Creating new object of form stay hidden first

[Ruegen]

I launch duplicates of forms using



Dim frm As Form


'Open a new instance, show it, and set a caption.
Set frm = New Form_frmSchoolsFound
frm.Visible = false

however I want the form to be hidden on launch rather than popping up and then becoming visible to false - even if I have it to false it launches first, then dissapears from view. I would like to keep it hidden first then do all this stuff to it like filter then eventually put it's visibility to true.

any suggestions?

[burrina]

Why not launch it when you actually need it? Is it a Popup form?

[Ruegen]

yeah

The form opens up from a list of school, because I want more than one window open of the same form for different schools I make instances of each form then filter them to match the same school as the one selected from the list.

However the filtering process shows the other records first before it refreshes with the filter.

[burrina]

Your answer is unclear to me. Please explain in steps, which form, frm1, frm 2 . What other records, on what form? Filtering from a combo, code ?

[Ruegen]

frmSchoolsFound is the regular form

I create an object frm as form
then I set frm = new form_frmSchoolsFound

this way I make a function that opens the frmSchoolsFound to many records at the same time instead of one.

say I have a list box of schools, each one I click it opens up an new form of "frmschoolsfound" and filters it to match the selected school from the listbox

[hansendl]

Try running the code without the line "frm.Visible = False". By default, I believe forms instantiated in code are not visible until you explicitly make them visible. I create dialog forms like this frequently in code where I instantiate the form, set a bunch of properties, then make it visible by setting frm.Visible = True. Until I actually run that line of code, the form is loaded, but remains invisible.

Example:

Private WithEvents dlg As Form_frmOrgPickDialog

Private Sub SelectOrg(cbo As Access.ComboBox) 
Set dlg = New Form_frmOrgPickDialog
With dlg
.ExpansionLevel = 2
.DisplayOrgType = otSelect
.BuildTree
If Not IsNull(cbo) Then
.ActiveNode = "o" & cbo.Value
End If
End With
dlg.Visible = True


End Sub

[burrina]

Sounds like that could be easily done with a Main form/Subform using a Combo but, that's just me. You do this because you NEED to work on many forms at the same time?
I really can't visualize your situation, sorry. Maybe someone else can.

[Ruegen]

Sounds like that could be easily done with a Main form/Subform using a Combo but, that's just me. You do this because you NEED to work on many forms at the same time?
I really can't visualize your situation, sorry. Maybe someone else can.

yeah the staff might be looking at two schools using the same form and they don't want to close the form to view another school. (especially when they have a call from a school while they are working with another record)

each form shows details like booking details, address, history, memo etc.

[burrina]

You know your needs better than me. But I would visualize a Tabbed form approach myself filtered by area (Whatever it's called in the UK) . Just my 2 cents.

Did hansendl 's approach work for you?

[Ruegen]

Try running the code without the line "frm.Visible = False". By default, I believe forms instantiated in code are not visible until you explicitly make them visible. I create dialog forms like this frequently in code where I instantiate the form, set a bunch of properties, then make it visible by setting frm.Visible = True. Until I actually run that line of code, the form is loaded, but remains invisible.

Example:

Private WithEvents dlg As Form_frmOrgPickDialog

Private Sub SelectOrg(cbo As Access.ComboBox) 
Set dlg = New Form_frmOrgPickDialog

With dlg
.ExpansionLevel = 2
.DisplayOrgType = otSelect
.BuildTree
If Not IsNull(cbo) Then
.ActiveNode = "o" & cbo.Value
End If
End With
dlg.Visible = True


End Sub

yeah it still does it (flick from unfiltered to filtered)

my code

      'Open a new instance, show it, and set a caption.    
Dim frm As Form
Set frm = New Form_frmSchoolsFound
    
    Dim strNewSQL As String
    Dim qdf As DAO.QueryDef
    Set qdf = CurrentDb.QueryDefs(frm.RecordSource)
    
    strNewSQL = qdf.SQL
    Set qdf = Nothing
    
    strNewSQL = Replace(strNewSQL, "WHERE " & Chr(40) & Chr(40) & Chr(40) & "tblSchools.Removed" & Chr(41) & " Is Null" & Chr(41) & Chr(41), "")
    
    With frm
        .RecordSource = strNewSQL
        .Filter = strWhere
        
        .FilterOn = True
        .Caption = IIf(IsNothing(frm.Form!SchoolName), "no name", frm.Form!SchoolName) '"Schools Found" &
    End With
      
        If cycleFoundSchools(frm.Form!NewSchoolsID) Then
        MsgBox "School " & IIf(IsNothing(frm.Form!SchoolName), "no name", frm.Form!SchoolName) & "  is already open, the opening form will close."
        Else
        'Append it to our collection.
        clnClient.Add Item:=frm, Key:=CStr(frm.Hwnd)
        End If
        
    frm.Visible = True
    Set frm = Nothing

note updated for easier viewing

[hansendl]

My mistake...in stepping through my code I see now that the form becomes visible as soon as I run the Set statement. I had assumed that the form was not visible until I explicitly made it visible, but that is clearly not the case.

How about running a DoCmd.OpenForm method, setting the WindowMode argument to AcHidden, then setting your frm variable equal to the open form (Set frm = Forms("frmSchoolsFound")? For multiple instances, you may need to use the hWnd property to be sure you're pointing your frm variable to the correct "frmSchoolsFound" instance (since they will all have the same name), but that should be easy enough to handle through code.

r/
Dean

[Ruegen]

My mistake...in stepping through my code I see now that the form becomes visible as soon as I run the Set statement. I had assumed that the form was not visible until I explicitly made it visible, but that is clearly not the case.

How about running a DoCmd.OpenForm method, setting the WindowMode argument to AcHidden, then setting your frm variable equal to the open form (Set frm = Forms("frmSchoolsFound")? For multiple instances, you may need to use the hWnd property to be sure you're pointing your frm variable to the correct "frmSchoolsFound" instance (since they will all have the same name), but that should be easy enough to handle through code.

r/
Dean

Yes, it just happens so quickly that you don't notice it is not set to visible (not in my case because it does a few checks first which slows it down).

I guess I could open the form, store it's hwnd, then make an instance of that and filter the instance then make it visible. It's not a bad suggestion but I will have to make sure no other buttons open that form without an instance creation (just opening the form generally) which I think I have in one spot. Since I travel to Europe this week that is something I probably won't tackle until I get back less I have a bunch of angry staff if something goes wrong...