form with expanding/shrinking sub-forms?

[benjammin]

Hi,



Attached is a poorly done mock up of what I'm looking for but I think you'll get the idea. A user will select a site and station, possibly a location and will populate the subforms (each calibration, water level, etc.. is a separate table) and you can click on the plus box to expand it and see what calibrations there are for that station. How can I do these grow/shrink boxes?

Thank you

[June7]

Forms don't behave that way. That's why they have scroll bars.

How would you know what is big enough? At some point the number of records will exceed capacity of screen to display all.

[benjammin]

Well, it's basically a subform within a form that can be collapsed. The subform is a fixed size so you have scroll bars if the data exceeds the size of the subform. I think I've figured it out and will post what I have when I'm finished.

[benjammin]

Private Sub cmdFlowShutter_Click()    Dim spaceBetween As Integer, origTop As Integer
    
    If cmdFlowShutter.Caption = "-" Then
        cmdFlowShutter.SetFocus
        frmSubFlow.Visible = False
        spaceBetween = lblWL.Top - frmSubFlow.Top - frmSubFlow.Height
        origTop = lblWL.Top
        lblWL.Top = lblFlow.Top + lblFlow.Height + spaceBetween
        cmdWLShutter.Top = cmdWLShutter.Top - (origTop - lblWL.Top)
        boxWL.Top = boxWL.Top - (origTop - lblWL.Top)
        frmSubWL.Top = lblWL.Top + lblWL.Height     ' Or frmSubWL.top = frmSubWL.top - (origtop - lblWL.top) (not tried but should work)
        cmdFlowShutter.Caption = "+"
    Else
        spaceBetween = lblWL.Top - lblFlow.Top - lblFlow.Height
        origTop = lblWL.Top
        lblWL.Top = frmSubFlow.Top + frmSubFlow.Height + spaceBetween
        cmdWLShutter.Top = cmdWLShutter.Top + (lblWL.Top - origTop)
        boxWL.Top = boxWL.Top + (lblWL.Top - origTop)
        frmSubWL.Top = lblWL.Top + lblWL.Height
        
        frmSubFlow.Visible = True
        cmdFlowShutter.SetFocus  ' Maybe setfocus to the Flow id or comment or other field in Flow subform.
        cmdFlowShutter.Caption = "-"
    End If
End Sub




Private Sub cmdWLShutter_Click()
    If cmdWLShutter.Caption = "-" Then
        cmdWLShutter.SetFocus
        frmSubWL.Visible = False
        cmdWLShutter.Caption = "+"
    Else
        frmSubWL.Visible = True
        cmdWLShutter.SetFocus  ' Maybe setfocus to the WL id or comment or other field in WL subform.
        cmdWLShutter.Caption = "-"
    End If
End Sub




Private Sub cmdCondShutter_Click()
    If cmdCondShutter.Caption = "-" Then
        cmdCondShutter.SetFocus
        frmSubCond.Visible = False
        cmdCondShutter.Caption = "+"
    Else
        frmSubCond.Visible = True
        cmdCondShutter.SetFocus  ' Maybe setfocus to the WL id or comment or other field in WL subform.
        cmdCondShutter.Caption = "-"
    End If
End Sub

This works great for TWO sub-forms but once I add more everything breaks down due to the difference between the spacing of the top collapsed form and the furthest down gets whacky and since I have ~6 sub-forms I want to add, this won't really scale properly. I'm not very good at VBA to create a function that might better do this. Should I just scrap expanding/collapsing sub-forms? I just like that you can pull all the different data for a station and display it at once which allows you to compare calibration times...

[June7]

Consider putting the subforms on pages of a tab control.

[benjammin]

Well that works out fairly well, thanks for the suggestion. Still kinda bummed about not being able to line them up like I wanted but until a user says otherwise this will work.

[faythe1215]

I hate to bump an old thread, but just for the sake of clarification - subforms cannot auto grow and shrink, correct?

[June7]

AFAIK, that's why they have vertical scroll bar.

Subreports, however, do grow and shrink.

[sh3p]

Subforms can grow and shrink - I am looking at one I built. In order for the subform to grow and shrink with a resizable window it must be anchored to the left and right sides or top and bottom depending on how you want it to grow (horizontally/vertically). Use the horizontal anchor and vertical anchor attributes and set one to both, then resize your window and see what happens.

[June7]

Okay, learning something new, however, I don't really like the effect.

[sh3p]

Agreed...and when you have a complex form it can be quite painful to get things working right.

[faythe1215]

Subforms can grow and shrink - I am looking at one I built. In order for the subform to grow and shrink with a resizable window it must be anchored to the left and right sides or top and bottom depending on how you want it to grow (horizontally/vertically). Use the horizontal anchor and vertical anchor attributes and set one to both, then resize your window and see what happens.

This didn't work for me. Did I miss something?
Attachment 19545Attachment 19546

[June7]

You are using Tabbed Documents, try setting the db for Overlapping Windows.

If you want the subform to grow vertically, then set the Vertical Anchor to Both.

Also, you appear to have a textbox on the main form below the subform. I tested similar arrangement and when the subform grows it covers the textbox. I don't know why your subform is behind the textbox.

[faythe1215]

I made the adjustments you suggested, and aside from the overlapping window view, it has made no difference in the appearance of the form.

[June7]

Would have to examine your db. If you want to provide, follow instructions at bottom of my post.