Open (shell) a program and pass a file

[Olszanski]

Hi all,
I am attempting to open a specific program and a specific file from Access. Basically, I've built a form which takes information. Once I've loaded new data into the form, I click a command button which opens Excel and passes the Access information to Excel and saves it. I then want to use a different program to do an analysis on this Excel data. In a similar fashion, I have a command button to open the program (called Spotfire) using the Shell command. However, when I try to pass my file, it opens SpotFire but then tells me that it can't find "C:\Documents". That is, it is not passing the whole file name. If I put a file in the "C:\" directory, it will open it just fine, but I'd like to keep my folder structure as is, without moving or renaming files. Is there a way to open my specified file? The code I have is:
___________________
Private Sub Spotfire_App_Click() 'This opens SpotFire for analysis


On Error GoTo Err_Spotfire_App_Click
'The file I need to pass is: C:\Documents and Settings\AOlszans\My Documents\Medical Attending Information\Patient Log\Pt Log Analysis.dxp

Dim stAppName As String ' this is the path for the program
Dim strFile As String 'this is the path for the file

stAppName = "C:\Program Files\TIBCO\Spotfire\3.0\Spotfire.Dxp.exe"
strFile = "C:\Documents and Settings\AOlszans\My Documents\Medical Attending Information\Patient Log\Pt Log Analysis.dxp"

'This is close but it can't find the appropriate strFile -- it is looking in "C:\" and not in any subroot directories

Call Shell(stAppName & " " & strFile, vbMaximizedFocus)

Exit_Spotfire_App_Click:
Exit Sub
Err_Spotfire_App_Click:
MsgBox Err.Description
Resume Exit_Spotfire_App_Click

End Sub
_______________________

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Tony

[Rawb]

I don't know if this will work or not, but you can try including quotes around the file name using the Chr() Function.

  Dim stAppName As String ' this is the path for the program
  Dim strFile As String 'this is the path for the file
 
  stAppName = "C:\Program Files\TIBCO\Spotfire\3.0\Spotfire.Dxp.exe"
  strFile = Chr(34) & "C:\Documents and Settings\AOlszans\My Documents\Medical Attending Information\Patient Log\Pt Log Analysis.dxp" & Chr(34)
 
  'This is close but it can't find the appropriate strFile -- it is looking in "C:\" and not in any subroot directories
 
  Call Shell(stAppName & " " & strFile, vbMaximizedFocus)
 
Exit_Spotfire_App_Click:
   Exit Sub

Err_Spotfire_App_Click:
   MsgBox Err.Description
  Resume Exit_Spotfire_App_Click
  End Sub

If the above code doesn't work, you can always use the old 8.3 path/filename (or just make sure the path doesn't contain any spaces).

[Olszanski]

Thank you. This worked for me. I don't quite understand why though. I did try the short path (8.3 path) but for some reason Spotfire had troulbe opening the file that way. Thank you for your help!
Tony