Manager groups and icons '  when the application is run for the first time. '***************************************************

Function CreateProgmanGroupIcons Dim mydb As Database, rs As Recordset, Rcount As Integer, Xyz _ As Integer

Dim chan As Integer, Exe As String Dim GroupName$, IconText$, IconFile$, IconNum$, CommandLine$, _ IconDefault$

On Error GoTo Creat_Errors DoCmd Hourglass False

Set mydb = CurrentDB Set rs = mydb.OpenRecordset("tbl_Progman", DB_OPEN_DYNASET) rs.MoveLast Rcount = rs.recordcount rs.MoveFirst

'Begin a DDE conversation with Program Manager. chan = DDEInitiate("PROGMAN", "PROGMAN")

For Xyz = 1 To Rcount GroupName$ = rs![mGroupName] IconText$ = rs![mIconText] IconFile$ = IIf(IsNull(rs![mIconFile]), "", rs![mIconFile]) IconNum$ = IIf(IsNull(rs![mIconNum]), "", rs![mIconNum]) CommandLine$ = CurDir & "\" & rs![mCommandLine] IconDefault$ = IIf(IsNull(rs![mIconDefault]), CurDir, _           rs![mIconDefault])

'GroupName is a string that names the group to be created or        'activated. 'Run the CreateGroup DDE command to PROGMAN. DDEExecute chan, "[CreateGroup(" & GroupName$ & ")]"

On Error Resume Next 'If duplicate icons exist, they will be replaced. DDEExecute chan, "[ReplaceItem(" & IconText$ & ")]"

'Instruct Program Manager to create a new program icon in        'the active group specified by the variable GroupName. 'Run the AddItem DDE command to PROGMAN. Exe = "[AddItem(" & CommandLine$ & ", " & IconText$ & ", " & _           IconFile$ & ", " & IconNum$ & ",,, " & IconDefault$ & ")]" DDEExecute chan, Exe rs.MoveNext Next Xyz rs.Close mydb.tabledefs.Delete "tbl_Progman" DDETerminate chan DoCmd Hourglass False Exit Function

Creat_Errors: If Err = 3011 Then Exit Function Else MsgBox Error$ End If

End Function </li>  Open the AutoExec macro in Design view (or if you do not have an AutoExec macro, create one), and add the following action and argument: Macro Name  Macro Actions --     AutoExec     RunCode

AutoExec Actions ---     RunCode

Function Name: CreateProgmanGroupIcons </li> Run the Setup Wizard to create the distribution disks for the custom application. Use the disks to set up the application on another computer.

NOTE: The first time the application is run, the AutoExec macro runs the CreateProgmanGroupIcons function to create the Program Manager groups and icons specified in the tbl_Progman table.

</li></ol>

NOTE: The Microsoft Access Developers Toolkit for Windows 95 Setup Wizard can provide Repair and Compact shortcuts for the desktop automatically. Select the Compact or Repair and Compact buttons on the "Add the shortcuts that you want" screen of the Setup Wizard. You can also create shortcuts to other files using custom command lines or a command line created by the wizard.

<div class="references_section">